Almost half-way through my harvest attempt of my scribbled notes and mind maps from my recent Art of Hosting experience. Here is volume three.
Berkana’s Two Loops – lifecycle of emergence. See the paper by Debbie Frieze and Margaret Wheatley, written to show that networks aren’t enough. We moved around on a large two loops on the floor to see where we were and where others were. Key learning: we host differently depending on where we are meeting the system. Summed up as: right conversation, right time, context. My notes are here and my messy scribbly original is here.
Open Space. We preceded Open Space with an improv similar to this one but with connection and where the next person in the circle taps someone out then moves in with a pose to change the meaning. It was a great way to practice holding form before we moved to holding space. Review of Open Space’s Principles and the Law of two feet. Encouragement that it is okay to be a bumble bee, moving from one conversation to another, cross-pollinating. Or to be a butterfly and perch outside at a table. And the encouragement to think about harvesting the conversation before it begins.
Some insights from one Open Space conversation: we passed a piece to hear from everyone. There were connections to Process Work (shadow = ghost roles, the marginalized voice). Teachings of to listen for use of “we” in groups – don’t disassociate – use I! Gentle language to invite contributions before ending “Any other stories that feel important to share?” Then all the groups reconvened to share our harvests, each shared in their own unique way. A prayer was read for the day’s close and we went into the silent hour, inviting a question to join us for the next hour.
If you were to create a silent hour for yourself today, what question would you invite to join you?