Well, it’s a long answer. What I love about the Art of Hosting is that it is made of a global community of practice of people who are learning about “participatory leadership: in all kinds of guises. When we talk about the Art of Hosting, we are referring to a practice that includes four pillars: self-hosting (personal practice), participation (in dialogue and community), hosting others and co-creation. So it’s more of a leadership practice than a facilitation workshop. Yes, we teach about and use methods like OST, World Cafe and circle among others, but I don’t tell people it’s a facilitation workshop. Instead they get hosted in these method, a chance to practice using it, and a chance to be coached and dive more deeply into it.
Art of Hosting workshops also explore worldviews and theory about complexity and living systems, and we also use a number of different design tools for organizing strategic initiatives, whether it is hosting a single conversation or planning a longer term project, all of which are based on keeping participation at the centre of the work. So it’s not really a facilitation workshop. I tell people that pretty clearly. What I do say is that our goal is to have people leave an Art of Hosting workshop as a practitioner, meaning that they go back to their daily lives with a focus to develop some aspect of their leadership: it could be facilitation or participating in dialogue or just good personal practice. Some of those people catch fire as facilitators, and start or continue on a path of developing their own practice. I have never seen a facilitation workshop that makes you a skillful facilitator. Facilitation is an art that can only be learned by doing it. There is no way anyone can directly transmit quality skills in a workshop. Instead, what many experience is an offering that helps them ground their practice in good theory and personal practice. And that CAN help people in their facilitation practice (it certainly did in mine, as did Birgitt’s workshops that I took with here in 1999/2000). It’s not the workshops that make you a better facilitator, but the experience of pausing to reflect, learn and integrate your practice and maybe learn one or two new things. This is why we don’t certify people. You can’t certify people after taking a single workshop. A real learner will probably do a poor job the first time they facilitate a meeting, regardless of the training they have had, because they start raw and get better. You don’t paint a Mona Lisa the first time you try. It is impossible to say how well-equipped anyone is leaving any facilitation workshop. That all depends on the person, the workshop and the context of their next gig. They might subsequently do a great job in a Boardroom meeting, be lost in a community OST setting and then nail a corporate World Cafe. How much of that is down to a “training?” I would never dare promise that anyone will be “well-equipped” and I wouldn’t trust anyone who said they could equip a person to facilitate well in any context after a single workshop. As for the methods, we introduce them through experience rather than talking about them much. Usually most Art of Hosting workshops I have done have included a full half day Open Space, a full two hour World Cafe and small group Circle practice of at least an hour. We also usually do a half day Pro-Action Cafe as well. Yes each of these methods has it’s integrity, but in the Art of Hosting, we are exploring the “river beneath the river.” IN other words, what are the leadership stances that these methods imply or rely on? AoH is not the only place where you can dive in like this: Genuine Contact is another, Christine Whitney-Sanchez offers a workshop on a similar inquiry and I’m sure many many others do too. These are really interesting questions because for me, the effectiveness of these methods points to bigger implications for how we lead and organize in the world. Being curious about that is where Art of Hosting came from. These methods are actually easy to learn. Read the user’s guides and do and do it. The best way to become a skilled facilitator is to go out and host conversations. The best way to learn Open Space is to run one. Most of us who have been facilitating OST for a long time for example learned because we were curious and we were hosted well in an OST meeting. And so in the Art of Hosting, we try to give people a quality experience of each method so that, if they are there to learn the method, they get a participant’s eye view of the process and they can then go and learn more. The reason I am offering an Open Space Technology workshop is that people have asked me to. And so I have put together a little workshop to be in Open Space, to look at good pre-work and explore the mysterious practice of “holding space.” You’d have to ask why people are coming to find out the value for them. For me it’s a chance to dive into this method I love, and learn more about it from the perspective of 20 years of facilitating it and to share my curiosity with others who are curious too. I do want people leaving this workshop to be able to step up and design and host an Open Space Technology meeting well, and so it’s different from the Art of Hosting, in that I want to support people’s skill in using this method well. Folks who come will always be able to call me and bounce around ideas, and I sure hope they’ll show up here too and ask questions. Their practice will thrive in a community of mentors. The work we all do is artisanal. Ultimately a practitioner-artist develops because of mentorship, practice, “performance" and reflection, the same as in any art, not technical proficiency. I am offering an Open Space Technology method training because some people are interested in spending two days with others talking about and experiencing it and then developing their practice. It is the first time I have done such a thing in ten years or so, and I’m a mixture of excited and nervous. Chris > On Jan 28, 2016, at 12:43 AM, Michael M Pannwitz via OSList > <oslist@lists.openspacetech.org> wrote: > > Dear Raffi, > > a long time ago, I once offered an OST Training. It was far too much work and > I did not really feel well in the twin role of sponsor and facilitator. > > At that time I asked myself: why? > The answer was that I will not offer trainings and started asking myself why > others do offer all kinds of trainings on or with or whatever ost. > > Shortly after my decision - happily involved in facilitating os events - I > was hired to be the "trainer" for an ost-training. That felt ok for me. It > was also hard work but more fun. And some additional income which I invested > in such hobbies as the os world map, publishing a book and translating some... > > I also wonder why any of us "offer" ost trainings especially in the light of > the apparently widely spread notion of not "offering" ost? > > Greetings and hugs to you in San Diego > mmp > > > > > On 28.01.2016 01:52, Raffi Aftandelian via OSList wrote: >> Chris, >> this sounds like a fascinating offering! >> >> I'd love to make it some day to one of your trainings. And I will. >> >> I'm curious about one thing-- It looks like - in the past, at least- you >> have tended to offer Art of Hosting workshops or to offer them far more >> than an OST workshop. >> >> And so, I'm curious about this choice to offer this workshop. >> >> The reason I ask- is that I have spoken to a number of people- >> experienced facilitators- who have taken the AoH workshop and some of >> them have expressed concern about how - among other things- AoH >> introduces several different approaches all at the same time. And yet >> each of these approaches has its own integrity (its own "form" and >> "essence" to borrow Birgitt Williams' terms). >> >> And that I have wondered how well-equipped someone is to facilitate >> after taking an AoH... >> >> Thanks for offering this workshop! >> warmly, >> raffi >> >> ************** >> There is a societal ill that Pindostani civilization is loathe to >> acknowledge. It is far more dangerous than hubris. We call itfalse >> immodesty. >> >> From The Pindostani Primer: Celebrating Being Amerikan as a Generative >> Pejorative. By Imam Aftandollah the Overimpressive >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> OSList mailing list >> To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org >> To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org >> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: >> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org >> Past archives can be viewed here: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org >> > > -- > Michael M Pannwitz > Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany > ++49 - 30-772 8000 > > > > Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 402 resident Open Space > Workers in 67 countries working in a total of 143 countries worldwide: > www.openspaceworldmap.org > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org > To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > Past archives can be viewed here: > http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org Past archives can be viewed here: http://www.mail-archive.com/oslist@lists.openspacetech.org
