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+## Title
+
+🌿 Weaving the Garden Grid
+
+## Also Known As
+
+- *Circles Before Systems*  
+- *Middle-Out Mycelium*  
+- *Feedback as Fertilizer*  
+
+---
+
+## Context
+
+In large, highly regulated organizations undergoing agile or digital transformation, distinct groups such as development, compliance, security, and architecture operate with different priorities, languages, and timelines. Each tends its own “plot,” guided by its own definitions of care, quality, and risk.
+
+The system aspires to become more innovative, adaptive, and aligned — but is held back by structural inertia, missing feedback loops, and tribal mistrust between departments.
+
+---
+
+## Problem
+
+Transformation efforts stall when teams attempt to grow in isolation. Developers innovate without understanding compliance; compliance defends policy without seeing current delivery realities. Architects design elegant futures without grounding in the messy present. Communication becomes brittle, misaligned, and deeply siloed — resulting in plans that don’t root, policies that don’t land, and humans who burn out.
+
+---
+
+## Forces
+
+- 📜 **Compliance mandates** create rigidity in documentation and approval.  
+- 🧠 **Security demands** shift focus toward control and risk elimination.  
+- 🏃 **Agile teams** push for velocity and autonomy.  
+- 🧱 **Architects** seek elegant future states across messy current states.  
+- 🌍 **Global scale** surfaces inconsistencies across business units.  
+- 🔄 **Feedback loops are sparse** and asynchronous, reinforcing “us/them” dynamics.  
+- 🧍‍♀️🧍‍♂️ **Overloaded staff** resist deeper engagement or new complexity.  
+- 💬 **Language habits** reinforce separation and mistrust.  
+
+---
+
+## Resolution
+
+**Weave the Garden Grid** by cultivating cross-boundary learning circles and feedback loops rooted in lived experience. Don’t wait for structural reorgs or centralized strategies — begin with lightweight, human-scale connection points.
+
+Draw from the [**Circle Communities**](./circle-communities.md) pattern: form voluntary, purpose-driven circles around shared needs (e.g., secure delivery pipelines, policy interpretation, architectural alignment). Use these circles as composting grounds for tension and disconnection — where diverse perspectives can intermingle and grow mutual understanding.
+
+Pair this with middle-out efforts such as **internal dojos**, **developer experience wikis**, and **feedback rituals**. Like a trellis in a garden, these supports don’t dictate the direction of growth — they guide it, strengthen it, and make room for thriving.
+
+---
+
+## Actions / Practice
+
+- 🌱 Form **cross-functional circles** focused on real delivery or risk challenges.  
+- 🏯 Use **dojos or learning sessions** to practice together, not just talk.  
+- 📖 Encourage **developer-owned wikis** to clarify policy, architecture, and guidance in lived terms.  
+- 🔁 Seed **retrospectives and storytelling practices** across role boundaries.  
+- 🗺️ Build **shared maps** of current state, constraints, and pain points.  
+- 🎙️ Invite **multiple narratives** before declaring alignment.  
+- 🌀 Let feedback loops inform structure, not the other way around.
+
+---
+
+## Consequences
+
+✅ Trust and shared language take root.  
+✅ Feedback becomes part of the culture, not an afterthought.  
+✅ Transformation efforts adapt more realistically to present state.  
+✅ Departments become stewards of shared care, not isolated kingdoms.  
+🚫 Without this pattern, innovation chokes on misalignment, and transformation collapses under the weight of its own abstraction.
+
+---
+
+## Notes / Variations
+
+- Works best when paired with [Fearless Change Patterns](https://fearlesschangepatterns.com) like **Evangelist**, **Just Enough**, and **Corridor Politics**.  
+- Often catalyzed by middle-out roles like **Platform Leads**, **Agile Coaches**, or **DX Advocates**.  
+- Early experiments may need “tending” by a **Change Artist** who can compost tension into relationship.  
+- This is *not* about more meetings — it’s about more meaningful contact.  
+- Garden wisely: circles grow best when purpose is alive and participation is voluntary.
+
+## Authors
+
+- [Michael Basil](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrbasil)
+
+## Acknowledgements
+
+- [SAP Dojo](https://github.com/sap-samples/dojo)
+- [Mindset Dojo Program & Community](https://mindset.dojo.center)