Human to Human

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What is the Art in the Art of Hosting?

While hosting an open-enrollment Art of Hosting at Bowen Island last month, one of my own learning edge questions that arrived was about the art in the art of hosting. It is not a new question. Many of us have been in it for a while. But it was coming stronger for me. Perhaps because of our hosting team — Chris Corrigan, Caitlin Frost, Monica Nissen, David Stevensen. Perhaps inspired by an evening conversation I was in with four participants as one commented, “OK, so it isn’t about the methods. What is it about you guys as hosts?” It was asked in friendship and with appreciation. And it was asked with invitation to mine the tacit parts of hosting, the art.

Chris and I hosted a session in a knowledge cafe the next morning. It was straight-up inquiry. About 20 joined this session. With gratitude for all that participated, here is a bit of what surfaced for me:

– seeing things that others don’t see, AND, trusting that seeing

I’m thinking now of an recent hosting with colleague Nancy Egan and the New York City Department of Education. We had hosted a cafe that really moved people into the beginning of solutions. It was a bit early in the process. It felt like we could go, and needed to go, further into the core need and purpose of their education reform work. And that there was more connecting in relationship that could happen around that shared sense of need. We saw a need to diverge further. The client was concerned, wanting to make sure that those who commited to come would feel the time was “well spent.” We chose to host some triad conversations about what students would tell us about what they most wanted. We harvested these to the whole group. And we then extracted principles for collaboration. Seeing that need to diverge sparked the heartfulness of that group. We trusted that read. It served well.

– being in a daily practice of staying curious

I think of curiosity as a core competency here. It supports another core competency of organizational learning. In the context that we now live in — rapid change, infrastructural change, increased awareness of systemic complexity, urgency — at all levels we need to learn. Individuals, teams, communities. Curiosity is what invites the learning. It is what shifts the “yah but” to “what if?” The daily practice for me includes some grounding principles. There is always more going on than it seems. This alone is strong because of the relational nature of work. The dynamic interaction requires us to retrain to look for conditions and patterns. Much to be curious about with this.

– laugh

I am grateful to Dustin Rivers, a paraticipant, who taught us laughing yoga. The simple space to laugh with each other. And I am grateful to him for naming laughter as a fundamental metric. Several times he commented on the point at which he began to laugh again. I don’t know all of what makes laughter important. It just seems to be a fundamentally enjoyable part of relationships (and the paradox of laughter amidst very serious things) that opens us to new relations with each other. That includes new relations of learning.

– leading from the field

I think this one is related to seeing what others don’t. It is something about showing up and because of who we are, resonating out with that.

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Hosting Humanness in Collective Inquiry

What can humanness be? Also be? What can we discover as we are in collective inquiry? What can we invoke? Create? Co-create?

These are all questions that feel central in my work. They are the kind of questions that are a couple of levels down deep. Beyond methods of participation. Beyond maps and models that support methods of participation. I feel in my heart an evolution of what being human is and can be. Some of it is me, a forty something trying to make sense of life and the shifting world that is personal. Some of it, I feel, is the ever-increasing rate of change in major systems — healthcare, education, government, economics. It is as if these shifts are calling human beings, individually and collectively, to move into next levels. To be more artful and deliberate in our human being, again as individuals and as collectives trying to do something about the major shifts present in society now.

Maria Scordiolou and Sarah Whitely are friends working with much focus on these questions. They are taking these and other questions like them to new levels, particularly as they steward a land, Axladitsa Avatakia near Pelion, Greece. One of the things I see often with Sarah and Maria is their fierce commitment to presencing and letting a source come through them. A tuning fork is an image that comes to mind. Below are a few questions they harvested from a spring gathering of Axlatditsa Guardians. The complete harvest, with more description is here.

