Author: Tenneson Woolf

This weekend I was in a design call for an upcoming Leadership Symposium for a health care system. One of my colleagues, Toke Moeller offered the questions below as a a general framing for an agenda. I have learned there is an art to asking powerful questions and that the questions are a tool to focus a group in its learning and exploring. Eric Vogt, Juanita Brown, and David Isaacs have an excellent article on this topic. What I like about these questions in particular is they come from core assumptions, core process assumptions, about how a system, in this case a health care system, can be in transformative thinking. I’ve noted some of those core assumptions that I see below the questions.

How will we together create our short and long term solutions to care for our future health care system in Ontario?

What am I will to let go of and what am I inspired to contribute to be part of co leading a healthy health care system in Ontario?

What is a wise overall approach and practices that we all are willing to work within, practice and support for us to find the next level of our health care system in Ontario?

Together create — intractable problems and outrageous dreams require social technologies that support working together

Short and long term solutions — the work that we do must be grounded in solutions to real needs and purposes

Care for a system — transformation requires tending not just to the demands of the moment, but to the capacity of a system to support itself, including the relationships

Willing to let go — letting go is a choice; innovation requries some choosing to let go

Inspired to contribute — wisdom comes from many realms; innovative solutions are born from offerings and contributions

Co-leading — the best that we know on solutions that last is that they come from shared ownership and creation

Practice and support — innovative solutions don’t come tested; they come with challenges that require a commitment to practice, a willingness to make mistakes, and an agreement to support each other in levels of unknowing

Wicked article on Greed and Scarcity from Yes Magazine. By Bernard Lietaer. Hard not to be interested in an article on “biggest issues” humanity faces with the doorway of economic systems.

Excellent paper from Toke Moeller and Interchange on applications of the Art of Hosting
Other excellent resources from Interchange

Open Space Technology — Articles and Videos

Life on an AoH Host Team — A helpful description by Teresa Posakony on what it is like to be on a hosting team. Includes some on structure / flow, how to participate, teaching / learning, and working with participant hosting teams.

Guidelines for Calling an Art of Hosting — A few simple steps and rough timelines for people considering calling an AoH.

Arts

Proletariat Theatre — I met Rob Luckau, Company Director, through the Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community. I loved his commitment to building community, theatre being one medium for doing such.

“It is the mission of Proletariat Theatre to provide substantial theatre opportunity, education and experience to people of all communities and socioeconomic backgrounds. We will provide and support quality theatre education and experiences in a helping, learning environment. We value the talent in all individuals and their willingness to learn. We are committed to the development of the artist, actor, writer, techie and director in everyone.”

Articles

The Work of Leadership (Ronald A. Heifetz, Donald L. Laurie) — I love the subtitle: “Leaders do not need to know all the answers. They do need to ask the right questions.” I also like the way this article describes complex problems, “adaptive challenges.” These are not challenges to do more of the same. They are challenges “when our deeply held beliefs are challenged, when the values that made us successful become less relevant…” It also speaks to me to the need to address change from the level of identity. Less from “technical job description.” More from “adaptive learning innovators.”

The Art of Powerful Questions (Eric E. Vogt, Juanita Brown, David Isaacs)

Invitations — For several Art of Hosting Trainings

Tips for Hosting Large Open Space Meetings

Video

Conversation as a Radical Act — Juanita Brown

The Global Mindshift — I like the conciseness of description on the requirement for connection, for global community to be in global challenges.

Harvesting (Chris Corrigan, 3 minutes) — From Tampa Bay Art of Hosting, that Chris and I co-hosted with others in May 2008.

This is a book recommended to me by Vern Woolf. What is alive for me is the general notion that the world and reality is not what it seems. This is something I’ve felt deeply for much of my life. It has led me into many significant paths, including spiritual journeys, and a life of much curiosity. It is a book grounded in science, yet readable for the non-scientist. It is a mind-shifting read, for me, to include deep wonderings (disturbing and compelling) about what is really real.

The book is available here.

A few general ideas that have my attention:

– The universe itself is a kind of giant hologram…projections from a level of reality so beyond our own it is literally beyond both space and time.
– The holographic model helps to make sense of a wide range of phenomena including telepathy, precognition, mystical feelings of oneness, psychokinesis. It also offers alternative explanation about the vastness of memory, recall and forgetting ability, associative memory, photographic memory, and transference of learned skills
– Since Western science has devoted several centuries to not believing in the paranormal, it is not going to surrender its additiction lightly.

A quote that in intriguing:

“Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.” T. H. Huxley

A story:

Early studies by Pribram were about where memories are stored in the brain. Research in the 30s and 40s indicated memories were stored in specific areas of the brain. However, later research contradicted this. Rats trained to find their way through a maze had parts of their brains removed, even drastic and varied sections, but could still find their way through the maze. The conclusion was that memory was distributed throughout the brain. The implication is that the whole is contained in all of the parts, or is available in all of the parts.

Questions:

If holographic films are created by the interference, the intersection of several frequencies, what does this mean for social technologies? I suspect that as we create formats for interaction, for our individual frequencies to show up in general or around specific issues, the whole of the experience becomes available in any of the participants. This has so many implications for sustainable change in large systems that I am just beginning to find words for. Worth noting that “interference” in this is a good thing. It creates the holograph.

