Last week I participated on a team call for those organizing, calling, and hosting and upcoming Art of Hosting in Kariskrona, Sweden. We were towards the end of our call. We asked each other about harvest. What harvest would be helpful? What could we plan on? What tools might we want available as resources? Not having enough time to respond, these questions stuck with me over the weekend. I could hear the voice of my friend Chris Corrigan reminding me to give this full attention. So here are a few resources and thoughts on harvesting that feel important with design teams.
1. What you intend to harvest influences tools you use. If the intention is a report, then that will influence how we gather information. If the intention is relationships, then that will influence the design choices we make.
2. Pay attention to portability and visibility. For those not at the event, what are the forms of harvest that can be shared as further invitation? Are there particular mediums that the system can hear and see better than others? And for those of us at the event, what forms activate the energy that was felt? What can help move an “event” to next levels of scale?
3. Pioneer new forms. I’ve written before about four forms of harvesting: content, process, relationships, and energy field. The most common tradition is content. Reports. The least is energy field, that rewiring that happens for us. Yet, it is the most lasting. See this blogpost from work with a community health organization (the last part) for more.
4. Harvest in partnership with sponsors. Sometimes we have sponsors and organizations that just go along with us. They offer support and partnership for new efforts. They accept our invitation to work with emergence, yet still operate within a planned outcomes political climate.
See also this blogpost inspired by one of my conversations with Chris, his framing of interior and exterior harvests.
