All Blog Posts (136)

Every place we go has its own tone, texture and timing.  It is part of what makes Art of Hosting - or in the case of California in August 2012, the Art of Participatory Leadership and Social Innovation - so hard to define. "We" being whatever configuration of hosting and calling team has…

What is art without technique and is technique alone really art?  "Art" could mean art as it evokes the image of artwork but, really, it is much broader than that -  dance, fitness, sport, yoga, meditation, music, hosting, the work we are in.

I've been in a beautiful reflection after a delicious conversation recently with good friend and hosting colleague Jerry Nagel. We were discussing upcoming work in…

Our world moves so fast we all want it done now, or yesterday – whatever “it” is. The paradox is, we don’t have time to go fast anymore. But it’s not just about slowing down. It’s slowing down, adding in intentionality, purposefulness and patterns of movement – often non-linear and iterative – to take us to places we’ve never been before but that we’ve dreamed and know have to be possible. We want to get to this new place but we keep repeating the patterns that have never gotten us there…

This house has already hosted many open space and creative events...and is now for sale.

It is looking for a new steward to take it into the future. What would you do with it ?

http://wp.me/P2wRsJ-2…

On the evening of May 19, members of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus gathered with friends to encounter "The Art of Developing Meaningful Conversations," the name given to the Art of Hosting at the church.  (The name was selected by the first sponsoring body, the Leadership Development…

Last week I was at an inspiring meeting in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  A dozen of us gathered from different parts of the US to continue an exploration of common ground.  There's a confluence happening.  Especially over the last decade people have been working with different words to explore the same questions: How do we create healthy communities?  Communities where happiness is pursued, not  consumption.  Communities where people live with the graceful bounty of this planet rather than…

Dear Community,

Having hosted small and big groups in all kind of different contexts for several years now I consider myself to be a quite pragmatic AoH practitioner. The biggest challenge I have come across though is probably not to host others, but to host myself. A few months ago I initiated my blog with a post about "wellbeing companionships" - an idea I have been co-designing and practicing for about three years now with a close friend of mine. I got quite some feedback on this…

HEllo to you all. Its been a while ---I have been graced withthe opportunity to see my home country in all is summer splendour.

BAck to the Now and in Denmark the steady change of season is a flux.A little update on the Last Graphic Recording workshop sessions we host to together with Friems in Austria-we had a wonderful turnout and happy that we could share the power of visuals further.

That brings me to, An invite to  our second session in partnership with Friems and the…

A post on the Art of Hosting list asked, ‘What if the art of hosting and harvesting is how to be with complexity in a simple way?’ – which rang a bell!

As you may have been vaguely aware, our strapline at The Solutions Focus is ‘Simplicity in a Complex World’. (Does anyone take any notice of straplines or are they simply a way to keep brand gurus employed?)

Anyway, we were discussing the choice of straplines in a workshop at the weekend, recalling how simplicity is important so…

I've been talking with folks at my church about AoH and the compatibilities I see between it and the church's goals and values.  As a result, a couple of things have happened so far.

The first and so-far biggest thing is that the leadership development committee asked me to do some leadership training drawing on the Art of Hosting body of knowledge.  We formed a small core host team with myself and two others who are close friends of the church (not quite…

At home at Axladitsa Avatakia this evening, I find myself entering a depth writing weekend with the intention of completing my second book, and sending the draft to my copy-editor for the first wave of reflections and re-patterning, Monday morning.  

* Available in April

As The Order of Creation, A Book of Poems http://theorderofcreation.org/ continues to move out in another wave today (30% off promotion…

A poem I wrote recently. Inspired by many people and many learnings. I like it as invitation to open to the new of who we are and can be.

New Story

A dying system and 

a new Eco-System

wanting to be born.

Labour pains,

no pain killers.

Anyway, we don't want 

to numb this pain.

It's growing pain

forcing us to think

of something that

does not yet exist.

I can almost feel…

Bridging Now and Then

Holding

All that is still to be

And has Become

The Song

Sung with Heart-full breath

Beyond the Self

Blessings’ wealth…

In these reflections prompted by the Art of Hosting training at The Burren, I'd like to make some distinctions about the words which facilitators and coaches choose to use.

The point is partly about the difference that these words might make with our groups and clients - how they feel about things, which aspects of topics they might most focus on, what in the end they might or might not do differently.

And it’s partly about how our language reflects our assumptions. I’m…

We – human Beings, humanity – are at a crossroads that holds profound choice. Do we go this way or that? Do we stay on the path we are on… or choose another? Do we let go, open up, walk out… walk on?

All are possible. All are choices. Yet what choice provides the greatest flow, the greatest service, the greatest potential? How do we discern? How do we find the courage to say YES – and move… in order to place ourselves well?…

Hi Everyone! I hope this message finds you all spectacularly well : )

After a great 3day gathering in Copenhagen for the Art of Hosting Learning Village this last month here is some web visual harvest! 

http://prezi.com/ci5fjuqaabvq/art-of-hosting-learning-village-2011-in-cph/

Thanks to all who were there! It was an incredible event for many reasons. A deeper sense of…

I've found a "mate" among my coworkers!  *relief*.   We had a design meeting today and prepared for a conference call with the rest of our team, which will take place tomorrow.  

She had said something in a conference call yesterday that made me think that a hosted conversation and attention to harvest would help, so I offered to help her design the meeting.  I sent her a handful of pages out of our AOH journal (the Columbus 2011 journal, pages 26-29, 42-45) to look over…