Introduction – My First Encounter with We-Flow
I recently attended a We-Flow immersion, a two-day workshop in Amsterdam with Stéphane Segatori and his team. As someone who has spent over a decade in the global Authentic Relating (AR) and Circling community — and as the author of the most popular book on Circling — I was deeply curious about how this practice might translate into business and work-life contexts. My personal passion has long been to explore how these relational practices can support organizational life, leadership, and innovation.
The workshop itself was hybrid: two facilitators (Stéphane and Agnes), two participants in person (including myself), and three joining via Zoom. I was initially captivated by a “Meeting Owl,” a camera/microphone device placed in the center of the room that automatically highlights the current speaker on Zoom. Some pretty nifty tech 😄.
Stéphane began by setting context with something simple yet profound: the right balance of playfulness and seriousness, which is at the core of We-Flow. As someone who enjoys both, this immediately landed with me. I could relax, knowing that this was probably going to be fun.
We continued with check-ins. I was impressed by the presence and thoughtfulness of the other participants, thinking to myself that this looked like a power-group.
Soon I encountered one of We-Flow’s distinctive practices: “receiving backup.” Here, one facilitator takes a participant into a side space (physical or virtual) if they need attention in order to become more present. I witnessed Stéphane reading the energy with uncanny precision. At one point he asked the other local participant, unprompted, if she wanted a “backup” breakout. She immediately said yes. His intuition — tracking not only the group as a whole but each participant’s readiness — was remarkable.
As the day unfolded, the group moved into deeper resonance. I can’t recall every process (later I learned there are over 30 of them), but what stayed with me was the sense that Stéphane and Agnes were attuned to the emergent needs of the group with near-psychic clarity.
By the end of the first day, I felt strangely happy — buoyant, light, expanded. The next morning, immediately after I awoke, I wrote one of the best pieces of creative writing I’ve ever produced: When I was a child, I was happy: 40 years of life in 600 words. As a brief summary of my life, looking into the future from the lens of the past, it was a fitting exercise to begin my second day of We-Flow.
By the end of the second day, I was physically tired, but the group coherence remained palpable. I took a nap in the afternoon, and it was one of the most restful I have ever had. I truly felt that this was “my tribe”.
After the immersion ended, I was in a very high, expansive state. Over the next week, my creative output exploded. New essays flowed out of me almost daily. My networking leapt forward. New opportunities opened, potential collaborations, even a job offer. Books I’d been searching for appeared. Even clarity in my marriage seemed to emerge as a byproduct. We-Flow didn’t just affect me in the room; it activated a wave of momentum in my life.
This was my personal entry point. But what exactly is We-Flow, and why does it seem to catalyze such effects?
What is We-Flow?
We-Flow is an emergent relational and livelihood practice born at the intersection of integral theory, authentic relating, circling, and Zen state training. Stéphane Segatori describes it not as something he “created,” but as something that emerged in collective practice: the we-space between people committed to inquiry, listening, and creation.
At its core, We-Flow is about intentional origination (setting a shared intent) and intersubjective validation (checking experiences together in real time). Instead of relying on one expert or top-down authority, the group co-creates its own intelligence. The result is a space where creativity, connection, and productivity arise naturally. I later learned that this is called an “execution container”: we are meeting to connect, but also to get creative work done.
Through every practice, there is a strong focus on consent: the leaders frequently poll the group for what they want, and there is always an opportunity to do solo-work, if it feels more alive than the group session.
We-Flow integrates simple but powerful practices:
Appreciations – ending meetings by naming what we value in each other.
Checking assumptions – surfacing hidden beliefs to get more into shared reality.
Playfulness & seriousness – actively balancing lightness with focus
(Action-enablement - at any moment action in the space is welcome.)
Backup - giving focused attention to those who need to reset. Helping a person return to a state of presence and aliveness.
Breakouts – Similar to Backup but with multiple people. A sub-we-space where people are receiving or doing the exact practice they need at this very moment.
Follow-up and Integration: this is perhaps one of the most valuable aspects of the training: 8-weeks of follow-up meetings where each cohort gets to take the practices into real life. We-Flow is more than a workshop, it is an integrated life-practice.
The effect is not abstract. It’s a shift I felt in my body / mind and overall attitude towards life. My decisions happened faster and more easily, creativity flowed, opportunities multiplied.
Two Applied Variants: Individuals, Organizations
Building on these profound shifts in decision-making, creativity, and opportunity, We-Flow scales from personal breakthroughs to collective impact through two complementary versions: We-Flow for Individuals for personal evolution, and We-Flow for Organizations designed for businesses of all sizes.
