What is a Quaker Business Meeting?
Simply put, it is a meeting to work out shared decisions in the life of the community. As there is no priests or paid staff, it is up to the members to make decisions and do the administrative jobs that make community life possible. Quakers have been using the Quaker Business method for well over 350 years to reach decisions that everyone can participate in and agree to (more or less) with a minimum of frustration and alienation (hopefully). Quaker Business Method is a way of organizing and conducting business meetings that involve the use of silence, disciplined listening, and minutes written and agreed upon during the meeting.
There has been a lot written about the Quaker Business Method and not just by Quakers. It is an idea that has been and is being explored far and wide including the in the world of….you guessed it business. Here is an article from Forbes.
You are invited to come along to our upcoming fall Business Meeting where we hope to in the words of Margaret Benefiel, a Boston-based management consultant and the author of Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations engage in “a quiet, reflective frame of mind, mutual respect, [and] the idea that no one person has all the truth, but must listen deeply to others to gain a fuller picture of the truth.” If anyone has read this book or familiar with her work, please comment.