On the Art of Hosting list we have been having a conversation about using language of participatory process. Often the language of these new social technologies can be jargony and off-putting for people who aren’t used to it. That can cause unnecessary defensiveness among participants. So I had some thoughts about using good language AND holding to a core centre…
Don’t fall in love with your processes and tools and langauge and conepts: instead respond to people’s needs and offer what you can and when they ask what it is called, or wonder if you are just making it up, you can point to the body of work, research and experience to be found when you Google “Open Space Technology.” or “World Cafe” or whatever. That will give them comfort if they need it without “selling” them on what we think is good for them
When we put our tools above our client’s needs we are putting ourselves above our clients. When we join a field of learning and curiosity and possibility with our clients and offer what we can, we become co-creative and participatory.
But while we must be careful that in taking care to help people understand the processes that we are not abandoning our centre. So it is a balance, a dance between what is known and unknown. Working at the edge of fear and anxiety can help people come to the next level. Too much comfort is a poison for our times.
I have found that, ALMOST more important that the language I use is the centre I hold. If I am strong and grounded in my centre, the skeptics cannot knock me about, and in fact they are rather drawn to where I am, curious and a little cautious. For you to bring the new into a system – true for any pioneer or leaders – there is a firmness in conviction that comes with an undying trust in possibility and emergence and is helped by having the scars of battle upon you. For sure experience helps you to temper and hold your centre, but you will not get your experience unless you feel what it’s like to stand for something and take the buffeting of uncertainty around you. And occasionally you will fail and that will be your greatest teacher.
So I think you need skill in holding the centre and skill in speaking about it. And that skill comes from practice.
So my business card says: “Asking inspiring questions, hosting powerful conversations, harvesting for wise action.” To the unfamiliar eye that is a tricky set of words to understand, but I stay unapologetic in my use of them, and I have, over the year, developed some facility in explaining them in a way that invites whoever I am speaking to to join me.
In conclusion, practice.
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All of you looking for an intensive Art of Hosting experience, we are now accepting registration for the June 6-9 event in Edmonton, Alberta. Please join Teresa Posakony, Tennson Woolf, Corrinna Chetley-Irwin, Mary Johnson, Chantal Normand, and I for four days of learning, connecting and practice around hosting nad harvesting conversations that matter for wise action.
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From a recent Art of Hosting in Sweden comes a learning from some young leaders thinking about how to lead in networks:
1. Open and transparency of decision making process and “organizational” structure, even if it’s dynamic. No Taboos or un-written rule. The aim should be to make the system as visible as possible.
2. Empowers loads of action (systemically): What is the minimum structure needed to enable self-organizing and action?
3. Good communication culture (this is the real challenge I guess)
4. Clear process of creation and updating the leading thoughts
5. Low entrance step, it’s easy to join, accessible.
6. Inclusive, nobody is left out if they want to contribute and participate.
7. Purpose large enough but clear enough. People should feel that I want to be part of this. Purpose is container both for action and expansion. Case: 350.org brought together many networks, as did Survival Academy.
via How to lead a network well? ideas from AoH Karlskrona | Monkey Business.
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The vacation in Hawaii has ended for me and I’m now somewhere over the middle of the United States on the third leg of a four leg journey that sees me flying from Hilo to Honolulu to Los Angeles to New York to Johannesburg. I arrive in South Africa Monday morning in time to recover and help design and deliver and Art of Participatory Leadership workshop with friends from REOS Social Innovation. It’s exciting to be heading to South Africa, the birthplace of my wife, and therefore one of the ancestral homelands of my kids. Exciting to be working with Marianne Knuth and her team as well, and I’m interested in how the Art of Participatory Leadership and the art of harvesting unfolds in a multicultural African context. Expecting lots of learning as usual and I’ll blog and harvest as is possible.
So, inflight wireless, homeopathic letlag remedies and movies keep me going. Interested to see what recovery from a 12 hour time change will be like!
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Today, the new moon rises, a time of aupicious beginnings, especially coming so close to the winter solstice. These are important moments in Nuu-Cha-Nulth culture, and the times are important in Nuu-Chah-Nulth history. Last month, five Nuu-Chah-Nulth tribes won a landmark court case that gave them the right to sell the fish that they catch. Not on an industrial scale mind you, but on a scale big enough to create small local commercially viable fisheries for communities that desperately need both the work and the reconnection to the sea. Moreover, the courta case declared this as an Aboriginal right, a significant ruling for coastal First Nations in general but for the Nuu-Chah-Nulth in particular.
All of this leads to a time when participatory leadership is needed to seize the opportunity of building culture and community back and doing real, powerful and grounded marine use planning. So today was a good day to get to work.
We begun with 20 minutes of Warrior of the Heart practice, introducing the concept of irime, entering in, joining energies with an attacker and helping them lead a situation to peace. This check in this morning was a powerful reminder to some about the way their work as hosts needs to change, to be able to stand in the fire of aggressive energy and work with it. Fisheries and marine use planning is full of passion and the work these folks will be doing will not be easy. But the passion that drives the aggressive fight for rights and allocations can be used also to build and heal community, and if we enter into that space well, grounded and ready and knowing a little bit, we can do something with that energy.
So today we heard a little about the court case and then we spent some time learning about the seven helpers with this harvest as a result:
From this morning’s sessionshort piece on designing meetings: Four groups of questions to ask before conducting any meeting, to help you choose a good way to get what you need:
BE PRESENT* How will we bring people together in a way that invites them to be present? * How do we make people comfortable to share from their heart and listen together for wisdom and learning?
KNOW YOUR HARVEST * What do we want to take away from this meeting? In what form? (notes? graphics? photos? video? audio?) * How will we use what we gather from the meeting?
HAVE A GOOD QUESTION * What question(s) could we ask that would invite contributions from everyone?
LISTENING PIECE * What is a listening tool that helps us have enough time for people to make their contributions and hear each other? * What kinds of activities and exercises can we use for people to explore content together and provide their own thoughts on our question?
If you use this checklist as a way of organizing your thoughts before a meeting, it will help you to stay focused and to ensure that everything you do is tied to the purpose of the meeting.
Nice…a basic set of planning guidelines for any conversation that keeps us focused on the harvest, and keeps us conscious about process.
After lunch we took the advice of our Elder Levi and the participants went out on the land to think about their work going into the community. This was the time to do a little oosumich, connecting with themselves and presencing the future that starts next week when they return to their communities. When they returned, we went into a really beautiful World Cafe around two questions that Laura and Norinne cracked. The first question was an appreciative question about a time when community was truly engaged. The second question, which we did two rounds on, was on question we could ask to bring community together around marine use planning.
The harvest from this was great, a real set of tools and ideas for them to use when they go home to start the conversation.
And sweet practice this evening. Bruce Lucas put on a potlatch DVD and some of us played Scrabble while Nuu-chah-Nulth tunes echoed through our dining space. Two or three kids played while we feasted on chicken, salmon and some great vegetable dishes prepared by our local caterer. This groups is really gelling, and becoming fast friends. They are tooling up on facebook and Skype to stay together as they move into this work seperately.
Tonight I can hear some geese flying overhead, moving south on the warm winds that have come in. The rain has stopped and the surf still pounds, the ever present sound of sae and land meeting, creating one another out of their shared conversation.
Tsawalk indeed.