Many of the circles I travel in instersect in many intimate ways. People I meet here on the west coast of Canada months apart turn out to be co-authors of papers and books. Folks I hear about from others turn out to be partners in crome later on.
The Art of Hosting world is a little like that, touching as it does on many many different networks. And through these serendipitous connections, it turns out that I am personally acquainted with two of the three authors of a great little free e-book called Mapping Dialogue. I met Zaid Hassan last year as he was travelling through BC on business with Generon. Marianne Knuth, I haven’t met yet, but she is an amazing woman, a close friend of my friend Toke Moeller and we are hoping to have her join us for the Art of Hosting here in September.
So while I am relishing these connections, I want to put a strong plug in for this book on dialogue. It essentially suammarizes what we know and do with the Art of Hosting and is a great primer to using these processes and approaching this work no matter what context you find yourself in.
[tags]mapping dialogue, Toke Moeller, Zaid Hassan, Marianne Knuth, Art of Hosting[/tags]
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I’m fond of saying that I’m the last consultant in the world without a cell phone. While that is true for business, my partner and I have one that we use for personal purposes. And because we use it so infrequently (mostly for emergencies or urban logistics when we’re in the big city) we have it hooked on to a prepaid plan from fido.
Now fido offers you a couple of ways to handle prepayment. You can either buy vouchers or use a credit card. A credit card is preferable for us. So because we are running low on our initial minutes, we called the handy prepayment number to refill our prepaid account …or not.
This evening we have been stuck in voice mail jail trying to register to have our fido mobile phone account refilled by Visa. It has taken quite a while and we still haven’t gotten any help. Here’s what happens:
- Dial 611 (or *46 or any of the other numbers fido says to call…they all take you to the same robot. She says her name is “Andrea.” Nice.)
- Follow the robot’s directions patiently to register for instant prepayment, so that we can use our credit card to refill. Optionally don’t be patient and just say “representative” into the phone. It will take you to the same place anyway.
- One of two things will happen. You might get an English speaking representative who will tell you politely that he can’t do this manually, and that you have to speak to the robot about it. If this happens, the robot takes you through the same logic chain that delivers you into the lap of an English speaking representative, who will breezily deny that this reality even happened. We had several very nice young people speak with us this evening, and we think we actually even witnessed a shift change down at the old call centre.
- Once in a while Andrea will not direct you to a friendly but useless English speaking representative, but instead will forward you to another robot who, in French, politely informs you that the French customer service office is now closed and will reopen at 8am. She then terminates the call, leaving you flummoxed and with no recourse but to blog the whole experience.
So that’s it. If anyone can help us figure out how to get credit card refilling authorized and then done, that would be nice. If you fido guys are reading this, give us a call, but don’t mince your words, we only have two precious minutes remaining in our account!. Your robot has the number. Her name is Andrea.
In the meantime I guess we’re thinking about switching to Telus or something. The bottom line for fido: crap customer services trumps friendly robots. The French twist on the whole thing was pretty funny though, so the evening’s entertainment was not a total loss.
[tags]fido, bad+customer+service, voice+mail, cell+phone, help![/tags]
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I have been working lately with friends and fellows Brenda Chaddock, Tennson Wolf and Teresa Posakony to co-create another Art of Hosting training. We will be gathering on Bowen Island here in British Columbia from September 24-28 in a practice retreat to deeply investigate these questions:
- What could my leadership also be?
- What if I would practice using collective intelligence and learning in my organisation and network?
- What could strategic conversations also be if I host them with wisdom and courage?
- How do I create authentic involvement that leads to real implementation?
The practice retreat is structured along the following principles:
- Our learning will grow out of participant contributions and presence – we will support each other as co-learners
- We will learn by observation, experience and practice, using interactive processes to build a safe and inspiring learning environment – we will explore Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry, Circle Council, reflective practices, World Cafe, and other participatory methodologies
- Taking a chance to explore – and experiment with – applying these tools to your own projects-in-progress will help you to apply your skills, as well as develop and continue a new practice that will last well beyond this training
And through a variety of processes and conversations, we will investigate:
- Hosting conversations as a core leadership practice and competence for leading change
- How the Art of Hosting is an organising pattern/culture that invites new ways of living and working
- The conditions needed to create space for meaningful conversations
- Specific interactive processes through which learning and creation can emerge
- Sensing and shaping the conditions and timing for using particular methods and tools
- How the practice of hosting can be applied to key strategic change projects in our lives and work
This is a powerful training, and we invite you to join us. For more information, or to register, visit the Art of Hosting page or contact me by email.
[tags]facilitation+training, art+of+hosting[/tags]
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Having a weblog in addition to having a regular website means that there are two front doors to my online home. There have been a lot of searches here lately for facilitation and Open Space resources, so I thought I would highlight the collections that I maintain through two pages here.
I hope you find these useful. Let me know how they are for you.
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Thoreau, from May 27, 1851:
I saw an organ-grinder this morning before a rich man’s house, thrilling the street with harmony, loosening the very paving stones and tearing the routine of life to rags and tatters, when the lady of the house shoved up a window and in a semiphilanthropic tone inquired if he wanted anything to eat. But he, very properly it seemed to me, kept on grinding and paid no attention to her question, feeding her ears with melody unasked for. So the world shoves up its window and interrogates the poet, and sets him to gauging ale casks in return. It seemed to me that the music suggested that the recompense should be as fine as the gift. It would be much nobler to enjoy the music, though you paid no money for it, than to presume always a beggarly relation. It is after all, perhaps, the best instrumental music that we have.
A complex quote, for as you will hear below, it is not clear which is the kinder gift.
mp3: Chiappa Barrel Organ – Daisy Bell and Oh Mr. Porter
[tags]Thoreau, barrel+organ[/tags]