Seeds for a happy planet

Lately I start to replace the word sustainability with thrivability, and now I came across the word trivancy. The big English-Dutch dictionary that I have here doesn’t know any of these two words… I expect them to mean the same…

Here is what Jack Ricchiuto (yes, again from him!) writes as part of a longer article:

The good news is that all groups can thrive. The quickest way for groups to experience more thrivancy is to design them for more thrivancy. Like everything else in life, thrivancy happens by design. Things always perform as they’re designed to perform.

The work of designing groups for greater thrivancy is the work of designing the four core elements of a group’s interactional space. When any of the four elements of this space is better designed for thrivancy, groups become smarter and better together.

Jammer dat ik er nu pas van hoor, maar in Genk is een geweldig project aan de gang! Ik heb er pas vandaag van gehoord, maar wil het toch kenbaar maken aan alle Vlamingen die deze blog lezen.
Het project loopt in Genk en zet een veertigtal mensen in, die eerst een training kregen in communicatie en het zijn deze mensen die allerlei gesprekken gaan voeren, gewoon met de mensen die ze tegenkomen.

Zoals Stien schrijft in hun blog: “Niet zomaar het zoveelste inspraakproces, maar een wervelende spiraal van mensen uit alle hoeken van de samenleving die houden van hun stad en zin hebben om andere mensen in beweging te brengen.”

Dat is de echte Art of Hosting spirit – mensen brengen tot zelf-organisatie, en niet over hun hoofden heen. Ik ben zeer blij te horen dat er initiatieven als dit lopen in Vlaanderen! Moest jij er nog andere kennen, laat het aub weten!
Bedankt!

Via the Art of Hosting emaillist Toke send us a harvest document that talks about Participatory Leadership. This is in other language the worldview that we train people in, in The Art of Hosting Meaningful Conversations. Here it is for you to enjoy!

How do you explain participatory leadership in one sentence?

o Imagine… a meeting of 60 people, where in an hour you would have heard everyone and at the end you would have precisely identified the 5 most important points that people are willing to act on together.

o When appropriate, deeper engagement of all in service of our purpose.

o Hierarchy is good for maintenance, participatory leadership is good for innovation and adapting to change.

o Complements the organigramme units with task force work groups on projects.

o Look at how well they did it in ….. – We could be the ones everybody looks at.

o Using all knowledge, expertise, conflicts, etc. available to achieve the common good on any issue.

o It allows to deal with complex issues by using the collective intelligence of all people concerned & getting their buy-in.

o Participatory Leadership is methods, techniques, tips, tricks, tools to evolve, to lead, to create synergy, to share experience, to lead a team, to create a transversal network, to manage a project, an away day, brainstorming, change processes, strategic visions.

o Consult first, write the legislation after.

From Traditional ways of working -> To Participatory leadership complementing

Individuals responsible for decisions -> Using collective intelligence to inform decision-making

No single person has the right answer, but somebody has to decide ->Together we can reach greater clarity - intelligence through diversity

Hierarchical lines of management ->Communities of practice

Wants to create a FAIL-SAFE environment ->Creates a SAFE-FAIL environment that promotes learning

Top-down agenda setting ->Set agenda together

I must speak to be noticed in meetings ->Harvesting what matters, from all sources

Communication in writing only ->Asking questions

Organisation chart determines work ->Task forces/purpose-oriented work in projects

People represent their services ->People are invited as human beings, attracted by the quality of the invitation

One-to-many information meetings ->A participatory process can inform the information!

Great for maintenance, implementation (doing what we know) ->When innovation is needed – learning what we don't know, to move on – engaging with constantly moving targets

Information sharing ->When engagement is needed from all, including those who usually don't contribute much.

Dealing with complaints by forwarding them to the hierarchy for action ->Dealing with complaints directly, with hierarchy trusting that solutions can come from the staff

Consultation through surveys, questionnaires, etc. ->Co-creating solutions together in real time, in presence of the whole system

Top-down ->Bottom-up

Management by control ->Management by trust

Questionnaires (contribution wanted from ...) ->Engagement processes – collective inquiry with stakeholders

Mechanistic ->Organic – if you treat the system like a machine, it responds like a living system

Top down orders – often without full information ->Top-down orders informed by consultation

Resistance to decisions from on high ->Better acceptance of decisions because of involvement

Silos/hierarchical structures ->More networks

Tasks dropped on people ->Follow your passion

Rigid organisation ->Flexible self-organisation

Policy design officer disconnected from stakeholders ->Direct consultation instead of via lobby organisations

People feel unheard/not listened to ->People feel heard

Working without a clear purpose and jumping to solutions ->Collective clarity of purpose is the invisible leader

Motivation via carrot & stick ->Motivation through engagement and ownership

Managing projects, not pre-jects ->Better preparation – going through chaos, open mind, taking account of other ideas

Focused on deliverables ->Focused on purpose – the rest falls into place

Result-oriented ->Purpose-oriented

Seeking answers ->Seeking questions

Pretending/acting ->Showing up as who you are

Broadcasting, boring, painful meetings ->Meetings where every voice is heard, participants leave energised

Chairing, reporting ->Hosting, harvesting, follow-up

Event & time-focused ->Good timing, ongoing conversation & adjustment

Tuesday, in the Kingsmill, the place and Learning  Center that I live in with Judith, Lieven and Chrisje, we started an initiative that we call Café Wonderment.

