Poetry to share

Participants of the Art of Hosting (Oct '06 Belgium) started sharing poetry even before the training happened. At a certain point there was an Open Space session on the power of poetry to reach other people: A Poem for Food. The participants were lyrical about it!

Please add your own poetry if you like! (Click on Add Child-page below) Some of them will be used on the Front page of this site. Thanks!

"Innovation Tennisballs" at the AoH training

In cooperation please each team develop a good method
that can meet this challenge.....

You are in competition with the other teams – the more  innovative and the faster you can do it, the better.
You should also agree on a ”time budget” – how long will your solution take ?
– and be ready to give it to the consultant when he or she comes to your group.

There are 3 challenges to this training session. Each team must make all 3 stages in order to complete the task. If you give up you are out of the game with whatever learning that may have given you.



Challenge 1: Develop af method that can solve the task in cooperation in the team with innovation and speed – remember to agree on a time budget – you have 7 minutes for that.

Then the consultant will come to you and see your solution acted out including taking the time – accept it or reject it, according to the task given. Did they stay with the budget or did it faster or slower will be registered by the consultant.

If the solution can be accepted you can choose to continue to....

Challenge 2: It has been done faster !

If you choose to continue you get 5 minutes to improve your method or to develop a new method that can do it faster. Remember to agree on the time it will take.

Then the consultant will come to you and see your solution acted out including taking the time. Did they stay with the budget or did it faster or slower will be registered by the consultant.

If the solution can be accepted you can choose to continue to....

Challenge 3: It has been done in less that 1 second by many other groups !

If you choose to continue you will get 5 minutes to improve your method or to develop a new method that can do it in 1 second.

Then the consultant will come to you and see your solution acted out including taking the time.

The training is over.

Reflection on learnings:
–    The group stays a together for 10 more minutes and gets a reflection paper with these questions to collective reflect on and harvest their best learnings.

1.    How did our team work work ? Did we practice the values / the cooperation principles that we decided for?
2.    What kind of leadership did we practice?
3.    Where were the transition points in our work ? What made that happen ?
4.    If we transfer this experience to our daily work as leaders, what possibilities do we see ?
5.    If you together look at the real situation of Wiltshire partnership practice – where are the real challenges ?– please write 2 of them down on seperate paper and bring them with you to the cafe.
6.    please give your other answers on this reflection paper to the documentation team.

Thank you for your cooperation  and for your willingness to learn through play – an ancient art.

Harvest map of the 4th day

Day three: flavour your honey!

Open Space day 3 (13 oktober 2006)
(sent to us by Brigitte)

During the last two days we learned a lot about:
-    day 1: self/ground: circle, chaos/order, hosting stories, organising patterns,
-    day 2: team: open space: newt step, 5 breaths, world café: better world

Question: What do you need to flavour your honey to host your community, your work ?
or: What do you need to feel ready to meet your challenge ?

Harvest:
-    how to create a space were true questions can be shared?
-    authenticity leads to true questions and true solutions
-    be authentic
-    authenticity is the easiest common language that creates
-    this is for our world: conversations as micro-cosmos
-    connect
-    I am opening space to connect
-    I ‘ll go over on opening space to connect
-    It  just f***ing works !
-    The beginnings: start with a resonant call; find your mates or let them find you
-    Check-in honey: 5 min: ask everyone at the table to complete the sentence:
    o    During the next few hours I want to be in a place that…  or
    o    Wouldn’t it be beautiful if…
-    personal and collective clarity helps when difficult…
-    to be hosted is as valuable for learning as to host:
    o    the art of being hosted
    o    the art of asking the questions rather than having the answers
-    what of the two am I: a facilitator social entrepreneur or an entrepreneuring facilitator?
-    hosting reconnection to our humanity
-    love the edge …
-    words enable words
-    honour the pure invitation
-    What is Europe’s unique contribution to the world and what is our role in it ?
-    we create what we are
-    listen to timing
-    we do know each other and this work of opening our world again
-    refreshing ideas to take home and make things even better
-    momentum through mate-ship; mushrooms
-    I found order in my journey for development of myself and communities, and found that my development and the community development go hand-in–hand
-    Be attentive to the whole (no just my own perspective)
-    Be ready
-    Be clear and present and trust the system
-    Always ask myself: how to go from 1.0 to 2.0 ?
-    The art of foreplay and harvesting
-    Be a warrior to heal
-    To learn to be trained by co-trainers in a project in co-creativity
-    The value of understanding through experience and leaving the details till later
-    If  words shape the world … create or use words that will shape the world you want

Mindmaps by Dey

Open Space
A Poem for Food
12th October 2006
notes by Hilde Vandormael

This is what we did…
We gave each other gifts, poems we couldn’t have done without…


‘If you only want
what physical reality can give,
you are an employee

If you only seek the invisible
You are not living your truth

But you will be forgiven
For forgetting
What you really want is
Loves, confusing, joy…’

Rumi
(gift from Toke)



Actors waiting in the wings of Europe

Actors waiting in the wings of Europe
we already watch the lights on the stage
and listen to the colossal overture begin.
For us entering at the height of the din
it will be hard to hear our thoughts, hard to gauge
how much our conduct owes to fear or fury.

