Yesterday, I co-hosted another half day appetizer on participative leadership. This was followup to our earlier gathering in December. With both, my colleague and I, Kathy Lung, held the intention of building community in the Salt Lake Valley, offering an experience of participative leadership, and learning together what next levels of practice we can offer to host for the betterment of our local community.
I loved the group that gathered. Twenty-one of us. People who really showed up. Who shared more of who they are. We began with context focused on this valley, this community of place. We offered the bones as I know them of any participative process: setting context, coming present, having a deliberate question, listening together, harvesting, acting, and sealing. And we invited people to be in three practices: sharing stories, welcoming the personal that is the professional and vice versa, and welcoming the second answers that runs a bit deeper.
The circle was really deep. Like all good circles I know, it had the feeling of an expanding spiral. We passed a piece on these questions: Who are you? What is it like to be you? What has your attention now? It created such a good foundation, a good presence, for then shifting into our task of exploring curriculum together. It is so different to proceed right to task. This checkin was rich.
One thing I really liked about this group and gathering is that we worked toward creating a specific product — essential inclusions for a Participative Leadership Series that we will offer March – August of this year. It was a way of creating together. Inviting inspiration together. I found what the group created and shared to be immensely helpful. The harvest is reorienting me on what can be of better use.
Looking forward now to offering and creating next levels of practice through the form of our monthly Leadership Development Series and then a September Art of Hosting deep-dive training.
A few of the harvests yesterday are below. With appreciation for all who participated and to Erin and friends at UCC who offered the space in which to meet.
Invitation
Checkin Circle — Dialogue Poem
What Rocks Cafe — List of Essential lnclusions
What Rocks Cafe — Wordle Word Graphic Generator of Most Common Words
Photos, Flipcharts, Notes
Resources