We-Flow for Individuals cultivates emotional awareness, authentic connection, and purposeful action, helping people integrate insights into daily life while developing clarity, resilience, confidence, creativity, and a grounded sense of fulfillment.
We-Flow for Organizations builds on these individual transformations, equipping teams with a turn-key toolbox of 50 micro-practices across seven intervention layers. This integration of personal and collective growth accelerates development 2X–4X faster, boosts engagement through trust and authenticity, prevents burnout, and enhances talent retention; fostering purpose-driven, high-performing ecosystems.
Why We-Flow Matters in Business Today
Conventional business culture often sacrifices human connection at the altar of productivity. The result is stress, disconnection, disengagement, and ultimately loss of effectiveness. The assumption is that employees need to be directed or focused towards a task or role, and that bringing in their “whole selves” would introduce dissonance, distraction and chaos.
We-Flow challenges that assumption. The core premise: effectiveness and joy are not opposites. In fact, they reinforce each other. A group or team in flow produces more. Not by squeezing harder, but by tapping into collective intelligence.
Indeed, Stéphane told me that when people are introduced to We-Flow-enabled cultures during client companies’ onboarding days, they often shed tears and say it’s the opposite of their previous negative experiences.
For purpose-driven leaders, changemakers, and organizations looking for coherence, this is game-changing. As one summary of We-Flow’s positioning puts it: “They’re not just looking for productivity; they want coherence, flow, and real human connection.” That is exactly what We-Flow delivers.
My Personal Takeaways
From my immersion, here’s what I took away:
Attunement can be trained. Stéphane’s intuitive sense of what each participant needed wasn’t magic, it was practice. And it’s something We-Flow trains into groups.
Playfulness is serious business. Bringing humor and levity wasn’t just tolerated; it was welcomed as a core ingredient for flow.
The effects ripple outward. The immersion didn’t end at the closing circle. My creativity, relationships, and opportunities literally exploded in the weeks after. The practice seems to unlock resources far beyond the session.
Some We-Flow Wins and Case Studies
InclusionTree (Australia)
One company, InclusionTree, runs fully on We-Flow principles. Their HR director reported that her intuition has become slightly “superhuman.” Colleagues remarked on her uncanny ability to read situations and respond with precision, even sensing what people may be going through at a distance. InclusionTree is now training additional facilitators internally and even considering providing We-Flow training services to other partner organizations as there is a demand. They’ve become a recognized leader in their niche industry. Not just because of technical expertise, but because of cultural practices that create agility and innovation.
Revenue Impact
For individuals, We-Flow training consistently generates measurable business results. Participants in 4–6 month We-Flow courses typically observe an average of €2,000 in new revenue directly attributable to the practices and follow-up support. Many report much higher returns.
Small Teams & Meetings
Small business teams who adopt We-Flow practices — such as beginning with a “landing round”, enabling human connection, reframing meetings as opportunities for collective flow, etc. — report dramatic shifts. Meetings get shorter. Misunderstandings resolve faster. Important work is directly done during meetings, and more time is freed in-between meetings. People feel energized instead of drained.
The Future of We-Flow
We-Flow is not just a workshop, it’s an evolving ecosystem. Today it spans:
Immersion Weekends (Amsterdam, Online, and beyond)
Stewardship Programs –6-month trainings for people to bring We-Flow into their personal lives and organizations
B2B Consulting – embedding We-Flow into corporate cultures
FlowAI – an emerging project to digitize We-Flow, making it accessible on-demand
The vision is bold: to integrate purpose, livelihood, and joy into the very structure of business life. Not as a feel-good add-on, but as a core operating system.
Conclusion – An Invitation
My own We-Flow immersion blew my mind. It showed me that the dream I carried when I first came across Circling and Authentic Relating in 2016 (9 years ago!) was not only possible, it was real. That dream is to take we-space practices out of the exclusive arena of personal development, and bring them to every corner of the world and every sphere of human activity.
We-Flow is not just another training, it’s a different way of being together. One where effectiveness and joy multiply each other. One where “we get shit done”, but in connection.
The business world is hungry for this. Leaders know the old models aren’t working. Employees are craving meaning and connection. The time is ripe for practices that integrate human depth with business effectiveness.
👉 For a list of upcoming We-Flow events, including an online immersion Nov. 8-9 which works for both EU and US time zones, see here. There are also regularly scheduled free “taster events”.