Everyone, I suppose, will use these minutes
what we were doing and saying that year
during our last few months as people, near
the sucking mouth of the day that swallowed us all
into the stomach of a war. Now we are in it

and no more people, just little pieces of food
swirling in an uncomfortable digestive journey,
what we said and did then has a slightly
Fairytale quality. There is an excitement
In  seeing our ghosts wandering

(Unfinished)
March 1944
Keith Douglas
(gift from Julian)


Visit to an artist
For David Jones

Window upon the wall, a balcony
With a light chair, the air and water so
Mingled you could not say which was the sun
And which the adamant yet tranquil spray.
But nothing was confused and nothing slow:
Each way you looked, always the sea, the sea.

And every shyness that we brought with us
Was drawn into the pictures on the walls.
It was so good to sit quite still and lose
Necessity of discourse, words to choose
And wonder which were honest and which false.

Then I remembered words that you had said
On art as gesture and as sacrament,
A mountain under the calm form of paint
Much like the Presence under wine and bread –
Art with its largesse and its restraint.

Elisabeth Jennings
(gift from Hilde)






A.A. milne, Winnie The Pooh, chapter 1, ‘In which we are introduced to Winnie – the Pooh and some bees and the stories begin’
Gift from Julian



Hafiz, The Gift, p92, ‘Stop calling me a pregnant woman’

Listening to the middle…

‘The power and gift of a heart felt poem
As a strange attractor in the art of inviting each other in?’


‘Sweet
this language
of soul

this poetry
that touches
our hearts
across time and space’
Toke

‘How can my language
Become poetry as food
That invites people in?

How can I listen this way to others?’



‘Poetry
in talking,
in listening…

Can you hear the poet between the lines?’

‘Listening to a language you don’t understand is like poetry…
The beauty of the sound becomes meaningful…’


‘Listen wider, harder, deeper…
The hosting of poets across time and space… Magic happens’

‘Poets are like warriors who touch our soul’


Listening to a song by Keb Mo
‘When I hear stuff like this
I’m inside him and he’s inside me
We see the same’


‘Blues and poetry honour the shadow and sorrow…
Sadness and joy…

In the middle of the path, giving yourself into it,
THE FEELING OF LIFE


- Hannelore - Julian - Toke – Hilde -

Daddy Day!

Standing here, my smile wide
I can’t hide
The joy it brings to me
To rhyme about my family
And my baby girl
Let the flags be unfurled
It’s the coming of a new world
‘Cause once a week I get to take a day
To stay home with my princess and play
I get to have a daddy day!

She babbles, I babble back
She smiles and the hardness around my heart comes under attack
The walls break down
Crumble to the ground
Without a sound
As they dissolve
I evolve
Into a human
With heart laid open
No more choking
On right and wrong
Just cranking out crazy baby songs
With no rhyme or reason
It takes me some believin’
In my own goodness
To let go
Drop the show
Arrive and play the day away
All those other things I should be doing get in the way
Meetings, Phonecalls, dirty washing gotta be done
Then I remember like the risin’ of the eastern sun
  It’s Daddy Day
All I gotta do is play!

The rest of the world melts away
As she struggles towards first words
In the coos and shirieks
I forget the roof leaks
While she batters the basonette’s hanging toys
And enjoys
The noise
As my wife and I cowboy hoot
Yeeeeehah!
Like we found the long lost loot
Celebrating Emma’s first time at getting the purple monkey to sing
She brings
A return to play
I fall more and more in love every day
Fueling a yearning
For unlearning
A lifetime of taking myself too seriously
Now me,
My wife and my baby
Waltz around the room
All singing out of tune
At the top of our voices
The family rejoices
It was hard to make the choices
Only working 4 days a week
Stopping writing this poem when I am in the flow
Because Emma wants to grab my nose
Now I would never turn away
The opportunity
For a Daddy day!

Sometimes I hear the news
Get the blues
Frustrated by our leaders excuses
For the abuses
Against planet and people
But the feeling of being powerless cannot linger
As I get lost in the amount of fingers
Emma has managed to cram in her mouth
Outstanding!
That’s eight fingers and a thumb
Where once I was numb
Overwhelmed and confused
I am converted by a gorgeously gargling
Champion spit bubble blowing darling
With flesh so tender you can barely tell
You’re touching it
As your finger goes
“Round and round the garden like a teddy bear
One step two step tickle you under there”
Aagh!
Shrieks of delight
Bring the sunlight
Into one my craziest years
Moving country, getting married, new job
And all the fears
Of having a baby
Disappear
On Daddy Day
When I drop
The worry
Stop
To hurry
I highly recommend
Shrugging the shoulders
Dropping the boulders
Of being grown up
Take a day
Where all else falls away
A day of Play
Take a Daddy Day.

