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How to bring AoH into hierarchical organisations?
Submitted by Ria Baeck on November 1, 2006 - 18:26.
Recently we received a report from a participant from the AoH in Belgium. It is a report on his learnings, but it gives an impression of what is possible in a 'normal' organisation.
Further we received an email from Cathy Walls, we quote part of her mail:
"The question of how we move AOH into hierarchically organizations resonates for me. I have been taking what I know and introducing slowing in the places where I interact with people. I see and feel differences in me and in others and the work we do. I envision exposing people, slowly getting them us to new ways of being together.........getting them ready to try more and learn more. I sense that there is no one way to introduce this to organizations... "
We invite all who are interested to join in this conversation and share your stories, learnings and questions!
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Some little tools
A message from Chris Corrigan (Febr.6, '07)
I have some one page handouts I've sketched up for a training I am doing with a client. Feel free to use them. They're "folksy..."
Cheers,
Chris
More news from Nicole
News from Nicole
Nicole Baussart wrote in an email:
Concerning the Art of Harvesting and interventions of George, Helen and Chris...
I would like to say that I feel also the need to Act and go further. So, harvesting for actions.
Helen said "in the case of the Commission, a valuable harvest would indeed be the sowing of sustainable conversations all over Europe".
For me, the Commission is a collectivity in the collectivity. It is one of the ideal engines to get Europe change/move on. The Commission offers us an extraordinary fertile field that is asking for being used as a tool to move on. It is time to act in collective consciousness and wisdom.
I cultivate my little piece of land as best as I can.
In my small corner, I sow AoH to all azimuths (my department, my office, Tai Chi association…).
I am preparing for mid February an afternoon with my team (13 persons) to bring them to Team Consciousness with the aim to bring them to collective consciousness, looking at the well being altogether at work (and also in their general life/society) and what is the meaning of the word 'work '(is it connected only with our working hours, why…). My focus is to bring effectiveness and well-being at the same time. I still have to think carefully about the technique. I was thinking about OS techn...?
Then, in the association of Tai Chi they asked me for a presentation of AoH. So, I will prepare it for February too. We are searching for projects, a better organisation, connections with other associations, ideas… So AoH is a really good mean/support. Why not an AoH with all the associations in the region so as to empower and to harmonise their skills…?
I am dreaming of hosting conversations among people who do not know anything of "hosting" and "dialogue" concepts... I am spreading/divulgate some thoughts when I go around and it is fantastic to see how people give attention. They are eager and I feel we are eager to evolve, all of us. We only need a start/match.
comment on minimal interventions
Email by Toke:
thank you eric
Taking AoH into the Real World
More email from the AoH list:
Hello Fellow Hosts,
Toke encouraged me to share this story with you. It is the story of my first experience with taking AoH into the Real World - And it was quite an experience for me.
I went to The Art of Hosting on October 25th-27th.. I brought with me my exam-assignment from my school, The Kaospilots in Denmark. I co-created the design at the AoH gathering in partnership with some of the hosts down there. Here the story goes:
I worked with 14 leaders and employees in a HR-department at DSB (The national train company) of Denmark to clarify a on, what people in the department we’re thinking about a huge change process that starts on January 1st, they’re about to go through and
also to figure out how they can handle it and what they’re future might look like. I had my good friend Rowan with, who also parttook in the AoH gathering. Fantastic to experience the power and calmness that partnering gave me.
Before we started the workshop, I had removed all the tables from the room. 1 hour before launch, the boss of the department came in to the room; looked at semi-circle setup of chairs and said: ”Oh, we are going to sit like that!”.
People arrived and during lunch before the workshop nothing much was said. I worried if I would get these people to open up to each other and work together.... The workshop began and the boss gave his power- point slideshow and invited his employees to ”.... take a shower with him!” – To join him in the uncertainty of not-knowing where their forth-coming change-process would take them. He invited them all to participate in figuring out how they together could form their future in their department. It was very evident that, this was an
invitation, that they had not received before working in a company with a very conservative leading-style. Most of the people has worked in DSB over 20 years.
I went through the purpose, results, method etc. And went on to Rules of the workshop. I gave them 4 of my rules and put them into two groups to form their own. It went a bit slow, but we got through and put them up there. Apparently they were not used to working this way....
