The evolution of the Art of Harvesting

> it was just the harvesting tools topic that re-ignited my interest for Evolutionary Nexus.

I am happy that it did. I don't see harvesting as an island, in isolation from the transformative initiatives and communities that it should serve. The fact that the Art of Harvesting forum generated 52 replies so far (many of them quite substantive) is a promising sign. Reading and commenting on them at the Evolutionary Nexus site means that we are just one click away from AoH and other future communities that may choose to set up camp on the soon-to-be ugraded Nexus.

> Maybe if I get more familiar with this content and structure I will be able to contribute

I will be happy to walk through with you the navigation of the site, leading to some of the interesting content that you can find here.

> in a way that is meaningful for both me and the evolutionary nexus community.

I would love to hear about what could be a way of contribution meaningful to you. For example, would you consider taking editorial responsibility for a section or sub-section of the site?

Last Sunday  (Feb.4) we had an exploring and interesting call with (some of) the die-hards of harvesting...  Toke, Monica, George, Chris C, Ria


Technology
Gizmo can record as long as we want. When you end the conversation, think of ending the recording.

Framing this conversation:
1st q: What is cooking for me now?
2nd Q: How to make this harvesting practice sustainable to move it forward?

Check-in question: What is now? T offers a stone as talking piece.
Monica: in a divergence phase now... "it goes soup", with a lot of struggling. Few things: harvesting is such a big field; how do we make holons? From all the richness, how do we make concentrated holons, even to people who were not there? What is useful?

Chris: I'm in a converging phase; with two clients where harvest is the most important thing. One is 'child health care', how to harvest into the system; the other is Boeing -engineers. They understand about integrating. Everything from this conversation here goes right into the design: bringing harvesting consciousness into the people. Both: becoming a community that harvests and a community of harvesters.

George: The difference between the two is important for me. (See here) How to translate the clear vision that I have into practice and into conversation so that it can become alive and improved? Harvesting is nurturing the CI; we need to become professional about it. Improving for ourselves and taking resp. for bringing it to our clients. Keeping track of the best fruits of the harvesting practices. Like IBM's research on sense-making. We as a CoP... value-proposition for different clients...

Toke: I wish we had three days together... so much juice in this. I'm here because of this juice, and because of you as mates. emerging... presencing... beginning to host the harvest .. the moment of moving ahead: being - hosting - harvesting - deciding - acting. It can only be held by a comm.. of practitioners for whom learning is our lifeblood. We are already doing it. Like Chris is doing now. We are the book... emergence can take place. Harvesting for the purpose of peace... I'm very intrigued.

Ria: harvesting for people who are not there - reflecting the learning and change. And: how to harvest collectively in real time; the collective reflection.

Monica: In a community with a strong purpose, the collective harvest is easier. Doing it together makes it a collective aha. In Columbus we went through the transcript with a little group, then the collective harvest became clear. .. the cafe on cafe... Like the ‘observe, observe, observe’ from Scharmer... the rich soup... the next level.. when something becomes clear for the collective. It can be time consuming. One of the preconditions for self-organising, diversity .. being in the rich soup... maybe you need to go there, before the collect harvest is possible?

Chris: How do you harvest the energy of the conversation? Good decisions and good action is done in a good way... they are not harvested... when you learn something in a cafe, you put it into work in your way... how do you harvest of that energy place, from where the action came from? One is to take the form from where it came from (circle on circle) - the form holds something. Two: the possibility into inquiry: we harvest questions, generative ... Matrix of indiv - coll; synchr and asynchr; the integral matrix-interior and exterior reports... how to harvest the interior experience of the actions?

George: we are negotiating our learning edge. I'm longing for a conversation about making this field more accessible and sustainable...AHA will need different capabilities, than the AoH... different harvesting capabilities will be needed. interrelatedness of hosting and harvesting.

Monica: I'm with you in this. Do we need the form - they are powerful - to convey the meaning? If we have entered a deep field... holding a strong intent on harvest is like having a new set of glasses... adding a column for the harvest... one for the outcome... maybe we are hosting the harvest... interior condition of the harvesters is important, a co-creative field... intrigued by Wilber's matrix... harvest some stories of good harvest... we could learn a lot from that I guess.
To quote O’Brien: The quality of the intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener/convener. - How do we strengthen the interior field so it does not close when we go back to the organizational structure / field?
How and when do we make holons - and for what purpose - What is the context and purpose - and what is the space it needs to serve?

Toke: I want to name something: AHA and AoH are two incredible arts, with each own power. We don't understand the fullness yet of harvesting as action. Unless a space has been opened for being in the un-know together, then what is worth harvesting? Now the time has come. G's invitation for an ongoing, stable CoP; or creating a practice of harvesting where people can gather around. AHA and AoH are distinctive, but interwoven. Purpose and context of the harvest? What people does it serve?
From now on: co-create from the start on - hosting and harvesting blended in the design from the beginning on.