Tim Merry
(gift from Toke)

 

More poetry here! 

Mindmaps by Dey

Dey made different mindmaps of different sessions.

One was on: Of all places, why have I choosen to be here? This mindmap is very big and you can see it in the Photo Gallery, under Art of Hosting Training. He wrote as overall comment: Strong presence of the search for 'connection' in the different areas.

A second one is about: What's my edge; my burning question?

Another one is on: Conditions - Circumstances that enable more on the edge of Chaos and Order:

 

 

 

 

 





And the last one is about the Team Exercise with the Numbered Balls: our learnings! 

 

More background information

On the web is a lot of content that can help you in your hosting work.

First of all you can go to the Art of Hosting website. And you can download our own Art of Hosting Heerlijckyt Journal.

Below you find a page about the World Café User's Guide.

There is a very interesting document made by the Pioneers of Change, called Mapping Dialogue.

About the ongoing Art of Hosting as 'operating system' in the Health Care System in Columbus, Ohio

A poetry-spiritual approach to holding space, by Chris Corrigan: the Tao of Holding Space.

 

My Thursday meeting (by Erik)

The first challenge I had to meet after the AoH training was a meeting on Thursday next. I had talked to several people at the AoH training about the meeting. AoH Belgium couldn’t have come at a better moment!

Prelude

What was the meeting about? Over the past couple of years there have been four efforts to develop a vision for the Flemish agricultural sector. However, up to now, most of these efforts did not lead to action for several reasons. Our small foundation has been awarded a small project to try to align these efforts to be able to take next steps.

We decided to do that in series of five multistakeholder dialogues with input of each of the four visioning projects. We also decided to frame the whole using the theory of transition management, a large-scale system change methodology that is very popular in the Netherlands and increasingly also in the EU (see for example www.drift.eur.nl). For this we invited Prof. Jan Rotmans, the Dutch transition guru, to deliver a lecture.

We brought together a group of 25, including CEOs, top civil servants, NGO people and academics, all from the Flemish agricultural sector. The diversity was so great that never such a group had met before.

My role was to host and facilitate all the dialogues, including the first one. So as you can see, my Thursday meeting was quite a challenge for me. All that was set was the timing: the introductory lecture by Rotmans from 2 to 4 pm for a larger public; a dialogue of the core group of 25 with Rotmans from 4.30 to 6.30 pm; diner from 6.30 to 8 pm; and a closing dialogue from 8 to 9 pm (without Rotmans).

The following questions raged through my head before the meeting (and at the Heerlijkheid):

• How to build ownership and a common understanding of the project among all the participants?
• How to get people to get to know each other?
• How to inspire people such that they would stay on board and come back next time?
• How to make sure that all voices can be heard?
• How to increase the quality of the conversation?

One of my mates was particularly concerned with the third question, that is that some people (particularly from business) would not stick for the whole process.

My harvest from AoH Belgium was rich, but I brought particularly three things to the meeting:

• I was going to center, to be present and make sure that to be aware of what is living or what wants to emerge
• I was not going to overstructure and walk the line between chaos and order, let go and trust and allow new things to emerge
• I was going to be authentic, whatever that would mean; I was not going to be a chameleon.

The meeting

 

The lecture by Rotmans and Q&A from 2 to 4 pm were good, but classical.

In the half hour break we rearranged the room and made a circle. While it was the very first time in my life I had organised a conversation in full circle, I had never any doubt it wouldn’t work. People came back from the break, looked a bit puzzled seeing the chairs arranged in a circle, but without any comment everyone sat down and we started the first conversation, which was a further discussion with Prof. Rotmans on transition management. For introduction I only asked people to say who they were and what their affiliation was. I originally wanted to have a more extended introduction, but at 1.30 pm I was told Prof. Rotmans was to leave at 6 pm instead of 8 pm.

What circle did, is rearrange the group and force everyone to be present. During the lecture, the big guys were typically sitting in the back, having an overview of the whole (they were also late for the lecture) and having the option to opt out. In circle, everyone has an overview of the whole. And everyone was clearly present. You could really sense that.

What circle didn’t do, is create a level playing field for all participants. Those with the loudest voice asked their questions (all of them were men). Also all questions were critical towards the speaker. Nobody that spoke, did so in terms of what would be possible. While very aware of these biases, I kept my intervention at a minimum, that is, acting as a moderator and making sure that those who signalled that they wanted to say something could do so. I had thought a lot about introducing a talking piece, also beforehand, but I felt the group was not ready for that yet.