In short:

Wow! What a helpful way to see into more of the whole of experience. My intuition tells me this is spot on. A holographic description helps me to have a bit of an anchor in the letting go of the known. A kind of meta framing for a very different world, much different than what I have told myself that it is. And encouragement to continue to see and feel and work with the resonance of people, groups, ideas, places, times.

2009
2008
2007

January 19-20, 2009 — Providence Care
Kingston, Ontario — Leadership Meeting
With Lauri Prest, Bob Stilger, Toke Moeller, Michael Jones, Teresa Posakony

January 22-26, 2009 — International Disciples Women’s Ministries
Greensboro, North Carolina — Biannual Cabinet Meeting
With Adonna Bowman, Judy Row, Patti Case, Teresa Posakony

February 7, 2009 — Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community
Salt Lake City, Utah — Sustainability Summit Core Team

February 19, 2009 — Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community
Salt Lake City, Utah — World Cafe Workshop

March 22-25, 2009 — Art of Hosting: Strengthening Families
Springfield, Illinois — Open Enrollment Training
With Lina Cramer, Renee Jackson, Chris Corrigan, Muryah Baldwin, Teresa Posakony

March 30 – April 2, 2009 — Disciples of Christ
Morgantown, Indiana — Art of Hosting: Creating a Movement for Wholeness
With Patti Case, Linda Gardner, Teresa Posakony

April 16, 2009 — Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community
Salt Lake City Utah — Appreciative Inquiry Workshop

April 27-30, 2009 — Art of Hosting
Ottawa, Ontario — Open Enrollment Training
With Jean Ogilvie, Pamela Shreiver, Allister Hain, Chris Corrigan, Kathy Jourdain, Teresa Posakony

May 14-17, 2009 — Leadership in a Self-Organizing World
Leavenworth, Washington

May 26-29, 2009 — Canadian Labour Congress
Cornwall, Ontario — Education Committee Training
With Tamara Levine, Chris Corrigan, Esther Matte

June 1, 2009 — Providence Care
Kingston, Ontario — Leadership Development Program
With Lauri Prest

June 3-4, 2009 — Providence Care
Kingston, Ontario — Conversational Leadership Workshop
With Lauri Prest, Anny Symes

June 17-21, 2009 — Institute of Noetic Sciences
Tucson, Arizona — Bi Annual Conference World Cafe and Participative Learning
With Kathleen Erickson, Teresa Posakony, Sharon Joy Kleitsch, Jane Gignoux

June 28-July 1, 2009 — Art of Hosting
Gold Lake Mountain, Colorado — For People Asking Urgent Questions About Money Issues
With Martin Siesta, Christina Baldwin, Ann Linnea, Teresa Posakony, Marty Kurtz, Elizabeth Jetton, Dick Wagner

July 3-12, 2009 — Family Vacation
Fairmont, British Columbia

July 16-21, 2009 — Art of Hosting Community of Practice
Bowen Island, British Columbia

July 29 – August 1, 2009 — Disciples of Christ
Indianapolis, Indiana — General Assembly World Cafe and Participative Learning
With Patti Case, Teresa Posakony

August 3-7, 2009 — Camp Valor
Tooele, Utah — Hemophilia Foundation Camp with Isaac

August 27-30, 2009 — Art of Hosting
Wellington, New Zealand — Open Enrollment
With Toke Moeller, Mary-Alice Arthur, Glen Lauder, Helen Emerson

September 3, 2009 — Landcare Research
Auckland, New Zealand — Client Coaching
With Glen Lauder, Wayne Know, Roq Gareau

September 4-5, 2009 — Te Waiora a Tane
Whatipu, New Zealand — Men’s Gathering
With Wayne Knox, Roq Gareau, Glen Lauder

September 18, 2009 — Providence Care
Kingston, Ontario — Conversational Leadership: Thinking Together for a Change
With Roy Romanow, Juanita Brown, Phil Cass, Lauri Prest, Teresa Posakony

September 25, 2009 — Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community
Salt Lake City, Utah — Sustainability Summit
With Ben Mates, Jane Holt

October 15-18, 2009 — Art of Hosting
Vancouver Island, British Columbia — Open Enrollment Training
With Chris Corrigan, Caitlin Frost, Teresa Posakony, David Stevenson, Diana Smith, Nancy McPhee, Paula Beltgens

November 6-7, 2009 — The Canadian Media Guild
Toronto, Ontario — Presidents Council Planning Meeting
With Barb Saxberg, Marc-Philippe Laurin

November 9-11, 2009 — Art of Hosting
Rosendale, New York — Open Enrollment Training
With Nancy Fritsche Eagan, Martin Siesta, Silas Lusias, Kelly McGowan

December 12, 2009 — The Berkana Institute, The Salt Lake Center for Engaging Community
Salt Lake City, Utah — Participative Leadership Appetizer
With Kathy Lung

December 23, 2009 — Family Holiday
Fairmont, British Columbia