This Café was born out of the recent Art of Hosting training we organized in Flanders. Since long I have been looking for what would be a good format to let people connect. Not just any people, but the ones in Flanders that are looking to make the new possible. So we came up with a design that includes as first part an introduction of a new or challenging perspective on one of the topics that bothers us all. The second part is having dinner together, which fosters the connection between people and creates also a sense of community. After that we designed a World Café to dive deeper into the topic started earlier.

The topic we were introduced in was: Value Creation through Collaboration. We got an introduction through history, and wondered what collaboration could look like in its next form. Our guide, Geert, introduced us to the model of Steiner – without naming it – in which three fields of life are distinguished. These fields are all interrelated, but it is also worthwhile to see the differences. Geert presented history as a movement of making these areas more and more free and conscious for everybody. He also asked us how these three areas could all be present at the same time and in balance.

The three areas are Spirit Life: the realm of life that deals with vision, beliefs, thinking, inspiration, values, education and so on. Next one is the Area of Law, translated in agreements, rules – the world of how we deal with each other as we make it concrete in these agreements. The last area is the Economic one, that area where we really do something, where we create something tangible, where we can see the actions.

The interesting point was that Geert connected these three areas of life with the three words of the French Revolution: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité – Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood. This means that each area of life has its own basic value or principle and when you mix them up you get into trouble. In the World Café we explored why this was so. Here are the questions we gathered around:
How do you experience Freedom in the spirit realm, and why doesn’t   and brotherhood belong there?
How do you experience Equality in the realm of Law, and why doesn’t Freedom and Brotherhood belong there?
How do you experience Brotherhood in the realm of Economics, and why doesn’t Freedom and Equality belong there?

For most of us it was quite obvious why freedom needs to be in the center of the spirit realm. It is a fluid world, full of potential and possibilities, the world of reflection and inspiration. There is freedom to choose.
It was a little bit more difficult to understand how and why Equality was the grounding principle in the area of Law. I don’t think it is about ‘everybody is equal’, but about everybody needs to have an equal chance in this realm of agreements and rules.

But the next one – Brotherhood – was even harder to understand in the realm of Economics. How to make sense out of that?
Due to two brothers who were present, we started on our table from that experience. You can’t choose who will be your brother, and still we can have love and trust. There seems to be some kind of engagement or commitment involved. It is for sure not free and we aren’t all equal! At the end of the café round it dawned on me that brotherhood in the economic realm could be understood – or maybe needs to be understood – as a brotherhood between all humans on earth. Right in this moment, I think it probably relates not only to humans but to all beings on planet Earth. I’m still not sure what consequences this has for my own economic behavior. I guess I imply a lot of humans and beings when I buy organic food and tend my own garden in a permacultural way. But what does brotherhood mean when I charge my individual clients for a therapy session or when I charge an organization for my hosting work? Would it be enough to agree on the price between both parties? Or is this applying the principle of egality in the setting of the price, and it has nothing to do with brotherhood?
Many questions stay; although I see the value of separating these areas of life with its own principles. It gives more clarity to what fits where.

Another point, that we didn’t talk about, but was raised in the explanation of Geert, was a quote from Tim Merry: Communities are the answer to everything. It became clear that for a healthy community we need to apply these three principles in these three areas of life. They all need each other and are interrelated. My hunch is that brotherhood is the principle that needs the community more than the other two principles… I can’t grasp it right now…

And would sisterhood and brotherhood be the same in this regard? I wonder…

Deze namiddag was het tijd om eens iets praktisch te doen, om aan de lijve te ervaren.
Allemaal de wei op… neem een voorwerp mee waar je op kan staan… en zoek je unieke plekje op…

Mensen waaieren uit, dicht aan het water, aan de muur, in het midden… dan de opdracht om de aanwezige collectieve intelligentie te gebruiken om een gezamenlijk opdracht uit te oefenen: allemaal je plekje vinden maar met blinddoek op!

Wat een opdracht, en wat een leerervaring!