Having diner (in the same room) really shifted things. People got to know each other and trust emerged.

As a result, the second conversation, also in circle was much more appreciative, also because now the conversation was about the purpose of the project. People that didn't speak before, did so now. Unintentionally, I was very bad in formulating how I saw the purpose, but in fact that was a good thing, because several people restated the purpose in a much better and accurate way, thus increasing the ownership of the project.

Epilogue

On being present

 

Two events shook up my state of presence. First, at the very beginning I got the news that Prof. Rotmans was going to stay 2 hours less, so I had to redesign the process. But I didn't panic or felt in any way disturbed. In fact, I was turning this news into an opportunity: it would give us more time for informal interaction. Second, during the break I called my wife because I knew she would be getting news about her promotion at work. In fact at the very moment I phoned, she told me: hold on, I just got an e-mail, and... yes, I got the promotion! That news was much more emotional, also because I had been coaching her the last couple of weeks. But I immediately got centered and put my mind entirely to the job at hand. In fact, I think the news gave me more energy to take up the challenge of the meeting.

 

On letting go, holding space and embracing chaos as much as order

 

Holding space, that was what I was feeling was my main job that day.  At two times in the conversations, my interventions turned out surprisingly well, while starting off on the wrong foot. For the first conversation, I had hung up a flip stating the core question of the project emphasizing that action should follow a broad basis. Rotmans, taking his view of transition management, critiqued the question stating in fact that the very opposite should be the purpose: for innovation yoy don't need a broad basis, but in fact non-mainstream thinking. Chaos! But in fact, it really pushed people to think deeply about the core question. And probably assisted in building common ground. In the second conversation I reformulated the purpose of the project in a rather clumsy way. Chaos again! What do you mean? But then several people reformulated it in a far better way. Collective intelligence at work!

 

On chameleons

There were a lot of conversations at AoH Belgium about the tension between being authentic and using specific jargon at the one hand and having a larger impact and using more accessible language on the other. I used the metaphor of having to be a chameleon. Many people understood this dilemma and told me I should choose the first option: walk the talk using words that create worlds. But on reflecting on this dilemma now, I wonder whether it isn't possible to do both, for that's the solution to many dilemmas--realising that there isn't one, and that it is possible to transcend it. To have and-and instead of or-or. I think it is possible...

Open Space session AoHosting Europe 4th day

One of the Open Space sessions of the Art of Hosting 'at work' day was a session hosted by Toke and Ria around the idea of gathering AoH practitioners in Europe. Not just for the fun, but for looking deeper into the pattern of AoH and how it is related to the forming of Learning Centers.

As you can see in the picture: it was a very rich conversation!

 

 

A first goal was named: RESTING! Enjoying the company of friends! 

 

It was said that it will not be an Art of Hosting training. The pre-requisite would be that participants at least joined one AoH training. Although we also want to invite non-AoH people. Toke called them 'warriors of opening space'. They have the same intention as AoH has, but maybe they never heard about AoH. But they are welcome if they follow an AoH training, so that we can use the same language.

We will gather in this event from the heart, and in service of the whole.

Next goal was identifyed as the search for the real, deep DNA of AoH. 

 

Can we find the deeper pattern that is stronger and simpler?

The 5 breaths were drawn as a path; related to this DNA. Later Toke draw more related concepts... sorry if I don't know anymore all the details...

We talked about AoH as a language... and related to momentum... 

 

The third goal had to do with our European context.

Europe is a geography;
it is also a Social Project;
and we want to look deeper into the unique contribution of Europe in the world.

And how can we be pro-active out from AoH?

 

As you can see on this detail:

One of the questions that came out of the previous thread was:

What can AoH also be?

Out from this came this:

        A o h o A o H

Art of Hosting on Art of Hosting

 

 

A fourth goal was named as:
to recognise ourselves as community of practice. This means:

Discover and agree on our domain and sought for impact

Form the community - the web of our relationships and response-abilities

Build our practice - activities to pursue, knowledge to document, etc.

 

 

 

 

Finally we came to a conclusion: We will do it!

 

May 2007

in de Heerlijckyt

Callers are Toke, Ria, and George

Co-convenors are:

Lieven, Simone, Jos,

Helen

and we want a harvest team!

 

If spiders unite, they can tie down a lion! 

 

 

 

 

Pictures

Hello, dear ones all. I have uploaded a fat selection of photos to Flickr. You can see them here.

The Seven Little Helpers

The seven little helpers

The line between chaos and order is the connection with life. It is difficult to enter, but whenever you entered it, you feel it. It might vibrate, it vibrates between the Warrior and the Midwife, the chaos and order, and we live it now. Enough of philosophy…
Forget all complexity, all the books, and you are in the centre then what are the essentials?

