All Blog Posts (136)

2 weeks ago, I was in Totnes, UK for attending a Transition Town Launch Training.

I stayed in Totnes the week after the training and participated in Transition Town Totnes and Schumacher College events and activities.

Here is a pattern reflection of my stay there using the Groupworks Pattern Language Card…

From the email list March 2013...

I don’t know if the woman who wrote this article is part of Art of Hosting.  But I found this article from Zocalo Public Square hilarious.  What a brilliant way of using a current event to spread awareness of good group process!  It’s not about AoH per se.  But she does suggest the cardinals start by building relationships and ask new, provocative questions. She has them tell stories and think together in world café.  My favorite line is how…

As shared on the email list February 2013....

Shared on the email list February 2013

Dear friends and colleagues,



I've started a new collaborative research blog on 'laboratories for societal innovation' to share my ongoing Phd research on the same topic. It is still under development but I wanted to open it up for a broader audience.



The blog aims to bring together together the knowledge that is emerging across a diverse community of practitioners that are engaged in…

Interested in adult learning? Become an EU funded assistant at the Academy of Visionautics in Berlin. Learn how to develop, promote, test and evaluate adult learning products for social innovation in an international team. Apply till march 16th at…

Die Ausgangssituation:

Eine kleine Gruppe ( 10 Personen ) die gesellschaftspolitisch aktiv ist, muss sich aufgrund von Änderungen im Außen neu orientieren.  Fast jedes Mitglied hat eine eigene Meinung bzw. Perspektive auf das „gemeinsame“  Projekt. Es gibt wenig WIR in der Gruppe.

Daher ein Experiment:

Eine kurze Erklärung von Ken Wilbers Modell mit den 4 Quadranten zu Beginn.

Innen - Außensicht       Ich Perspektive | Gruppenperspektive.

Der Raum wird mit…

I came across this 2 month old interview of Toke in Wien.

(Hope the posterous embedding works!).

It's about 15 minutes and as usual extremely interesting.

The AoH in a nutshell part itself is the first 7-8…

I came across a post today which made me laugh, because it is soooo much déjà vu - been there, done that several times, and get biten over and over again.

I think all of us working in multilingual/multicultural environment will recognize friends and / or situations.

At the same time, this needs to be stressed over and over again, lest we should forget.

So without further ado:…

Hallo !

Eine Frage in die Runde. Gibt es Erfahrungen mit AoH im kirchlichen Umfeld?

Ich möchte dort ein wenig experimentieren, darum bin ich neugierig ob es schon anderswo auch geschieht.

Andreas

Ontario’s rural and agricultural organizations and communities are under pressure – we are all trying to do more with less to address increasingly complex challenges. This pressure also brings with it an opportunity for real change, and real change calls for a new kind of leadership. At the 2012…

Next week, I will host 2 groups merging together - they would like to better collaborate. We have planned 3 rounds of world cafe. The current questions for each session are:

Round 1: stories of Sales & Marketing working well together

Round 2: stories of Sales & Marketing challenging situations

Round 3: ideas for better…

Enjoy this interview with Fedor Ovchinnikov and Kathy Jourdain.  The link is imbedded on my web site or you can go to blogtalkradio to listen.

Stumbled on this article on creativity by John Cleese.

Not really new, but reaffirm many good and often forgotten principles.

8 Dec 1980 - we remember.

Today, for the first time since I host, I had a day that respected the script to the minute :-) If this doesn't warrant a first blog post here, I don't see what will.

Definitely une journée a marquer d'une pierre blanche ! :-)

le wordle du matin (debut de la session):      …

How is it we can take a group of people who may or may not know each other, throw them into a prep or planning day together and have them emerge out the other side as a team, ready to co-create and co-host a three or four day Art of Hosting training, to greater or lesser degrees as a cohesive, fluid team?

In the last few years, I have had powerful experiences of this happening in Atlantic Canada,…

When people ask me if I do “this” for a living, the answer is, of course, yes. But they don’t really know what they are asking.  They are asking about what they are witnessing or experiencing in this given moment – a specific Art of Hosting training, a planning process, a team building session, a leadership development training, a community engagement process, a …

Deep sensing interviews are a powerful tool.  In the times I’ve used them I’ve seen them help deepen relationships, deepen a field of inquiry, shift the shape of  a team, organization or system.

Deep sensing interviews are one of the tools highlighted in the Sensing…

For a such a simple little concept, the divergence-emergence-convergence model we use in the Art of Hosting sure packs a punch.  It is a simple teach that can be done in 10 minutes – or longer – if time, space and the opportunity to engage others in the conversation allows.  It sheds light on design process, the groan zone and people’s experience.  Navigating the groan zone is an art form that often arises…

It is the last morning of our 3 day Art of Hosting training in St. Paul Minnesota in mid April 2012.  We have 40 participants plus our 6 person hosting team which includes 3 apprentices. The hosting team is starting our day by checking in. Day 2 was a good example of a groan zone kind…