Author: Tenneson Woolf

Appreciating this simplicity from my friends Toke Moeller and Chris Corrigan, good questions that will help you prepare a meeting in a good way.

Purpose

What is the big purpose that we are trying to fulfill?

Harvest

What do you want to harvest?
– in our hands (tangible)?
– in our hearts (intangible)?

Invitation – the most important part of the meeting. “If it about us don’t do it without us.”

What is the inspiring question that will bring people together?
How will we invite people so the know they are needed?

Meeting

What will you do to make the meeting more creative and powerful?

Wise action

How will we make action happen?
– who will help us tune in to the reality of the situation?
– how will people learn together?

I met Thea two months ago at a BALLE Art of Hosting that I was co-leading. Below is what she sent in an email as followup. Inspiring.

We just finished the Biodynamic Conference in Madison and I’m happy to report it was an enormous success. We had over 600 participants and the energy was just buzzing the whole time. After our retreat in September I brought many of the ideas we discussed to the conference planning team, and we were able to incorporate a number of them. I am so grateful to have had those 3 days with all of you and to be able to bring some of the tools and insights we experienced together to the community I work with.

We started on Wednesday with a pre-conference gathering of mentor farmers in our farmer training program — about 30 came from across the US and Canada. I incorporated collective story harvest in the morning, with 5 mentors telling a story of a challenge they encountered working with an apprentice, and how they overcame it. The roles I chose for the listeners were witness, narrative arc, pivotal moments and questions. We had a great harvest after the groups with the same role got to share with each other, and several people came up to me afterwards to say how much they enjoyed it.

We also had small group conversations in the afternoon, focused on the question, “How can we support each other as mentor farmers?” — we had only one round and no tables so it wasn’t really a full world cafe, but still generated some great conversations and a good harvest of possibilities I can help support as we develop the program.

On Thursday I hosted a half-day gathering with about 30 apprentices in our farmer training program. We began with them introducing themselves to each other in pairs, and then introducing the other to the full group. It started the day with a good deal of laughter and a spirit of fun. We then did a world cafe, with two rounds on the question “What is the future asking from us?” and a third round on “What support do we need to do the work we are called to do?” This, too, went over quite well. People enjoyed themselves and seemed to make good connections.

The main conference was Friday-Sunday. I moderated the opening keynote panel on Friday morning, and after four farmers shared about their farms and connection to the sacred element of agriculture, I asked everyone in the audience to turn to someone they didn’t know and ask them “What inspired you from this morning?” as we moved into our 30 minute break. Before the other two keynote addresses on Friday evening and Saturday morning, I offered another conversation topic for a 3 minute conversation with a new person, developed in collaboration with the keynote speaker to help bring people into the mood of what the speaker would be talking about. It was great to have the role of conversation starter throughout the conference, although of course I also had to be the one to cut people off after 3 minutes when they clearly would have loved to talk for much longer.

Before I participated in the Art of Hosting retreat we had already planned to include Open Space on Friday and Saturday afternoons, but after experiencing it with all of you, I was better able to collaborate with the person we brought in to organize it. He made space for about 40 conversations among the 600 people, but I think we had more like 10-15 going on at once — we had a film screening going on concurrently and I think a lot of people were ready to just stare at the lake by 4pm. But those who found their way to conversations seemed to find them very meaningful.

As part of our closing on Sunday, my role was to invite people to form groups of 3 and talk about insights, reflections and burning questions from the conference, this time with 20 minutes to have more of a full conversation. Then I invited people to share with the whole group. There was such a richness in the comments that came forward and I am sure having the opportunity to talk in the small group beforehand contributed to that.

We concluded the conference with a closing ceremony on the conference center’s indoor terrace overlooking Lake Monona. There were several powerful moments but what brought so many of us to tears was everyone singing “Halleluiah” in 4 part harmony together. It is just incredible to be in the midst of 300 ordinary people singing together, the deep bass of so many men’s voices we rarely hear in that way, to be adding a small voice to that immense collective of beautiful sound.