Be present
Be present, and breathe.
What are some of the ways that we can encourage and support each other to be fully present in the conversation?

For a little hobbit, you might need some more tools…

Find your mates
In Lord of the Rings the only thing Sam could do was to be a friend. ‘Your mates’ is a deeper level than being a team. With your mates you can sit in the fire and you trust your life to them.

Have a good, wicked question:
A wicked question is a question that rocks, a strategic question. A question can change the world. What is peace? Can we live in peace? What is work? What now? A question is the sword of the warrior or the midwife.
What are some of the characteristics of good questions that we can ask of each other, that best serves our inquiry?

Create listening:
Create an open space for listening. How can talking become a true conversation? Only by listening. All technologies combine into the talking piece (or listening piece); that what can make a group listen that otherwise don’t. Please: explore the power of the talking piece!
What are some of the structures and methods that enable us to participate in meaningful conversations?

Harvest!
Sometimes we are so involved in the process that is going on and we forget to harvest; but some people (like Monica and George) will gently nudge…
What are some of the most helpful things we can harvest from our conversations?

Wise decision
If the conversation is not finished, be clear about that. The pressure for results make that many decision that are made are not wise. What if in each community there is a decision that, if they would take it, everything would be simpler. It is not the decision that is made in the boardrooms. Wise has to do with the ability to transform, and also with: who does it serve? I have seen that grandmothers would be in the parliament, and children councils: no decision should be made without these councils.

How do we wish to make our decisions so that they create clarity and wise actions?

DO IT
If we co not act on what we talked about, then something is not whole. The wisdom of convergence, to do what is real…  not too much projects…


Spoken by Toke Moeller
notes from Ria Baeck
Art of Hosting Belgium October 2006

Breath of Divergence and Convergence

During the training Toke shared the story of what is possible with the Art of Hosting in a big change program. He told the story of what happened the last two years in Columbus, Ohio, in the Health Care Sector.

This initiative has a website of its own and you can visit it here. Especially the Executive Summary and the reports of the later assemblies are good reads!

Besides this I want to share the Breaths-story as I heard it two years ago. I find it still very meaningful when you start hosting conversations. Here it is:

The breath of Divergence and Convergence   by Toke Moller.
The breath of Design
June 2004           
Report : Ria Baeck

1. The art of FOREPLAY
= Preparing the ground; the quality of the field = the quality of the yield”
= Tuning in in the event = the art of meeting where people are right now.
If you are going to do this process, describe it to the participants in advance!

= First Breath: checking: Is there a need? No need, don’t do it!
The first point is made by the initiator.
= Core group work: the common purpose is set. The clarity of the purpose gives the right to invite others in; to send the invitation out.

2. The Art of INVITATION = Second Breath :
= with Participants: the invitation for the event is sent + a request to answer some questions (gives a lot of information, questions become clear)

3. ACTUAL EVENT
•    The context: be aware of it! The history, the strategies, ….
•    The core question: this is the point were this big breath is starting; the focus point; but the core question goes on as a red threat trough the whole event.
•    The challenge: right ‘behind’ this core question starts the challenge.
You cannot challenge people if you haven’t done it yourself; challenge the expectations of the participants.
•    The givens: every event has its own borders; they mark the width of this big breath: each method has its limitations, each organisations has its limitations + there are limitations in the heads of the participants: what they think is possible or not. Out of fear, lots of people want ‘to control’ what is happening …
•    The groan zone: people speak about their frustrations = something is happening inside them … Be aware that this will always happen; don’t try to fix it! You better tell in advance that this will happen. Peoples view get shattered. This zone is needed for the opening to emerge; people become aware that they are in a learning environment.
The host team has to go through the groan zone themselves, before they can host it in a group!
Open Space has the ability to deal with the groan zone (the law of the 2 feet, the butterfly …). The art of hosting is not to manage it. As a host:  remember the centre/the purpose!!! + look at the centre, not at the individuals, ground yourself, be calm, speak to the centre.
•    The opening: a lot of learning takes place; there are some personal integration points already.

4. The art of HARVESTING: If there is nothing harvested, people are not satisfied. The individual integration points get connected on a collective level: start of new projects …
•    Results : you can plan the event for two kinds of results (or just one) : for the new projects and/or the connectedness, the trust between the participants.

AFTER THE EVENT
•    next breath: after the closing of the event there will always start another breath : always divergent – convergent ……………

Leadership = two energies that dance together
The masculine: call in the question; stand in the centre of the group = be the warrior!
The feminine: be the midwife = step out of the centre and leave it to the group; get out of the way. You have to allow that people take on their own leadership.
 

