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.