{"id":4938,"date":"2015-09-22T10:27:39","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T18:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=4938"},"modified":"2015-09-22T10:27:39","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T18:27:39","slug":"the-core-imperative-training-in-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/the-core-imperative-training-in-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"The core imperative: training in practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you make your living in the world as a facilitator, you can\u2019t help but notice the quality of conversation that surrounds you.\u00a0 People come up to me all the time asking advice about how to have this or that chat with colleagues or loved ones.\u00a0 Folks download on me their grief that our civic conversations have been polluted by rudeness and the inability to listen.\u00a0 We feel an overall malaise that somehow our organizations or communities could be doing better.
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\nI have recently been published in\u00a0a new book on Dialogic Organizational Development<\/a>, a way of looking at OD that will be familiar to anyone who is curious about the Art of Hosting and participatory leadership.\u00a0 In Dialogic OD we see the world as a set of conversations.\u00a0 Organizations exist in the conversations we have with each other.\u00a0 Culture is born of narrative.\u00a0 On the personal level, our identities are constructed by the stories we tell ourselves, especially the ones we believe.<\/p>\n

Changing the conversation changes the world.\u00a0 It’s an old truism but it is a key part of our work.\u00a0 And not just changing the conversation, but changing HOW we have the conversation.\u00a0 We shift from telling to inquiry.\u00a0 Shift from certainty to curiosity, shift from domination to mutuality.\u00a0 More is possible when we realize that we are all in this together, and alone, we don’t know what to do.<\/p>\n

It boggles my mind that management training doesn\u2019t often include a dedicated and rigourous exploration of hosting and participating in conversations.\u00a0 We consider good managers to have strategic, leadership, financial and technical skills.\u00a0 But we rarely hire people because of what they DON\u2019T know.\u00a0 How many people have been in a job interview where the best answer to a question was \u201cI don\u2019t know what I would do.\u00a0 What would you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, that vulnerability, that presence of mind, that openness to the counsel and wisdom of others is exactly the kind of leadership that helps organizations and communities lean into uncertainty and complexity and come out with opportunities and clarity.<\/p>\n

The Art of Hosting is a practice.\u00a0 It is about learning how to do that.\u00a0 Our greatest hope for anyone coming to our workshops is that you will leave be willing to try new ways of hosting story, inquiry and conversation.\u00a0 We don’t expect you to be perfect – goodness knows none of us are!\u00a0 But we do try to equip you with the courage and practice to get out there and begin to shift the way conversations shape our world.<\/p>\n

Join me for two upcoming Art of Hosting events this fall:<\/em><\/p>\n