AoH experiences (by Nicole)

Official report by Helen

REPORT ON TRAINING ATTENDED

ART OF HOSTING
Conversations that Matter

<!-- Times New Roman -->Held from 11-14 October at Geetbets, in Belgium. Five facilitators, 25 participants.

The subject might seem esoteric, but the Art of Hosting is a profoundly practical and impactful discipline. It enables groups to harness their collective intelligence for the good of the whole and, when practiced regularly, transforms teams into communities in a very short time. The greater the diversity, the better it works!

During the training days we experienced a number of different formats for working in groups. The first three days focused on learning the techniques by engaging with them. The fourth was spent putting them into practice with real cases brought by the participants.

<!-- Times New Roman -->1. Circle

<!-- Times New Roman -->An excellent opening practice to learn the art of active listening and build trust.
Practices: Speak with intention, listen with attention, tend to the well-being of the group.
Four agreements: Listen without judgement; whatever is said in the circle stays in the circle; offer what you can and ask for what you need; silence is also part of the conversation.

<!-- Times New Roman -->2. World Café(1)

<!-- Times New Roman -->A method for creating a living network of collaborative dialogue around questions that matter in real life situations. The more diversity the better.
Operating principles: create hospitable space; explore questions that matter; encourage each person’s contribution; connect diverse people and ideas; listen together for patterns, insights and deeper questions; make collective knowledge visible.
Assumptions: the knowledge and wisdom we need is present and accessible; collective insight evolves from honouring unique contributions, connecting ideas, listening into the middle and noticing deeper themes and questions; the intelligence emerges as the system connects to itself in diverse and creative ways.

<!-- Times New Roman -->3. Open space
<!-- Times New Roman -->Enables all kinds of people, in any kind of organisation, to create inspired meetings and events. Participants create and manage their own agenda of parallel working sessions around a central theme of strategic importance. Very effective with large groups provided there is a real issue to crack.

Powerful questions
Focus attention, intention and energy. They are simple and clear, thought-provoking, they generate energy, focus inquiry, challenge assumptions, open new possibilities and evoke more questions. If you want to kill a good question… answer it. In our organisation, we spend our time seeking to answer questions, and in so doing we close down our field of possibilities and innovation.

Harvesting
At the end of all conversations, there is a rich crop of ideas and wise actions to be harvested. If the fruits are not to be lost, the field must be prepared at the outset, the harvest must be planned, the fruits prepared and processed and fed forward into the next round. Individual reflection and harvesting will raise the level of the collective harvest. In learning processes this can be done intentionally, using a journal.(2)

Chaordic pattern
One common feature that tends to emerge in all the different conversation formats is the eruption of chaos and confusion as an inevitable part of the process. For individuals used to the superficial politeness of the traditional command and control structure, this can be quite uncomfortable the first few times it happens. However, experience shows that this phase is part of a deeper pattern, known as the “chaordic” pattern, which we see at work in living systems. When allowed to run its course, it culminates in levels of self-organisation, performance and commitment that can be quite breath-taking.

Personal reflection: relevance to the Commission
I had already had enough experience of the techniques described above before the training to convince me of their enormous relevance to the work of the Commission. During the four days of this training, I came to appreciate that unless we, as participants in these conversations, are prepared to connect with our humanity, the process will not work. If we can engage, though, individually and collectively we can garner the responsibility and passion needed to move into our future with powerful confidence and effectiveness.

In my nearly 20 years of service I have observed how the Commission organises itself both internally and in its relations with the outside world. We do not have a culture of listening to each other. We are risk averse and trust is low. The good news is that there is a real will to become a learning organisation and the recent experience of the Learning Day on 19 November shows that there are very many colleagues who long to answer this call. I am convinced that the Commission can learn how to host its own conversations, and those that need to be held out in the world, in the spirit of the Art of Hosting. As it does so, it can have an inestimable impact for innovation and renewal in every arena where it chooses to engage.

(1) The Commission has already started to engage in this technique. Two knowledge cafés were held at the Learning Day on October 19, with powerful effects.
(2) The Commission’s burgeoning expertise in making Mind Maps will contribute inestimably to effective harvesting.

In which context do you wish to use the skills you attain during this training?

In which context do you wish to use the skills you attain during this training?

Sander: I’m organising an Business Conference for The Hunger Project end of October and I am looking for a tool to do a 45 min workshop with 250 participants. I was thinking of World Café and I hope to learn (just in time) how I could use that tool.
Besides I’m working with managementteams and groups quite often, so I hope this workshop will be very helpful for me.

