The Art of Hosting2024-03-29T01:11:32ZRia Baeckhttps://artofhosting.ning.com/profile/RiaBaeckhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2653830320?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://artofhosting.ning.com/forum/topic/listForContributor?groupUrl=art-of-participatory-leadership-eur-commission&user=1bzzxbtqeizf9&feed=yes&xn_auth=noWhat is the 'next level' - there's a shift in the fieldtag:artofhosting.ning.com,2013-04-30:4134568:Topic:780652013-04-30T16:35:11.003ZRia Baeckhttps://artofhosting.ning.com/profile/RiaBaeck
<p>I wrote this reflection in response to an inquiry going around on the AoH mailing list, and thought it belongs here too. It is around What is the next level of AoH?</p>
<p>"I have just come out of some rich hosting work in the tough, mainstream environment of the European Commission. That is giving me, also, a perspective on the 'next level'. Maria Scordialos, one of the co-creaters of the AoH pattern, spoke that she has seen an evolution in her work with these patterns over the years. The…</p>
<p>I wrote this reflection in response to an inquiry going around on the AoH mailing list, and thought it belongs here too. It is around What is the next level of AoH?</p>
<p>"I have just come out of some rich hosting work in the tough, mainstream environment of the European Commission. That is giving me, also, a perspective on the 'next level'. Maria Scordialos, one of the co-creaters of the AoH pattern, spoke that she has seen an evolution in her work with these patterns over the years. The Art of Hosting started off really as an amazingly innovative form of training that uses its own pattern to teach itself. People come to the training events from all over - different contexts, backgrounds, places. Something else happens when the pattern is brought into an organization. Our sense is that 'the art of Participatory Leadership' (as we are calling it in the EU context) is a next level up, where the patterns are applied in a very specific context, over time. Now that we have gone past the point of no return, and the practice is no longer in danger of being killed by the immune system of the status quo, we see that another level of potential is opening up, which calls for another level of practice, beyond what we traditionally think of as AoH, but still very much within that DNA and practicing those forms. It is what Maria calls systemic transformation. It calls for working with core teams and different levels of engagement, as well as pulling in many more mental models and practices, as needed. It is ongoing action research, a lived, ongoing collective inquiry, into whatever it is that the people are gathered around - the purpose that the organization is in pursuit of.<br/><br/>I am also noticing, very specifically, a beautiful and hope giving phenomenon around this whole thing of the 'core team'. As we seek intentionally to grow our hosting capacity in the Commission, we are creating ever-greater hosting teams for our training events and other forms of work. Typically, we work with one or two 'externals' (bureaucratese for 'honoured stewards of the practice from the global community'), one or two experienced practitioners who work full-time for the Commission, and a handful of 'apprentices' - people (who might be internal or external) who have gone through the training, been bitten by the bug and feel called to deepen their practice. We might have up to 13 people on the hosting team. What I am noticing is that teamwork and co-creation in these hosting teams is invariably seamless and inspired. When we have a bumpy ride, we learn from it gracefully, and often find that our experience reflects the system we are hosting. Ego never seems to be an issue. People not only learn, they transform to their own next level, in their practice but also in themselves. My way of explaining this to myself is that thanks to the strong and coherent intention with which the (ever-growing) 'core team' has been holding this work in EU institutions, the field of practice is now so strong that people are automatically aligned just by stepping into it.<br/><br/>Now that we have run 29 3-day 'entry-level' Art of Participatory Leadership trainings (we also offer 2-day art of harvesting trainings and regular 3-day practitioners' gatherings which are more like collective inquiries than trainings) we are also able to notice the way the field is evolving, through the quality of the conversations taking place, the speed at which the group reaches co-creative cohesion, and the truths that are now becoming available to the collective consciousness (specifically awareness of the fear in our corporate culture, that used to be acted out but not available for inspection). I get the image of the advancing glacier - each new cohort steps on the the leading edge of the glacier, which is further down the valley each time.<br/><br/>So a key pattern to start working with and exploring in more depth is, for me, the core team, for this is what holds the potential of the field."</p>
<p></p> Collective Story Harvest in the Strategic Programming and Planning CoPtag:artofhosting.ning.com,2013-04-11:4134568:Topic:772452013-04-11T21:07:35.023ZRia Baeckhttps://artofhosting.ning.com/profile/RiaBaeck