Hier een deel van de oogst:
-    Er was meer nood geweest aan een cirkel, aan reflectie vooraf. In plaats van allemaal in de actie te gaan en onder de tijdsdruk te gaan handelen.
-    Er was te weinig aandacht voor de moeilijkste schakel.
-    Er was veel vertrouwen en er was veel zorg voor mekaar.
-    Er was meer terugkoppeling nodig, meer verbinding tussen de onderdelen
-    Deze onderdelen, elk teampje dat onstond, kreeg een eigen cultuur en een eigen realiteit.
-    Belangrijk is eerst jezelf te hosten, dan pas kan een echte gerichtheid op het geheel ontstaan.

Het lijken ‘gewone’ dingen, maar ze zijn ook oh zo belangrijk! Zeker en vast als we oplossingen moeten vinden voor deze complexe tijden.

Het was een zeer volle dag, met heel veel input, vele vragen, vele gesprekken… maar goed en boeiend. Relaties vormen zich, mensen leren, frankskes vallen…

Donderdag – onze tweede dag in de Art of Hosting training – met het thema van Ver-beeld-ing. Gisteren startten we met de Ver-wonder-ing en morgen gaan we door met Werk-elijkheid.

Een opening… een voorwerp…
Voelen, ervaren, met open aandacht waarnemen…
Ruiken … en proeven…
Slikken…
Een rozijn.

Vraag: Als verbeelding aan de macht is in Vlaanderen, wat gebeurt er dan?

Als Vlamingen kwamen we traag op gang, maar de diepgang van de gesprekken was er zeker niet minder om.

Een bloemlezing

Metamorfose…
Het is niet wat het is, het kan in VRAAG worden gesteld.

Het hosten van de vragen…

De spreekwoordelijke box… een poging tot betekenis maken,
Samen betekenis afchecken
Zien we dezelfde realiteit?
Out of the box
Het leven zijn gang laten gaan

De feitelijkheid van het samen op deze grond te wonen en te leven – dit Vlaanderen – niet oude ideeën erover

Wat heeft je geraakt?
Wat zien we nu bij mekaar komen?

Individuele expressie.. vrolijke kleuren… schoonheid
Het inspirerende… geen vaste structuur
De levensstroom die door alles heen gaat.

De ver-beeld-ing blijft gehoorzaam aan de ver-wonder-ing. Het beeld mag sterven… de verwondering aan de macht, de verbeelding om ze tot expressie te brengen,
Verwondering komt uit het leven…

Vlaanderen is waar we nu leven…
We zetten onze levensvreugde niet vast in een bekende doos.
Wat als we het leven er doorheen laten stromen?

VERWONDEREND VLAANDEREN

Ik leef hier – op deze grond – naast mijn buurman
Verwonderd?
Verwonderend?

Verwondering is drager van het potentieel.

Prettig gestoorde verwarring…
Zoektochten

Kleine en grote verwonde”ring
Niet los van mekaar

Zijn – samen – nu – uniek

Bijna iedereen kan omvallen
Uit mijn hoofd vallen

Stroom zorgt voor drang
Drang laten gebeuren in een licht
Stroom is beweging

Apoligies for my English readers, but we started yesterday our very first Art of Hosting in Dutch; in Flanders. Might seem like a small event, 15 participants and 4 hosts, but to me it is quite meaningful… I have hold the possibility for many years, now it is here, happening!

Vandaag zijn we begonnen met een eerste Art of Hosting in het Nederlands. Een Vlaams avontuur, vier Vlaamse trainers/hosts/gastheren-vrouw…

Al in het eerste gesprek – een World Café rond de vraag van Wat brengt je hier? – kwam er ontroering in mij op… Er zit diepgang in deze groep, en een hoop intelligentie. Mijn hart lijkt te klein om te bevatten wat er hier gaat geboren worden. Maar ik moet het niet bevatten, het mag gewoon stromen…

Uit onze eerste cirkel na de pauze:

Een punt voorbij het spreken
En daarin gaan staan
voorbij ‘een mening hebben’
tussen de regels…

persoonlijke missie en talent komt samen
hoe wordt 1 +1 = 3?
En tegelijk uw plek innemen?