Margaret: Within my own organisation, mostly. (translation department for Eur. Union)

Helen: (i) the European Commission
(ii) a center for human emergence in belgium

Erik:
In the classes I teach.
In the university meetings I attend and that I should convene (but I’m not…)
In the conversations I try to convene or help convene in the agricultural and food sector with all kinds of stakeholders (from farmers to politicians)
In an international academic conference I am organizing and that will take place in 2008.
In the “oudercomité” (parents council) I am member of.
In life

Frauke:
- Continue to use it in my current networks: AIESEC, Pioneers of Change, We Are What We Do, Greenpeace
- Maybe even use it more in my professional area or as a profession?!

Jos:
I am helping people in organizations to get a feel for their potential and what blocks them to use this potential. This requires a safe context in which people can connect with each other. The art of hosting can help to create this context.

Hilde:
* Education is a field of interest in my work and in my life.
* Communication and social skills, mediation, intercultural questions
* In writing and storytelling
* Perhaps in a brand-new context, I even can't imagine at this very moment...

Monique:
Hosting sessions with stakeholders and using the feedback to update the Foundation's strategy and focus.

Rik:
- Profess.: Buitenkans: facilitating authentic out-door meeting, learning and getting sense
- Private: family-; friends; groups; community

Julian:
every day family life (5kids)
coaching individuals
systemic coaching
interim or crisis management

Philipp:
* in my professional life, especially in training and consulting projects
* during my social engagement, for example in Pioneers of Change or the Junior Chamber of Commerce
* most probably in my own company within the next 4-5-6 years ...

Dettie:
Every day life: my kids, husband, friends, neighbours, colleagues,...

Hannelore:
I use discoveries, findings and skills 24 hours a day: to enable my inner leader to speak up for the benefit of myself and others. I whish to leave no chances unused to enrich the possibilities.

Jessica:
Directly for the WWf project but in my job in general, and hopefully in my personal life too.

Nicole:
In my professional and social contexts. In situation in which we are asked to connect with each other and participate actively to a project.

Federike:
In my whole life context: personal life, working life and social life in general.

Marie-Bernadette:
- professional:
o in the several meetings we have as a team, especially when I am the ‘chairman’,
o in the ‘network with principals of secundary schools’
- personal:
o in conversations with my children (both adults) and with my friends

George:
I have several contexts. The most immediate is co-hosting a community of AoH practitioners online, in an expanded extension of this space.

Toke:
* In my life and work every day
* In my work with training the art of hosting that I am part of in Denmark, Israel, Boulder, Columbus, Zimbabwe, UK and....
* In hosting many spaces and conversations in the months and years to come .....

Agnes:
I'm working within a university college; the place where I would like to use the attained skills.

What inspired you to participate in this Art of Hosting training?

Sander: It was more like “whom” inspired me to… Anyway: I would like to extend my knowledge of & tools in “meaningful and impactful” facilitating groups. And I’m curious to learn how to inquire on an appreciative way (and what’s new about that).

Margaret: My first experience of the World Café was at the SoL conference in Vienna 2005. For me this is such an effective method that I would like to be able to use a similar approach in my own organisation.

Helen: I have been wanting to participate in such an event for a number of years. Fascination with collective intelligence and awareness of the need to harness it to deal with the complexity we are faced with in today's world.

Erik: Synchronicity: Ria told me about her ideas about The Art of Hosting at the very same moment that I got an important (seemingly trivial) insight about the importance of getting the right people in the conversation from the beginning. But what if the right people are not prepared to engage in deep conversation?

Frauke:
I have participated at the AoH training in Slovenia in July and I would like to reconnect to the AoH community face-to-face to share best practises (one of mine is attached), stories, experiences, and knowledge and to build a stronger personal network of practioners. My AoH was a pretty emotional turning point and my first hosting experiences were quite emotional as well: I need a save space to reflect on and share this experience! 

Jos:
I normally use different forms of hosting mainly to create an environment in which people feel safe and can come together to design the next steps of their endeavour. These experiences have given me insight in the importance of sharing in a dynamic way leading towards co-creation. I would like to expand my experience and insights to work with professionals and to get some additional techniques and methodologies that can inspire the conversations.

I like also to meet other people who are interested in the Art of Hosting and to share with them their practices.

Hilde: 
* the course 'Leadership inside out' (2005 - 2006) with Ria Baeck, Julian Still and Rein Timmermans
* My own expreriences with World Café with teachers, headmasters, and pupils counsellors and social workers in May and June 2006
* Story Catcher (Christina Baldwin)
* I'm reading a book by Karen Armstrong at the moment, about 'myths'. She writes that we are creatures, always looking for the meaning of our lives. Because this is difficult, we invent stories, myths. They enable us to put our lives in a larger context and find the pattern underneath. Finding a way to communicate enables us to create meaning and makes our lives rich and valuable.
That's what artists, writers storytellers and poets do.
* My own quest for real communication

Monique:
I used to be member of the support team of the Change Community within ABN AMRO, a platform where many sessions were organised.
I would like to host sessions within the bank on "community investment", what can you do in supporting local communities in creating a sustainable livelihood, using your bank skills. Also on topics like " do you think the bank needs to invest in communities as a financial institution and how and why.
I would like to host these sessions in a way that people feel free to share, enabling them to create cooperation, take leadership and initiate own actions.