Finally we got to the point of expectations for me: The check-in with
the question: ”What are you hopes for the next two days?”.... And
voila. Here it went. All of them came forward with their hopes and
dreams. Honest and direct as I experienced them in the interviews, I did prior to the workshop.
Great to experience and the energy rose... Ahhh
I sendt them out on a ”Gå og tal” or ”Walk and talk” with a question
and a partner, that they had gotten eye-contact with in the circle. A
bit reluctant and sceptical, they took the task and went out the
door..... And came back fresh, happy and joking.
They sat down to do a huge collective mindmap on the wall, trying to
illustrate all the question, themes, frustrations etc. they had on
their minds. I explained them the rules: Only 1 person talking at a
time and that the person is entitled to put whatever he/ she wants up
on the map. This was very hard for them to handle and discussions
popped up now and again, when they tried to rules each others
postings. Very interesting to see, how challenging it was for them to
accept each others points of views. The discussions and the
excercise, seemed to frustrate them very much and the air in the
room, was heavy and 30 degrees.. ArrGGhhh... CoFFee Break!
We finished the map and it was satisfying for me to see, that all the
areas, they all had mentioned in the interviews as being Tabu was ”up
there”. It seemed like it had been surprising for them to see all these subjects up there.
I gave them 6 small stickers each for them to located the 6
sub-themes, they thought was most important to talk about. When they
went the room to take a short break, I looked up there and saw, that
4 questions was covered in red (Before this I had had a hard time phrasing
a question to use in the World Café, but then they had formed 4 fantastic
questions on the mindmap and they had opened a path for themselves
to walk down. Fantastic to see)...
We set up a World Café with the 4 Q’s and invited them back in.
At this point, they were very tired with distant looks on their faces!
After giving instructions I sat down and they slowly started to talk
and investigate. The next 1 and half hour, the magic happened. The
atmosphere got loud and excited; them laughing, yelling and
discussing... A major turning point, from down down down on very low
energy-level to exstatic in 20 min. Wow, what a turning point....
We joined in the circle again to check-out. A lady, who in the
morning had said: ”I really have a hard time seeing what I can
contribute with here together with you”, checked out by telling: ”I
have been surprised with my own abilities to contribute and come with
ideas. It has been a great experience for me”...
In the evening I opened a couple of windows to get some fresh air
into the room. When I came back in morning, the storm had blown both
windows open. The rain had poured in and destroyed my computer speaker
and my papers were spread all over the room.... And then the
temperature in the room was a lovely 8 degrees...
Not exactly motivating for the participants, most of them with a
proper headache from the night before.
They looked close to very pethatic, complaining about the polar-
conditions in the room and the fact, that I started the second day at
8.15 AM. Normally that is when they eat breakfast, when they attend
seminars....
I didn’t see them very much on the second day. Sent them out to do an
Open Space with the questions they needed to explore... They came
back and told about their results. Small discussions popped up about
how they should continue, after the workshop and how what they should
tell their colleagues back home... I broke the discussion up and
challenged them to take a collective decision. After some time they
decided how to continue and the persons to be in the project-group;
the driving force for the next couple of years in the change-
process.... Yeah.. They all clapped and smiled and we checked-out…
Here are some of the words:
“We reached further, that I could have dared to hope for”
“I was extremely nervous before this and no idea, what would happen.
We have reached very far and also took a decision. It a easy being
the boss on a day like today”
“I actually feel like a part of our department now and feel like I
know you people now”
“Fuck, so much money we spend on some of the suit-boys we’ve had
here. Ridiculous!”
“I experience, that we have a very strong group. I can throw any ball
into the air and I know one of you will catch it”
That was my story... A wonderful experience and an encouragement
to start my exploration into the magic that happens between people...
Take care,
Anders Østergaard, Denmark
What place do we come from?
Received from Helen in an email:
Dear Friends,
This is a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much, Eric, for offering this pearl to the list. As a small cog in very big organisation, I resonate most strongly with your conundrum. In fact I have just been talking with George Por over breakfast about just this question.