What we have sourced – what is at the heart?
Unless we engage our authentic selves, we cannot live the future now
Unless we engage our fullness, we cannot take the leap individually and call in collectively
Unless we tremble collectively, we cannot presence the new
Unless we take a leap together, we cannot access and live the next level of our humanity
Unless we are willing to hold the space open long enough for our collective clarity to emerge, we cannot shift our systems and behaviour for the better
Unless we fuse the streams of practice and inquiry, we cannot see what else is possible and be prepared to meet our chaos
Unless we acknowledge our collective identify, we cannot co-create our real work
Unless we unlearn our complicatedness, we cannot find the simplicity of the next elegant step
Unless we share our new insights immediately, we do not serve evolution
Unless we live through our collective identity, we cannot become whole

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Resources for Educators

Thanks to Helen Santiago, whom I just met in New York City at an event convened by the Department of Education. Helen is with The College Board Leadership Institute for Principals. She is also Executive Director of New Small Schools, which helps increase students’ college readiness. She works with World Cafe and Open Space Technology. Our conversation included focus on how to use organic process and harvest for traditional audiences.

Helen was one of many great people at this event. Here’s a bit on The College Board: This national leadership institute is designed to build the capacity of school leaders to develop and sustain their own practice and help them develop rigorous and nurturing school environments.

Here’s the report she shared with me.

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Invitation — Women Circle on Local Food

An invitation I like that came from Maggie Wright. I love the simplicity. An invitation to gather. Naming it’s existing forms. Naming purpose of local food.

Dear You,

I want to invite you to join in an experiment. This experiment has been going on for thousands of years in many cultures, and is alive today in so many forms in our own culture. It shifts and changes with time, circumstances, and the needs and vision of the people involved. It has been known by many names: a talking circle, a roundtable, a speaking-round-and-round, a support group, a base community…

All of these names point to one truth: the power of gathering intentionally and intimately to know one another, and to understand a problem together. A small number of people, gathering regularly over time, to share the joy, challenge, and hilarity of our very ordinary lives, is immensely powerful and creative. It creates the glue that allows us to courageously and critically examine issues that affect our quality of life together.

We are Michigan women who recognize our land’s potential to nourish our families, our neighborhoods, and our livelihood. We have made it part of our work and our celebration to love the food that we eat, to be aware of where it comes from, and whose labor, whose care and intelligence bring it to our table. We brainstormed a constellation of strong women in this community with a creative commitment to local food and agriculture, and we spoke your name.

We are so grateful for your work and your spirit! If you’d like to drop in on a talking circle, please call or email ______________ to find out when and where we will meet.

May you be happy!
May you be healthy!
May you be at peace!

Thank you!

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Gifts of Circle - Question Cardsasd
Gifts of Circle is 30 short essays divided into 4 sections: 1) Circle's Bigger Purpose, 2) Circle's Practice, 3) Circle's First Requirements, and 4) Circle's Possibility for Men. From the Introduction: "Circle is what I turn to in the most comprehensive stories I know -- the stories of human beings trying to be kind and aware together, trying to make a difference in varied causes for which we need to go well together. Circle is also what I turn to in the most immediate needs that live right in front of me and in front of most of us -- sharing dreams and difficulties, exploring conflicts and coherences. Circle is what I turn to. Circle is what turns us to each other."

Question Cards is an accompanying tool to Gifts of Circle. Each card (34) offers a quote from the corresponding chapter in the book, followed by sample questions to grow your Circle hosting skills and to create connection, courage, and compassionate action among groups you host in Circle.

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In My Nature is a collection of 10 poems. From A Note of Beginning: "This collection of poems arises from the many conversations I've been having about nature. Nature as guide. Nature as wild. Nature as organized. I remain a human being that so appreciates a curious nature in people. That so appreciates questions that pick fruit from inner being, that gather insights and intuitions to a basket, and then brings the to table to be enjoyed and shared over the next week."

This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in In My Nature. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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Most Mornings is a collection of 37 poems. I loved writing them. From the introduction: "This collection of poems comes from some of my sense-making that so often happens in the morning, nurtured by overnight sleep. The poems sample practices. They sample learnings. They sample insights and discoveries. They sample dilemmas and concerns."

This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in Most Mornings. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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