Rik:
I was inspired by the words: 'meaningful conversations'.
For me, there is a black/white difference between non-sense- and contributing conversation. At the first ones I get bored and tired and feel like I'm not belonging to any manhood; at meaning-full conversations I get warm and enthused and grateful, and I feel like coming home.  Behalf of 'retiring' I have often exercised both patience, rebellion, as well as domination and control, as ways to handle non-sense, hackling-tackling-conversions.  Without rejecting the fruits of this exercise, I experience more and more the value of speaking out right my personal needs, also relating to the quality of the conversation, ànd to appeal directly to a certain 'common sense', a spirit of real value, a potential of meaning, yet existing but not expressed in the conversation.
Also some good experiences with circle-; socratic-; non-violent-; and world-café- conversations; and with reading and experiment on 'generative dialogue', showed me there exist useful 'methods' to create meaningful conversations. A course on 'the art of hosting a meaningful conversation' certainly appealed to me to explore further methods and my personal potential to 'create (the circumstances for) meaningful  conversations.
 
Here must be added that 'meaningful' can mean many different things for different persons. For me it means in the first way 'contributing' to the creation of surviving and wellness for mankind and of the world in an holistic way.  I have the impression that at this conference there will be gathered mostly people that see 'meaningful' in a similar way.
Knowing that these people bring rich and different experiences to the conference because they come from different (often-leading-) positions makes me enthused.

Julian:
Ria and a feeling that this is the edge and it will become more important in helping people find their way forward.

Philipp:
* I've got indirectly in touch with the issues quite a couple of times the last months so I'm finally just curious
* additionally I'm always interested to meet new & interesting people who are not only taking the main roads and who are able to think out of their boxes
* and last but not least is the Hosting of good and meaningful conversations one of the main issues I'm dealing with in my job-life

Dettie:
* the training “leadership inside out” in 2005-2006, by Ria Baeck, Rein Timmermans en Julian Still
* the people I met in this training, especially Yvonne.
* the warm feeling you get when you are surrounded by people thinking/feeling alike
* the words “meaningful conversations”

Hannelore:
My non-stop search for dialogue, which was given an extra impuls by the proces we went through in the ‘innerlijk leiderschap’-course.

Jessica:
My colleague Maeve was supposed to go on this course but I have now taken over coordination of the WWF project, which I will be working on with Tatiana. We are interested in the way that Tatiana works and how this can help better, more meaningful engagement with stakeholders.

Nicole:
The Pro Action Café experience in Brussels stimulated my interested in exploring questions, discovering common interests and targets. The will to share ideas and building together solutions.
The wish to apply the concept in my professional and social life.

Federike:
I discovered Open Space last year in Ireland, where I was asked to organise and co-ordinate an Open Space conference on the UN Decade for Education of Sustainable Development. The energy was fantastic and the outcomes were amazing. Then I got inspired by Engage and their Apprentices. I was fascinated by how they are fully present and open to what wants to emerge.
Then Tatiana proposed me to participate as it is going to play a big role in what I am going to do next.

Marie-Bernadette:
-    the training ‘leadership inside out’ in 2005-2006, by Ria Baeck; Julian Still and Rein Timmermans
-    the different models that can be used to have meaningful conversations

George:
I am inspired to give away what I learned from a quarter century of stewarding collective intelligence (CI) in communities of change agents, by working on thre smooth integration of the local and non-lolcal dimensions of CI. Whether online or in person, CI starts with conversations that matter. (My hope is that more and more AoH practititoners will recognize, it doesn't stop there.)

Toke:
* The call of my heart to be available for this pattern and practice in our world
* as well as the invitation from Ria, George and Lieven.
* the call of the participants - and of the times for more conscious and bold hosting of the questions and conversations that needs to take place between us as human beings and as professionals - who have taken some part
of the responsibility for our communities - large or small scale - all levels are important...

Agnes:
The desire to build up an authentic life, where my personal  development and fullfilment  fits with my professional activities. The experience with a woman (R.B.) who seems to be able to live such a life and the experience of a Sequoia meeting.

Poetry to share

Participants of the Art of Hosting (Oct '06 Belgium) started sharing poetry even before the training happened. At a certain point there was an Open Space session on the power of poetry to reach other people: A Poem for Food. The participants were lyrical about it!

Please add your own poetry if you like! (Click on Add Child-page below) Some of them will be used on the Front page of this site. Thanks!