The Birth of a Hungarian Teal Community

By Gergely Orbán and Gyöngyi Bolbás for Enlivening Edge Magazine

By Gergely Orbán:

I had the privilege to meet and make friends with George Pór this summer. We had a long conversation together in the beautiful mountains of outer Budapest. Some days later George offered to have a conversation about Teal practices with interested parties. I was happy to help organizing it along with Gyöngyi Bolbás.

Here’s some background. With friends we founded the community of Circle43 in 2013. Our purpose is to support the network of conscious organizations and individuals. We usually met at Doctusoft, the IT company where I work and experiment with the deployment of Holacracy®. It was natural to meet there.

Thanks to the social media, like-minded friends, and active organizers, the word spread and, on August 26, we were able to fill a middle-sized room with ourselves and our curiosity. It wasn’t just Circle43 anymore. It was the seed of a new community

In the beginning of the evening we started with the concepts of Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux and the characteristics of the Teal stage. Later, we raised and addressed several practical organizational questions and finally, entered a very personal zone. As a closing episode we shared our most actual personal questions.

The main motive that I remember after the evening is the flow of gratitude for each other that was present at the end and days after, in the email threads we sent to each other. Following that conversation, some of us entered an upcoming U.Lab course.

I am an agent of change in organizational fields like project and people management. My purpose is: Meaningful Cooperations. I work at Doctusoft in Budapest, Hungary. Active at Circle43 for 2 years. My recent focus is on Holacracy, personal mindfulness, mentoring, team coaching and building habits that stick.

By Gyöngyi Bolbás:

The evening was very inspiring. We shared our ‘burning questions,’ ranked them collaboratively to discover our shared learning agenda. They included:

  • What is ‘Teal’?
  • Can we continue to meet and discuss as we did in this circle?
  • How to be in the ‘present’?
  • How much hierarchy can be borne temporarily in an organization that is moving toward Teal structure?
  • How can we train, reach out and appoint Teal leaders?
  • 4th level of communication: generative listening
  • How can my experience from personal developmental field be used in organisational development?
  • How to live and support the ‘letting go’ in my everyday life?
  • How to help my partners and other people to find their mission?

After the event, we created a virtual community space on the Slack platform to be able to stay in touch. Now we have there conversations channels dedicated to: community practice, Teal mentoring, and being Teal. Some of us are working with Holacracy and practices from the book Reinventing Organizations, by Frederic Laloux. We share our thoughts and practical questions. We have discussion about the theory of Teal, what are the pathways toward that stage of consciousness. We also share interesting videos, blogs and other resources, and exploring the possibility to invite George back to lead a workshop.

My interests are related to Integral Psychology, Spiral Dynamics, Integral Leadership, coaching and how to build healthier organizations. Currently studying at Integral Academy and Business Coach Academy.

Teal convo in Budapest, 25-Aug-2015
a group of the participants in the Teal Conversation with George Pór, in Budapest, 25 August 2015

Featured Image by Vined from Pixabay