<p>It is now the second time we used the collective story harvest as a tool in that community. It is great for several reasons: it is community building, people understand they are not alone, we learn to celebrate achievements, others see peers in action who sometimes have stood in the fire and can learn from more easily. <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655752175?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655752175?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450"></img></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>It allows in the harvest to see any red…</p>
<p>It is now the second time we used the collective story harvest as a tool in that community. It is great for several reasons: it is community building, people understand they are not alone, we learn to celebrate achievements, others see peers in action who sometimes have stood in the fire and can learn from more easily. <a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655752175?profile=original"><img width="450" class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655752175?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450"/></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>It allows in the harvest to see any red threads and the essences of the issue. We can identify learning needs, and strengths and weaknesses of the system.It is a beautiful tool to give space to both: content and process.</p>
<p>And finally a beautiful feedback came from one of the story tellers herself: she wanted to give something back to the community in return for all the learning she has benefited from as a new practitioner in the past.</p>
<p>One ingredient that helped was making the extra effort of organising coffee and tea ourselves. With the austerity measures our internal coffee is cut, so it is an extra effort which on the other hand enables collaboration and contributing. Getting a room without fixed tables is an additional challenge these days, and we are lucky to be able to use our well being room occasionally.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655755189?profile=original"><img width="300" class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655755189?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300"/></a><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655755713?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655755713?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></p> Harvesting from the fieldtag:artofhosting.ning.com,2012-06-19:4134568:Topic:566142012-06-19T15:47:46.919ZRia Baeckhttps://artofhosting.ning.com/profile/RiaBaeck
<p>This is a space where we can upload documents that are harvests from our practitioners' field that can then be helpful to our mates 'out there'.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This is a space where we can upload documents that are harvests from our practitioners' field that can then be helpful to our mates 'out there'.</p>
<p></p> Progress report from the field of Participatory Leadership in the Commission - June 2012tag:artofhosting.ning.com,2012-06-19:4134568:Topic:569112012-06-19T14:38:15.741ZRia Baeckhttps://artofhosting.ning.com/profile/RiaBaeck
<p align="center" style="text-align: left;"><b>This extract from my journal was written during the preparation day before our 3rd practitioners’ gathering, in June 2012 <br></br></b></p>
<p><i>As I write, during the hour before lunch in the preparation day, the rest of the hosting team is busy rearranging the space to create beauty for those who will be joining tomorrow. Nature is coming into the room, and we are working to music.</i></p>
<p>During our preparation day, the members of the hosting…</p>
<p style="text-align: left;" align="center"><b>This extract from my journal was written during the preparation day before our 3rd practitioners’ gathering, in June 2012 <br/></b></p>
<p><i>As I write, during the hour before lunch in the preparation day, the rest of the hosting team is busy rearranging the space to create beauty for those who will be joining tomorrow. Nature is coming into the room, and we are working to music.</i></p>
<p>During our preparation day, the members of the hosting team who had been present at the most recent entry-level training (in May) told the story of how different that training had been, and we inquired into what this meant.</p>
<p>We saw that the hosting team had somehow reached a deeper level of maturity, where we were able to show up with authenticity at all moments, able to hold the dissonant voices with serenity from an energy of invitation, with no need to convince.</p>
<p>The mix of participants itself was exemplary of the way this work is beginning to move out from the core to the periphery and beyond: we had external consultants who are supporting the Commission in changing its ways of working, we had staff from the Commission’s external agencies, as well as two very dynamic ladies strategically positioned in the European Parliament. 90% of the participants had already experienced participatory approaches in the context of their own projects and teams.</p>
<p>We also saw the creativity, discipline and attitude of learning in the participants, and the high quality of their practice – even when it was their first time hosting. The opening check-in circle itself bore witness to a level of ambition and recognition of the need for change in how the Commission engages with the outside world. People hosted themselves from the start, and all our many stories from years of practice interwove into a fabric suggesting a very different reality than the one we often assume when we think of life inside the European Commission.</p>
