A pattern language of helping groups function well

Over five years, involving around 50 people, the Groupworks collective developed a pattern language of helping groups function well. This was published as a card deck and later, Tree Bressen worked with Ward Cunningham to translate these group facilitation patterns into a wiki wiki


Framework - Zones of focus in the Groupworks pattern language

Patterns range from - Intention (Commitment, Invitation, Priority Focus, Purpose, Setting Intention), through - Context (including Aesthetics of Space, Circle, History & Context, Whole System in the Room) to - Perspective (patterns engaging different ways of seeing an issue) and inquiry/synthesis (including Harvesting, Inform the Group Mind, and Naming).

There are 91 patterns in the language.