Our conclusion (which of course does not end the debate...), thanks to George's great wisdom and my 20 years of being embedded in that huge hierarchical system (which now has infinite power to press my buttons :-)) is that our effectiveness depends on where we are coming from ourselves. (1) if we are coming from a place of activated emotion about the situation, the individual(s) representing system will react. (2) if we are coming from a place of deep compassion, the individual(s) representing the system are more likely to respond constructively.
Ahhh. My work as my perfect teacher. Gulp!
Helen
Erik, Hello!
On minimal interventions
Many of the AoH “tools”, the portals to the magic, are often difficult to implement as they are perceived as considerable interventions. We have seen several witness accounts by many of us working in similar contexts. I have used the image of being chameleon, trying to bring these lifegiving gifts into these large-scale organisations.
For example, a friend of mine used the word “focus group” instead of “multistakeholder dialogue”, because she claimed her clients would reject the notion of dialogue, only because of the word.
It just doesn't feel right to be a chameleon, because words do create worlds.I have discovered that also smaller interventions may make a big difference. It seems that just using a single word at the right moment in the right conversation may do wonders.
Recently, I had a very important meeting on the new vision of a department. In my view a refocus towards natural resources was the most logical step to do. (Don’t mind the exact context of all this.) But I was very skeptical of how the meeting would go, as I had bad experiences with previous meetings in which people wouldn’t truly listen to each other and no decisions were made. So what should I do? Should I write a memo and send it beforehand. That didn’t work before: people simply didn’t read memos or the context had changed too rapidly, such that part of the memo was no longer relevant. Should I have a thorough discussion with some of the folks to align strategies? That didn’t work before either for several reasons. I surely felt that I couldn't use my magic toolbox.
So an hour before the meeting I decided to let go, to walk the chaordic path by just speaking a single sentence to one particular key person: “So, about the meeting: it’s gonna have be about natural resources, doesn’t it?”. While he first discarded the concept to me, he actually turned out to defend exactly that point in the meeting. I hardly spoke in the meeting. But magic happened in the form of full alignment, something I didn’t expect at all.Of course I have no proof that it was my minimal intervention that made the difference. But it made me wonder about the role of such minimal interventions in AoH. Can they open space? Can such small steps help us for bringing AoH to large-scale hierarchical organisations? I am very curious whether others have similar experiences.
Yours,
Erik
Hearing the call...
Hello Helen, hello dear friends from AoH,
Your message resonates with me. I think we have the same challenge. My organization might be smaller and more recently created, but the hierarchical culture is already deeply ingrained.
For me, what is proving particularly difficult is hearing a clear ‘call’. I would like to be clear about the purpose of the dialogue before organizing it. There is a question I find very helpful in the ‘World Café’ book: ‘What is the real-life situation or need that makes this conversation relevant, and why is it important?’ To answer this I’m talking to people informally here and there.
Some people want a more cooperative culture, some want more recognition and respect, some want more meaningful work, while others believe we need to have some clear direction first before we do anything.
The latter would seem to me to be the strongest case, as the other three concerns would then follow on naturally. But a second problem is that people want concrete action rather than ‘just bla-bla’, as they say. How can we realize that in order to make the action possible (and even to identify the action we need to take), we need to have the dialogue first?
I would be interested to learn whether you are facing similar challenges and how you are approaching them.
Crack into the though(er) spaces
Response by Tenneson:
Thanks Helen. What a great intent that I feel many of us are working with. What a great challenge, the edge I feel, to really crack into the tough(er) spaces. And what a great story for us to be telling with each other. I continue to feel that it is my overall presence that helps me get into those spaces – or at least this is where I feel most of that chaordic confidence….
Tenneson
Target: European Commission
Helen wrote in an email:
"I'm jumping in here as a newbie to hosting, and tingling with all your gifts!
I, too, am intensely curious about how to bring AoH into large, hierarchical organisations. My target is the European Commission - challenged with an immense diversity of cultures as well as some pretty heavy command and control structures, on the one hand and yet stirring and calling for something more flexible, agile and humane... Thankfully we're not alone - the guiding hands of George and Toke have already helped us take the first steps.
It's all just starting and everything's to play for. Your wisdom, insights and admonitions will be most welcome!"
Helen