<p>Leaning back to sense why everything seems to happening so smoothly, we saw that what has shifted and deepened is the resonant field that arises in response to this different way of working. (Rupert Sheldrake calls it the morphogenic field). Inquiring into what this field is, the words that came were: Participation, people agency… in fact: Democracy. Participation is found in the first room of democracy, together with deep listening.</p>
<p>Matthieu recalled the words of a technical support colleague who had witnessed our first ever fully on-line hosted process with the Digital Futures project. Someone who had no prior exposure to explicitly participatory ways of working: “<i>I have never seen people work together like this before. Today I’ve seen people prepared to sacrifice anything to ensure that every voice can be heard.</i>”</p>
<p>Words that we captured from what we had spoken into the circle evoked the elements of the practice of democracy:</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655754373?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655754373?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" height="378" width="592"/></a></p>
<p>So, it seems that what is emerging from the depths in our midst is a re-membrance to democracy. As the Commission becomes democracy, it can host a new level of democracy in Europe.</p>
<p>Since its inception, the storyline of the European Union has been around building peace. The times of disturbance we are living through tell us that this is no longer enough. A new story for Europe is coalescing around the New Democracy.</p>
<p>The <strong>Digital Futures</strong> project that some of the core community of practitioners are engaged in is exemplary of this new emergence, seeking as it does to harness modern technology to create a conduit for modern democracy – where individuals truly can participate directly in the governance of the collective space.</p>
<p>A report on our 3rd practitioners' gathering will follow.</p> Expanding our toolbox...tag:artofhosting.ning.com,2012-01-08:4134568:Topic:481902012-01-08T15:17:29.024ZRia Baeckhttps://artofhosting.ning.com/profile/RiaBaeck
<p><font face="Calibri" size="3">At our gathering in November 2011 and in other conversations, I have heard the wish expressed to expand our toolkit so as to adapt to the situation/problem/audience.<br></br></font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri" size="3">I found a useful book reference at the end of <br></br></font> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2653317879?profile=original" target="_self">Action Inquiry: Transforming Leadership in the Midst of Action.</a></p>
<p></p>
<p>The…</p>
<p><font face="Calibri" size="3">At our gathering in November 2011 and in other conversations, I have heard the wish expressed to expand our toolkit so as to adapt to the situation/problem/audience.<br/></font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri" size="3">I found a useful book reference at the end of <br/></font> <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2653317879?profile=original" target="_self">Action Inquiry: Transforming Leadership in the Midst of Action.</a></p>
<p></p>
<p>The book is called <strong>The Change Handbook:</strong> <strong>The Definitive Resource on Today’s Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems</strong> - you can just google it, or search on online bookstores.</p>
<p>It contains one-page descriptions on more than 60 methods - see some examples <a href="http://www.amazon.de/Change-Handbook-Definitive-Resource-Engaging/dp/1442994630/ref=tmm_pap_title_popover?ie=UTF8&qid=1326033923&sr=8-1-fkmr0#reader_1442994630" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Enjoy the reading, and add your own favourites to this thread!</p>
<p></p>
<p>Dirk</p>
<p></p> Reflecting on blind spots and what we can do better/differentlytag:artofhosting.ning.com,2012-01-08:4134568:Topic:481872012-01-08T15:07:44.696ZRia Baeckhttps://artofhosting.ning.com/profile/RiaBaeck
<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>Ria´s reference to Bob Stilger´s blog post and the ensuing contributions to that <a href="http://artofhosting.ning.com/forum/topics/learning-blindspots-in-aoh" target="_self">thread</a> reminded me of a the feeling I had recently at a follow-up meeting to an event with 120 managers from translation services of the European Institutions: generally, the event had been quite successful in creating common ground and bringing up issues for further discussion - but was there…</p>
<p>Dear all,</p>
<p>Ria´s reference to Bob Stilger´s blog post and the ensuing contributions to that <a href="http://artofhosting.ning.com/forum/topics/learning-blindspots-in-aoh" target="_self">thread</a> reminded me of a the feeling I had recently at a follow-up meeting to an event with 120 managers from translation services of the European Institutions: generally, the event had been quite successful in creating common ground and bringing up issues for further discussion - but was there anything else we could have done to go even deeper?</p>
<p>The asnswer will probably be different each time you ask the question, as it depends on our own experience/worldview at that time, and the particular hosting team and environment.</p>