Open-heartedness seemed to be a theme of the conference, and so often throughout the 5 days I felt my heart. People were just so happy to be there, to connect. I know some of that would have happened without all the hosting we incorporated, but I also feel that they were an important contribution toward facilitating those connections and bringing the spirit of the event to the incredible place it reached.

I deeply appreciate the contribution each of you made toward this coming into being, and hope to continue the dialogue.

Warmly,
Thea

Thea Maria Carlson
Education Program Coordinator
Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association

Hosting on Bowen Island, at Rivendell Retreat Centre is always a treat. Last week was no exception. The location — there is something about coming to the edge of a continent, boarding a ferry to an island, and then upon reaching that island, traveling to the top of one of its peaks. In this case, Cates Hill, upon with Rivendell sits. The co-hosts — Chris Corrigan, Caitlin Frost, Teresa Posakony. We have much pattern of hosting together that continues to teach me about hosting a field from a field. The participants — old friends and new friends who have come to learn and practice together.

One of the experiments that I most appreciated was a next level of hosting a Proaction Cafe. Myself, Bill Robb, Kathy Olson Adams, Pong Leung, and Leon Janssen scoped out a new version to offer to the group.

The first version of this that I’ve learned and practiced was from several colleagues in Europe. It is a marriage of Open Space Technology and World Cafe. The first part of the process utilizes Open Space. People naming projects on which they will work. What is different from OST is that there is a set number of groups. These people then become table hosts in a cafe format.

What changed in this evolution was the questions we asked during the rounds of cafe. Rather than asking in Round 1, “What is the quest beneath the project?” we dropped in the model of the Chaordic Stepping Stones and asked people to help fill in the buckets of Need, Purpose, Principles, and a bit on Intended Harvest. We kept the energy of quest, but this model seemed to add some specificity and focus to the table conversations.

With a similar spirit of revision for Round 2, rather than asking “What is missing?” we asked, “What is the further help that you need?” and asked people to fill in the buckets of People, Concept, and Limiting Beliefs. We kept the energy of “missing” and “help needed,” but with added specificity.

Our time was short for a third round on next steps, again inspired by “Structure” from the Chaordic Stepping Stones model. Some time for the table hosts to sit in their learning and to sit with a new group of participants. It was even shorter for a group reflection, but mostly to accommodate a closing ritual with the group, wrapping up the entire gathering.

This aspect of timing is important learning for me. Though I can often run a World Cafe in 1.5 – 2 hours, many of these are about exploring purpose and the context of the times we are in. In Proaction Cafe, I really want 2.5 – 3 hours to fully support the movement of projects into energy. And to reflect some of the learning of the group from the project hosts and from participants.

I’m appreciating this experience and others that experiment with method. Proaction Cafe is really quite a brilliant model for welcoming in a relatively short time, 10-12 coaches and co-thinkers to help move ideas into the energy of action.

There is some inspiring work taking place in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is about public engagement and citizen participation in building a significant centre. I’m aware of it through my friend and colleague Tim Merry. It is well thought out. Involved. Quite beautiful.

The website is here. And a poem, written by Tim that focuses attention and energy on the “why” of democracy. Beautiful.

Redesigning Democracy.

Why?

Because it is already happening.

The collective voice of people is uprising everywhere. On streets, in
schools, in organizations and online. This is the age of mass
participation. The risks of not going with the flow of this moment are
high – isolation, riots, strikes, revolution, fundamentalism.

Citizens can organize themselves now. Let’s organize with them.

One age is past and a new one is uprising. The time of an isolated small
group making decisions for the benefit of the many is gone.

We are all experts.
We are all informed.
We are all connected.
We are all talking.
We do not need anyone to decide our future for us.

Let’s build our containers to make visible this collective voice.
Let build our platforms to launch it.
Let’s amplify the voice of the people to transform the leadership landscape.

Listen leaders and follow us!

We are tired of following you and finding no fulfillment of our dreams.
We know what we want and where we want to go.
The collective is the leader.
The collective has a voice.
We have voted ourselves in.

We ask that you follow in the path of our clarity and join us to make it happen.

Those in town halls, penthouse offices, parliaments, senate houses,
head quarters – notice has been served.
The invitation has been made.
The time is changing.
Join us.
Join in.

The citizens are uprising