Een roffel
Vreugde dat mensen bij mekaar willen komen – ook al begrijpen ze het niet – maar het willen laten gebeuren

Ik voel een urgentie die vanuit rust ademt

Ieder heeft een eigenheid, iets unieks
Van daaruit kunnen we een veld creëren
Waarin ieder geraakt wordt

Feest van verwondering over de aanwezige kwaliteiten

Ik proef een diep verlangen naar verbinding met een groter geheel
Het comfort van de kleine, bekende kring en de spanning van de grotere kring

Een actief wachten op wat gaat komen

Verhalen… van vroeger, van nu, van morgen…
De relaties mogen nog geboren worden
We zijn nieuwsgierig naar ons verhaal – het wacht op ons. Ieder heeft een draad in het weefsel… in het midden ontstaat ons verhaal

Blije veelkleurigheid
Kleuren die willen samenkomen in een schilderij
Dat iets wil vertellen
Het is om van te genieten
Samen willen schilderen met mooie, blije kleuren

Een zoektocht naar betekenis, naar geluk
Het schilderij geeft hoop

Behoefte aan stilte en alleen-zijn
Parole, parole, parole…
Kijken, horen, voelen

Een delen van ontevredenheid, een zoektocht

Lef! Samen lef opbouwen!
Hoe weven we het lege canvas waarop we samen schilderen?

Verbinding
Van ik naar het collectieve
Open voor mogelijkheden

Ik zie een cirkel van mensen die zich – met hun kwaliteiten – willen verbinden in een proces in  het kader van een hoger plan

Kwaliteiten van de Vlamingen, ze zijn kort en bondig én heel poëtisch
Misschien is het belangrijk hoe we het schilderij samen maken

Het was tijd om naar hier te komen, de mensen zijn hier helemaal en niet in stukken gekapt

Gaan kijken in den hof, daar begint het!

Enorme diversiteit
laat komen wat komt

The first leg of my journey ‘at this side of the pond’, as George would say, has ended. It was an amazing journey.
Arriving here in Canada, in the province of Nova Scotia, with a size bigger than Belgium but only 1 million citizens, the first thing that catched my eyes was: space! Kilometers and kilometers you only see threes, threes, a lake, and threes again. Only now and then a few houses!

We gathered here at The Shire, a learning centre near Yarmouth, with some stewards of the Art of Hosting network. Purpose was to see how a next level, or a next step in governing/stewarding this self-organising web of practitioners could look like, could take form. It is a worldwide question how a self-organising web of people can be guided to the next step of its evolution, that is also in alignment with values as openness, open source, courage, leadership, constant learning etc. We can’t govern ‘old style’, not even ‘new style’. It needs to be ‘emergent style’. It needs to be supportive of the growth, the evolution, the brilliance of the web and all the people in it! This style needs to be an expression of and add to the unfolding of being a learning-full and leader-full network. As someone said in the gathering: I want to be a leader with no followers.

Wouldn’t it be great when everyone was a leader in this way?

This theme is exactly the focus of the workshop I will participate in at the Shambhala Summer Institute in a few days.

I love this learning with others, this collective inquiry that leads us to emergent learning.

I always find it inspiring to read Chris Corrigan’s blog, and especially this recent entry: 30-day learning journey. Chris is a deep learner of life, he is about learning from head till toes. Most of the time you can see his eyes sparkling, and sometimes he get bloody serious. Serious is not the good word here: focused, grounded, standing for his values; that is how he is too.

He shares: “Last month, I was in Ontario with a friend of mine and he asked “What are your goals? What would I see if I talked to you in six months?” I told him that I don’t have any goals, but instead I run these little research projects. I get curious about things and start noticing them in my life and work and I usually use a combination of this blog and a moleskine journal to record my results. It keeps me moving forward.”

I have always felt unconfortable with goals and strategies. For a long time I thought I needed to do something about, needed to develop my masculine side… Since some time I don’t think so anymore. I have developed and learned a lot without setting goals, without using strategies. I go with what attracts me, with what makes me curious, with what becomes clear before my eyes.

And like Chris, there is always some kind of question that somehow guides me. Since last summer I was holding the question: What do I do when I am holding space? I gained some clarity on that, wrote a little on it and I will write more in the following weeks.

Now my question is somehow shifting to: How can I support that the different communities of practice about social technologies become a (bigger) system of influence? This question is ‘taken’ from the article of Meg Wheatley and Debbie Frieze. The communities of practice that I have easy access to: Art of Hosting, World Caf�, Berkana, Open Space. Others might be: Presencing, Appreciative Inquiry, PeertoPeer and maybe more… I plan to have a little learning journey in the summer to start conversations around this question… the learning will be longer than 30 days though.

“We are the system
- the system is not outside ourselves -
it is our own broken relationships that need to heal
- my relationship to myself, to life – to this earth – to the others – to the world -
that is how systemic shifts happen.

I am the need in the world – we are the system – we are the solution.
Meaningful conversations and real learning space heal our relationships.

We are invited to enter living from the heart….
From disrespect to respect,
from I know better to curiousity,
from judging to understanding each other,
from fear to love.
This is what we need to host now between us,
this is part of the Work of anyone who wants to help the world at this time.”
Collective insight during Art of Hosting training in Brazil, December 2007.

In March ‘08 there will be another Art of Hosting training in Belgium, to which you are invited! Look at the website for invitation and registration form.