<p>What I found most interesting is the reference at the end to a document on <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2653317879?profile=original" target="_self">Action Inquiry: Transforming Leadership in the Midst of Action</a>, given by Mary Stacey, because it provides a framework that can be helpful to position yourself on a number of development scales. Personally, I can recognise myself on several paths, and this is a good time of year for thinking where to go next...</p>
<p>Dirk</p>
<p></p> Community meeting 15 Decembertag:artofhosting.ning.com,2011-12-19:4134568:Topic:475032011-12-19T22:16:23.806ZRia Baeckhttps://artofhosting.ning.com/profile/RiaBaeck
<p>Some of us who participated in the November gathering shared our key insights from it with the wider community. It was an exquisite circle, many with lots of experience, and two who just had their first training a week before. Quite some suggestions and concrete actions for the New Year came out. Local lunches, local DG meetings, more networking. AoPL breakfast meetings are now happening on three different days and three different locations in Brussels!…</p>
<p></p>
<p>Some of us who participated in the November gathering shared our key insights from it with the wider community. It was an exquisite circle, many with lots of experience, and two who just had their first training a week before. Quite some suggestions and concrete actions for the New Year came out. Local lunches, local DG meetings, more networking. AoPL breakfast meetings are now happening on three different days and three different locations in Brussels!</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655746695?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="200" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655746695?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="200" class="align-left"/></a></p>
<p>Someof the thoughts that touched me were:</p>
<p>All is one. The main achievement of the gathering was the breaking down of inner walls between outside and inside. (We had three "outside" hosts present, two had been with us in the November gathering). </p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655747320?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="200" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655747320?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="200" class="align-right"/></a></p>
<p>Wherever I go, it is part of the whole. Some units have the climate of a fridge. The inner practitioner is the important one. Fear will never go away, we have to hold it.</p>
<p>We can rest together, in authenticity. That is how we relax from the stress of having to constantly deliver. They are all human made structures, good to see that.</p>
<p>Risk finding takes a lot of time and energy. We need to find the kindness meme.</p>
<p>Remind people of the best of humanity. How to avoid that the gap between this community and others grows?</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655747854?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="200" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2655747854?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="200" class="align-left"/></a></p>
<p>This community process is like a big Open Space, we need a sign up sheet!</p>
<p>Everyhting we have, are agreements. We just need to change the agreements!</p>
<p>How do we find the container strong enough to let go of old structure? The metaphor of a chrysalis was shared.</p>
<p>Counting on mates to add to the harvest!</p>
<p></p> On storytellingtag:artofhosting.ning.com,2011-12-15:4134568:Topic:473682011-12-15T13:07:16.232ZRia Baeckhttps://artofhosting.ning.com/profile/RiaBaeck
<p>One of the next steps we discussed at our gathering was to tell stories to connect the new to the old.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I just stumbled on this site that has some very interesting material on storytelling:</p>
<p>- a podcast on the importance of storytelling;</p>
<p>- a collection of stories with keywords;</p>
<p>- a guide to "anecdote circles", where a group gathers and everyone tells a story.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>See it all at <a href="http://www.anecdote.com/">www.anecdote.com</a>. And please,…</p>
<p>One of the next steps we discussed at our gathering was to tell stories to connect the new to the old.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I just stumbled on this site that has some very interesting material on storytelling:</p>
<p>- a podcast on the importance of storytelling;</p>
<p>- a collection of stories with keywords;</p>
<p>- a guide to "anecdote circles", where a group gathers and everyone tells a story.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>See it all at <a href="http://www.anecdote.com/">www.anecdote.com</a>. And please, comment or add any other resources you have.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Dirk</p> Research on the level of the global AoH systemtag:artofhosting.ning.com,2011-12-12:4134568:Topic:470332011-12-12T15:14:05.391ZRia Baeckhttps://artofhosting.ning.com/profile/RiaBaeck
<p><b>Research on the level of the global AoH system</b></p>
<p><b>Chaordic Stepping Stones</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p>(from an Open Space session in the collective inquiry on the AoPL 2.0, Brussels, Nov. ’11)</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>THE NEED</b></p>
<p>Spread what is possible!</p>
<ul>
<li>Where is the good and beautiful article of what AoH is and what is impact can be?</li>
