Author: Tenneson Woolf

It is no surprise that friend and fellow traveler Chris Corrigan would add some of his experience to what I posted from Debbie Frieze. He is a deep thinker, big open heart, and amazing connector — it comes from living attentitively. When I read these, I could immediately see openings for people I work with and my own understanding — a killer set of principles that can invite conversation and relation and creation. See Chris’ full description of an approach to facilitation. Very helpful.

If I look for the one, the most simple in this, my first hit is that these all serve a principle of wholeness. Mine. Yours. Ours. I find myself asking — what if all that I did, that we did, were a commitment and practice of restorying, restoring, and amplifying wholeness?

• The wisdom we need right now is in the room.
• Facilitation is not a directive practice, but rather a practice of creating and holding a container for the group’s wisdom to emerge.
• To get to truly creative solutions we must invite chaos and order to play together.
• Leadership is about inviting passion and responsibility into the process and supporting connections for action.
• The process serves the group and needs to be carefully planned but should remain totally invisible.
• Co-creation is the best way to get to wise action.
• Process and content are equally important.
• For a system or a group to function well it needs to be learning from its experience.
• Groups are living systems, not mechanical systems.
• All good work done in the world depends on good collaboration. Good work therefore is about both quality content and quality process.

Debbie Frieze is among many things, Co-President of The Berkana Institute. She and Tim Merry and I co-hosted a recent Art of Hosting training in Boston. One unique aspect of this AoH was the deliberate weaving of Berkana Exchange stories, maps, and models with AoH stories, maps, and models. I was very moved by one piece in particular — the change model that Debbie shared (S-curve) and the framing of what helps us get to emergence. Debbie spoke several stories of people working with little to nothing to create vibrant local communities, and, connect into global community of practice. For me this was also a strong framing about creating systems of influence.

I asked Debbie what she has learned are some of those key principles (and the stories are really moving). I’m finding myself telling these quite a bit since our event. She shared the following:

· Start anywhere, follow it everywhere. (Courtesy of Myron Kellner-Rogers.)
· The leaders we need are already here. (Meg Wheatley)
· We have what we need.
· We make our path by walking it.
· We walk at the pace of the slowest. (Zapatistas)
· We are learning how to live the future now. (We are creating the worlds we want today.)
· We listen, even to the whispers.

A collection of ideas / quotes that are showing up to me through readings, friends, etc. Good for lots, including inviting presence and sealing energy in checkouts.

* Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go out and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Howard Thurman

I’m at the Essex Conference and Retreat Center for an Art of Hosting called by Berkana. The theme is Taking Social Innovation to Scale — I’m really excited about it. New ground to weave Berkana and Art of Hosting. To get a sense of who was coming, I mapped the participants responses to three questions. These responses carry a lot of energy and give me a glimpse into a deeper level of purpose. Very cool to think of this mix, this group of people focused on this theme, and where this kind of work is showing up in the world.

First, the organizations…
Leave Out ViolencE, Altarum, Center for Trauma Intervention, Christian Church, Department of Mental Retardation, New Prosperity Initiatiative, Sustainable Cape Ann, Samaya Consulting, Asset-Based Community Development, Seacoast Attunement Practitioners, Common Ground New Zealand, Fleming School, Spirit Beam Writers, Generative Change Community, North Shore Community College.

Second, why did you choose to accept this invitation? A few patterns I notice…
Wanting to deepen facilitation skills to work with groups; fellowship with peers to play ideas with each other; application to particular fields like public health, nursing, sustainability; build a community of practice in the Cambridge area; to take talk to action; to practice dialogue as a potent and powerful tool.

Third, what burning questions do you have? Again, patterns…
So much here about application, tools, diving deeper into purpose, connection that transcends, developing an ongoing process of creation and learning.

Last, what projects are you using this in? I love this…
Strategic planning; working with youth; HIV / AIDS; Homelessness; 2008 Reunion on Sustainability; Meadowlark Institute for Social Change in North Dakota; Portsmouth Art of Hosting; Management Development; Nursing Screenplay and Videos; Center for Engaging Community; Social Artistry; School District; Women’s Leadership; World Cafe for 3,000 people at 2009 Assembly; Non-violent Traditions to Climate Change; Strategic Plan for Global Warming in Oceanside Communities; Generation Y; Shifting an old building to a community center; Protecting Wilderness.

One little taste of the diversity that shows up at this Art of Hosting. There are about15 people from the Boston or NE area. About 15 have come from other areas.