Accountability Mirrors

During every Iba Circle, there is an opportunity for members to share what their goals are for the week, and an opportunity for someone else to volunteer as their “accountability mirror.”

The Lab is for people who find themselves working alone a lot in the audio/visual fields. It can be hard for those of us who wear a lot of hats to hold ourselves accountable throughout a given workweek. I often find myself at the coffee shop working at a my laptop just so I can be near other bodies. But during long streaks of editing at my desktop, I can get lost in the endless details and tasks of the week.

So during every circle, members will be invited to share what their intended focuses for the week are. This could be a series of reels they’d like prepared and timed for posting, the drafting of a deck, or even a difficult client conversation. Then those who share will be invited to pair up into “accountability mirrorships.”

The image of the mirror is important here because mirrors reflect without bias. They do not give you feedback on the reflection you make, nor are they stained or distorted by our presence before them. There is a natural sense of accountability in that, which goes beyond pride and shame. There is a gentle support in being simply reflected back upon.

Throughout the week until the following week, these members are invited to keep in touch with each other to hold up those mirrors. The following week, we will check in about how it went.

In these circles we explore practices for recognizing our own relationship to the disappointments of not fulfilling focuses and the celebrations of reaching them. By creating capacity for both of these experiences, accomplishment becomes a less neurotic process