G: what is exiting now: two parts of my professional life-work come together. New: doing the harvesting from the depth of hosting; in service of emergence. Maintain the autonomy and individuality of both practices.

T: Yin and Yang: opening and holding the space and then take from the well of that space the fruits. The line in the middle when those two come together, wise action must happen!

Doesn't harvesting need to come from a higher level ...
“hanging in until the next pattern shows up”... we come together to merge into the collective... to sit with it gives birth to the next level of patterns... then sit within that to understand to really see what this pattern is, or understood!

Chris: there are organizations who already understand this pattern. The line that is described now ... U-process.. groan-zone... in teaching: bring the responsibility back to the collective. The collective is self-harvesting. How to become a community that is harvesting? We embody this AoH-pattern, there is presence in it... learn about AHA in our own community too.

Monica: going out and experimenting, prototyping, discovering... AoH is a collective process; now we are holding the beginning of the AHA. Making the artifacts, do the experiments... is crucial to learn.

Time for closing:
Monica: let's continue a-syncronously sharing. Learn from Chris' teachings. Maybe collect stories around harvesting.
George: invitation for Community of Harvesting Practice; beyond our individual practices; to continue the conversation on ENexus, starting with our individual questions.
Chris: thanking you all. Two commitments: I will come to Europe in June; dedicate some reflective time to this. Little gift will be send by email...
Toke: we are moving... plan some good time... we have much practice ground.
Ria: I love to be in this space of emergence and I will chew on one insight: "we come together to merge into the collective... sit with it, give birth to the next level of patterns... then sit within that to understand to really see what this pattern is"

Afterwards it became clear what Chris' gift was: he reserved the domainnames artofharvesting.org and artofharvesting.com.

And George sent around another gift - the ancient yin/yang symbol that enriches our sense of the relationship between hosting and harvesting:

I'm also fascinated by the Art of Harvesting and try to do my part in it.

• I'm writing about it in my blog Seeds for a happy planet. I changed my category to the same as the one Chris is using: "harvesting".
• I use Flickr too, and recently uploaded pictures from the Art of Hosting in Kufunda, early 2007. I used the same tag "artofharvesting" for some of the photos that maybe relevant.

• I just finished to make a creative report from this AoH, that somehow gives the most important points of this training - at least in my view. I'm not sure where would be the best place to share it with others... 

George wrote: "You can harvest the output of brainstorming session, a management meeting, and any one-off event into a single document to give the participants..." 

I'm painfully aware of the fate of such harvesting... it stays in the document. That's why I am holding this question about whether it is possible to plan into a hosting event some kind of agreement on carrying harvesting over into wise action, so that the fruit of the harvest is a desired change in the world, rather than a post-event high followed by disappointment and cynicism because again nothing changed... 

I would very much like you to write more, dear George, about what kind of things one can do to increase the likelihood that members will contribute to increasing the collective capacity to build that valued future.

What are the skillful means that the harvesting team can use? Can we list any yet?

I could suggest the practice of consciously cultivating the power and quality of the field held by the harvesting team (would it be different from that of the hosting team, I wonder?) by doing group attunement practices in preparation for the event...

Certainly engaging in explicit harvesting planning before the event and joint inquiry after the event about harvesting and feeding forward.

Probably these are beginner's questions, but I learn even by asking them...

Would it be useful to also ask, what did we learn so far that we can build on and deepen? For example, I am thinking of Monica's "Five phases of harvesting:"

1.    Preparing the field
2.    Planning the harvest
3.    Picking the fruits: Recording – or Creating a collective memory.
4.    Preparing and processing the fruits: Creating collective meaning and value
5.    Planning the next harvest: Feeding forward

A stream of relevant knowledge from which I may draw and post pieces here as they become pertinent to the conversation is my notes for a concept paper
and invitation to a collaborative research on "Harvesting: Preparing for Emergence in Large Communities that Learn, Virtual and Face-to-face," that I wrote in 1996.

Chris, it is so good to know you are thinking along on this. You wrote: "There are also projects that are using the Art of Hosting "in-house" to support large scale change and evolution." And I'm sure you know about our pet project in Brussels from your conversation with our Duri...

Introducing the AoH to the Commission will be a huge experiment, because if we really mean business (which we do: the world needs it) and if we really want to make it stick, then harvesting has to mean "harvesting into wise action" in short order.

It can't be harvesting to just sit on a website or in a report or document. It can't be harvesting into mere "output" - it has to be harvesting into "impact". Harvesting into a sustained stream of conversation, with action's spinning off as the conversation continues ever onwards.

Which is where I see the connection between AoH trainings and the creation of communities of practice which will continue the practice of hosting and harvesting like an institutional combine harvester...

Ah... well, that's perhaps getting a little grandiose: just following the vision... we need all the help we can get!