<li>Where are the good case descriptions, with each its own full story? Right now it are some of the AoH stewards who carry…</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Research on the level of the global AoH system</b></p>
<p><b>Chaordic Stepping Stones</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p>(from an Open Space session in the collective inquiry on the AoPL 2.0, Brussels, Nov. ’11)</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>THE NEED</b></p>
<p>Spread what is possible!</p>
<ul>
<li>Where is the good and beautiful article of what AoH is and what is impact can be?</li>
<li>Where are the good case descriptions, with each its own full story? Right now it are some of the AoH stewards who carry a lot of the stories around; but is this enough? This is only one channel.</li>
</ul>
<p>Where, what is the scientific background of what we do?</p>
<p> How to mature our field of work and build its own theory?</p>
<p>Dave Snowdon states: Without sound theory, practice will not scale – and: without good practice, theory will not develop. If you understand the theory, you can scale your practice better.</p>
<p>Where and how can the AoH global system see itself?</p>
<ul>
<li>What are the learnings from the longer, large scale projects using AoH as operating system?</li>
<li>Where does the meta-harvest on the AoH-system level happen?</li>
<li>How to connect this global system back to itself?</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>PURPOSE</b></p>
<p>Collective reflection and learning on the level of the AoH global system;</p>
<p>in order to see the unique contributions of each local CoP to the whole,</p>
<p>in order to see and understand the (new) common patterns on this scale,</p>
<p>and in order to be able to host and steward others to do that too, on ever widening scales.</p>
<p>A systems defined as: a network that has coherence. (Snowdon again)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In the words of George Por:</p>
<p>How to become a community that learns, from being a community of learners? How does a community that learns look like?</p>
<p>Or even: How does a global system that learns look like?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This implies, I think, reflection and learning on the own local system/community level (inside movement) and a sharing of the learnings into the wider system (outside movement). Why isn’t more of this harvesting out happening?</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>PRINCIPLES</b></p>
<p>From the top of my head:</p>
<ul>
<li>work in collaboration on the meta-systemic level</li>
<li>each individual and each local system has a unique contribution, a unique gift to make to the whole</li>
<li>……..</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>CONCEPT</b></p>
<p>Doing an Action Research project to accomplish the purpose and give answers to the different needs.</p>
<p>What would be the central research question?</p>
<ul>
<li>How to learn in complexity? How to learn collectively in complexity and emergence?</li>
<li>What does a system that learns look like?</li>
<li>Does AoH / AoPL leads to better results ‘on the ground’? less poverty, better health, more wellness???</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p><b>LIMITING BELIEFS</b></p>
<p>There is no money to do this.</p>
<ul>
<li>What is a possible economic model? This is not training, so who is going to pay for it?</li>
<li>Will more local projects pay for this kind of reflection? Evaluating? Research?</li>
<li>Where to find funding to do this kind of work? Globally?</li>
</ul>
<p>Local people don’t have time and energy left to do this meta-level thinking and reflection.</p>
<p>We need outside, academic action research to make this real.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>STRUCTURE</b></p>
<p>Starting with a core hosting-research team.</p>
<p>Convene a first gathering where key harvest and hosting persons of local, large scale projects come together to reflect and harvest on behalf of the wider system.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>------------------</p>
<p>You can always contact me if this speaks to you!</p> Prezi overview of AoPL gatheringtag:artofhosting.ning.com,2011-12-03:4134568:Topic:459492011-12-03T10:33:13.562ZRia Baeckhttps://artofhosting.ning.com/profile/RiaBaeck
<p>I have made an overview of the harvesting of the 3-day gathering using Prezi, based on the landscape used. To view it, click on the link below and then on the Play button. Click the Play button to move from one "screenshot" to another. At each screenshot, you can zoom in or out using your mouse wheel.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Let me know if there is anything you want to change or add</p>
<p></p>
<p>Dirk…</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>I have made an overview of the harvesting of the 3-day gathering using Prezi, based on the landscape used. To view it, click on the link below and then on the Play button. Click the Play button to move from one "screenshot" to another. At each screenshot, you can zoom in or out using your mouse wheel.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Let me know if there is anything you want to change or add</p>
<p></p>
<p>Dirk</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://prezi.com/vzuyf1a1mqim/ec-aopl-gathering-2011/" target="_blank">http://prezi.com/vzuyf1a1mqim/ec-aopl-gathering-2011/</a></p>