Life on an AoH Host Team

Offered by Tenneson Wolf and Teresa Posakony

Stepping into an AoH host team is stepping into a few days of “co-creation.”  The art of hosting the practice space – the dojo of the Art of Hosting is what being on a host team is all about.   There are some roles we step into create the “dojo” – or the practice field.
 
The art of hosting is about becoming a leaderful community where the leadership is offered from everywhere in the circle.   It is rooted in the belief that everyone is a host of conversation, each of us bring into the space questions to inquire around, and that we together can create a rich field of learning, friendship, and work.
 
Our team helps create this field by listening well into the purpose and flow.  We work to stay present with what really wants to happen here and to be dynamically in tune with what is needed by host teams and in the day.  It’s always way more than we could ever imagine.
 
Art of Hosting is a “practicum” – it’s about each person stepping into our next level of practice.   Our roles in creating the space of practicum are:

• To have a structure/flow in mind for the days that gives us freedom to create but we know where we are going.
• To be here as co-learners hosting our own questions and learning edges, joining others in their inquiries (participate).  Our being not “apart” but “part” of the field of inquiry is very important for the leaderful community to emerge.  Where is our energy, our curiousity, our passion, our dream, our practical next step.  To create many hosting opportunities, offer invitations and support the teams well as coach/client. 
• To offer core AoH models/maps/frameworks in plenary space, open space, coaching spaces and as people are working on their own hosting challenges.
• Practicing – be a community of practice around the work… what are people designing beyond this AoH, where do we join? Doing the work, not just talking about it.

Structure/Flow:
Tenneson has written about what typically happens in an art of hosting.  There are some of the elements of structure we work with as a host team.

• Each Art of Hosting has a unique purpose – we name this up front as a core team and work with it over the days.   We also keep listening/sensing into that purpose through the days together.
• Theme of the days: As a team we work with the purpose and name themes for each day.  This is the “challenge” for the day.    Day hosts refine these and work with these in the design.
• Day Hosts:  2-3 of us hold point for each day – this means creating the high level flow for the day and making sure the day flows with integrity (offer the opening and challenge for the day, who’s teaching, do we have hosting teams, who are the coaches and clients,  are we needing to adjust times, what is emerging in the design that is juicy, how do we close well.)  For the first day this also often means hosting a session, for the last day it often means doing the design along the way with participants, so others have the freedom to just participant.
• AoH has said it’s about a few key methods/processes:  World Café, Open Space, Circle, and Appreciative Inquiry.  There are always elements of each of these within an AoH.  Lately we’ve been doing more open space particularly when there is work that needs to get done.  In the NY AoH we did 3 open space sessions and much of the sharing of  models/maps/frameworks went within open space.   The desire is to work with all three methodologies well.  To have them experience each in a quality way.  If possible to have 2 OS, 2 WC, and an experience of deeper circle council.    
• There are key frameworks:  One of the challenges is deciding what to teach/offer in the full circle.  There are now so many maps/models.   Ones that frequently are offered in the full circle are: Chaordic Path, Diverge/Converge, and Four Fold Practice.  Five breaths tries to get in as does Chaordic Stepping stones and Art of Harvesting.  Other find their way into open space, harvesting team work, lunches, morning practice, etc, etc.

 
Participate:

• I love being part of AoH host teams because I learn so much.  Being fully present to my own learning and my own inquiry and my own curiosity is one of the most important thingsJ  This is one of the way we contribute to being a leaderful field/community.
• Hold space, hold intention – Are we there yet?
• Step in – do a harvest, host morning session, make art, make music, make a trail of chocolate, invite others to join you in…

Teaching/Learning:

• Presence: our own work with presencing, being present, speaking from wholeness/heart, meeting others in place of presence is the first essential conditionJ  Who is really here? what are they really up to?  What wants to happen? What can we learn? Who can we be? What might we do?

• AoH comes from an Oral Tradition of sharing our stories and what we’ve found helpful as we’ve been hosting in the world.  Thus we teach from the circle as part of the circle and from the place of story.  It is really an offering and creating a space for inquiry.  

• Our sharing of models/maps/frameworks happens

• within teams (harvest team works on art of harvesting for example)
• in the full circle
• in open space called as a session or as we’re in a session and a model might be useful.
• As moments of reflection – when we just finished a World Café talking about world café and what we learned and what matters.  After check-in talking about a couple points of circle practice
• As part of coaching for the teams.

• There are a few levels of experiencing/learning about the models:

o    Experiencing it as a participant.
o    Hosting and being part of a host team.
o    Hearing in large group reflections of how was that what did we learn about this form.  Where would it work well.
o    Knowledge Café: Another thing we’ve been doing recently is having a session early within the AoH where people can learn more about one of the models.  It’s a place to ask questions and get to know the basics.
o    Preparing self for what it would take to host back home.

• The Journal is a teaching tool.  Trying to bring people intentionally into it as a host when we are experiencing something.  Using it at the end of the day to walk through all we learned and talking about it as a resource beyond the event.

Working with PARTICIPANT Hosting Teams:

There are two roles working with host teams.  Coach and Client:

Coach: is the one that works closely with the team.  Talks with them about design supports them as they crack the question, coaches them around all the things they need to do to offer the café/os/circle.  Provides coaching resources. Walks through their plans with them and coaches it forward.   After the hosting the coach re-convenes with the team to debrief and provide feedback as well as ideas for what else to do in the future.  Helps the team work with simplicity, ease, beauty, and playfulness…  watch everything show up that is needed – even through the groan zones.

Client: The client is often one of the day hosts who is clear on the purpose of the café and what it will look like when it is successful.  They share this with the team (often also mapping diverge/converge) as well perhaps insight they have on the question.  They also name what method to use (this is a café).  Client gives initial framing, checks in with the team at least once prior to the hosting to answer questions etc, and provides feedback to the team after the event.   We’ve found this role, though somewhat artificial, helps the team to work better together as some elements for what success looks like are established and the team can move forward with more ease.