Authored by Jesse Eaves

Ritual Studio has been exploring how rituals and repetitive practices can create a healthy container for the work of the network to thrive. We believe that work does not cause burnout; the container the work is held in creates burnout. It can also create healing and renewal. We want to explore how to create a healthy container for this network and the people in it. 

If there’s one thing that we’ve all learned these past few years, it is that governance (aka the agreements that a group of people make together to accomplish a shared goal) is essential and it is hard. Collaboration is a catalyst for conflict and so we need to have agreements, norms, rituals, and practices that allow that generative conflict to create something new and deepen the relationships between people. Collaboration also has lots of hidden caverns where unseen power can lurk. It is important to have ways to talk about hard topics that we might ordinarily not address or let simmer below the surface.

This is what our December 2025 call was about. The Ritual Studio and other members of the Governance Futures Network had the pleasure of hosting Brendon Johnson, the Chief Catalyst of the Fito Network. I’ve been following Fito Network for a few years but it was really in 2025 that I started interacting with them more and saw the toolkits and guides they have for people working in networks. It was thus wonderful to have Brendon lead our conversation about how to have hard conversations in a network as well as what practices and rituals can help make visible and address any unseen harmful dynamics.

During the session, we also continued with our practice of experimenting with multiple ways of gleaning wisdom from conversations beyond the written word.¹ This time, we were joined by Rio Holaday, a graphic capture artist who visualized our conversation as follows:

As seen in the graphic above, Brendon was such a wonderful guest who provided some very concrete practices and helped surface others from the group. Here is a quick summary of three key lessons that emerged from the conversation:

1. Using stories and even games to raise hard issues. Storytelling is an innate part of human nature. We all pause and listen when someone is telling a story. In group settings, there is often a tendency to be nice, polite and skip over any elephants in the room that need to be addressed in the name of keeping the peace. Therefore, someone sharing a story that allows them to raise a difficult issue can unlock a deeper conversation about how people can collectively address the hard issue and find a path forward together. Often, it is those who are excluded from the system have the best view of it and their stories matter most to highlight gaps and blind spots that a group can then address together.
2. Modeling vulnerability and creating safe containers in smaller groups. Several participants in the discussion shared practices they use as well. Part of the discussion talked about “accountability pods” where each group has a leader but also a small group of “ambassadors” from small groups that can help hold the groups accountable to their agreements. Very often, working in pods can create silos and isolation. When each pod has an ambassador, these people create a structured space for themselves where they speak about what’s going well and what needs to be addressed. This helps shine a light on hidden pockets of power that can disrupt the stated agreements of the group.
3. Taking the time to slow down, listen and finding a path forward together. Do not fall into the trap of immediacy, where we need to move forward no matter what. If we are to find new ways forward in this ever-complex world, we need to slow down to go far. Multiple people shared that within groups they work with, if there is not 100% consensus at the time of a meeting to make a big decision, then the meeting is cancelled and individual conversations take place to find areas of disagreement or concern. When everyone is ready, they reconvene to make the decision together. This may take longer but it ensures networks and groups of people are aligned as they move forward into difficult and complex work.

The Governance Future’s Network has a guiding star to build a world where people and planet flourish by transforming how we collectively steward our interdependent well-being, now and into the future. Our interdependent wellbeing is often anchored in being able to name and address hidden power dynamics as well as naming where there are violations of our collective agreements. In finding ways to make the invisible visible and the unspoken spoken, we can better navigate through conflict and deepen our relationships as a result. Building and maintaining the container for our work requires to keep this logic at the center; when people feel supported and heard through hard conversations, it enhances the ability of the whole to navigate forward together.

Here is a time lapse of the conversation. We invite you to pause and reflect along with us to see what comes up for you. Please share any thoughts with us!

1. See One Big Family and It’s Within Us for other experiments with song and sound. ↩︎