Meet Miriam Jones and Adam Rumack: Founders, We are Open Circle

We had the good fortune of connecting with Miriam Jones and Adam Rumack and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Miriam Jones and Adam Rumack, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
We are Open Circle was born out of fierce hope and a crisis of faith. We started partnering as leaders of a not for profit, teaching radical processes for social and cultural renewal in organizations and for individuals. We shared a passion for experimentation and an insatiable curiosity of what is possible when you unleash the creativity of a group, with all its chaos, potential, and glory. We set out with our diverse experience and backgrounds, our great technical skill, our shared passion and saw it bear fruit with exponential results on all levels; in building community, increasing profit, and making social impact. In spite of this we began to recognize that ultimate social change goal of our work was limited by the structures of power (both conscious and unconscious) that were holding back real and necessary change; even when these structures were being perpetuated by those evangelizing for the change we were creating. This was powerful lesson! The fruits of this lesson were harvested on a stormy day in rural Australia, where a day after resigning from this job, Adam shut himself in his room for 12 hours. He emerged from this with a website and the underlying process of We are Open Circle. The core of this has still not changed, as it emerged from seeing patterns in ourselves, in other people, in organizations, and from our deep curiosity and knowledge about how to work with people for change. We believe that organizations (and the people who create and nurture them) have only two choices. To engage with the change and turmoil of the world and thrive in doing so, or to ignore the change and turmoil of the world and die off amidst it. We help organizations do the former, and do it with ease, joy, curiosity, and innovation. So was this a thought process? By touching the wounds and wounding of our leadership, we found a gift, a spark. This spark lit a fire that we have been tending ever since. We have found others who have experienced the daily struggles, wounds, and gifts of leadership, creation, and work, who want to tend this fire with us. There’s a lot of thinking that goes into running a business, especially one that deals with great technical and relational complexity with their clients, but our process has not been driven by thought. Its been driven by this spark of both pain and hope, in ourselves and for world. So no, just as tending a fire isn’t an intellectual or thought-driven process, it is a responsive , sensory, embodied one, neither has the building and growing been driven by that part of ourselves. Just supported by it.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Sending to you via email

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We would like to dedicate our shout out to the Zen Peacemakers International, https://zenpeacemakers.org, as they provided the means for us top experience the power of acknowledging the pain and trauma of past wounds before taking action. We acknowledge our guides, Violet Catches, Manny Iron Hawk and Renee Fasthorse Iron Hawk. who led us through the Black Hills and these lessons.

Website: www.weareopencircle.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weareopencircle/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/37569574/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weareopencircle/?view_public_for=177017839482519

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxDnVbDagBmCHZNgyuDW4wg