I’ve just finished co-hosting the Art of Hosting training with my mates Tenneson Woolf, Teresa Posakony and Brenda Chaddock, We spent four days with 27 people learning the art of hosting and convening meaningful conversations. There is much that I learned in that, as I always do when I am teaching, but what seems most present for me this morning is Tenneson’s persistent quest to find the simplest way to host meaningful conversations. As a facilitator, I believe strongly that we should meet only when there is a need. It is best to hold a meeting when you don’t know …
What is held in the curl of new growth is the lens through which we see the peripheral light streaming into the open eye And a tension holds it there meniscus rapt membranes meeting and gently resting in one another’s curves. …and…
We don’ susbscribe to a lot of magazines around here, but one that gets read the moment it arrives is Life Learning Magazine. There is always something interesting or inspirational in almost every article, a level of quality that is amazing – but not surprising – for a small circulation publication. From an article in the July/August issue on mindful learning comes this great gem from John Holt: Since we can’t know what knowledge will be needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead we should try to turn out people who love …
Kevin Harris, at Neighbourhoods has a nice rant about capacity building today: As far as I can recall, capacity building the community sector has not been the problem anywhere I’ve worked. The problem is relationships. Too many people in positions of power are behaving in disempowering ways towards residents and towards those who experience exclusion, and then using the notion of capacity-building as a smokescreen. If there’s any capacity building to be done, it’s in terms of getting these people to behave in a civilised and grown-up manner towards those they are supposed to be supporting, or just get out …
For the past two years, I have been active in the Art of Hosting fellowship. This is a global community of practitioners dedicated to uncovering the new and emerging forms of meaningful conversation and organizational shape. Together we have been conducting trainings, working together on projects and deeply learning our patterns. Several of our mates in this fellowship have been working hard to bring about an online presence for our work, and today it went live. So I introduce to you the brand new Art of Hosting site, a place that describes what we are doing, how we are doing …