Art of Hosting
19 August - 22 August 19 - 22 20152015
FACILITATION & PARTICIPATORY LEADERSHIP SUMMER SCHOOL ON
The Art of Hosting & Harvesting Conversations & Work that Matters
Finding ways to balance inequality In this time of challenge and even crisis in so many facets of life, how can we invite more equality and inclusion? Participatory practice offers a way to support people taking wiser action together through hosting and participating in conversations that matter. True to the spirit of European Forum Alpbach, the Art of Hosting invites to conversations that can help change the future.
Scholarship holders seed new ways to work Half of the participants at the Summer School were scholarship holders. They were intentionally chosen to help take participatory practice into application during the European Forum Alpbach and beyond. And as they return home, these practices — along with the working relationships they have forged in the learning — will travel with them.
Participatory practice supports the Forum Eighty seven people took part in the Summer School, but the learning didn’t stop there. Participants stepped up to support many other events during the Forum including the Health, Higher Education and Economic Symposiums, Bar Camp, and a meeting between Austrian mayors on the refugee issue. European Forum Alpbach 2015
Putting the focus on participation & participatory leadership Looking back to the beginnings of European Forum Alpbach, the founders would have been pleased to see the energy and engagement surrounding the Summer School on Facilitation & Participatory Leadership. Why is it important to focus on this now? “We live in a world of extreme complexity, a world in which ordinary citizens feel they are losing touch with decision makers and hierarchies. Mistrust is a trend,” says Philippe Narval, EFA’s Managing Director. “If we want to overcome multiple crises we need to go into active conversation on all levels. In organisations internally, on regional levels, national levels, European-wide. We want to get people ready and we believe we have no time to waste.
“Basically we need to scale capacity on participatory processes, on
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19 - 22 August 2015 collaboration, on facilitating complex problem solving. Perhaps 10% of our problems need specialists. 90% can be solved by people who are involved in their organisations and start tackling the problems that face them. “Art of Hosting has one big advantage: In a very condensed fashion you can train people very quickly and give an immediate chance to move into practice. And one can learn from peers and exchange experiences. You don’t need to go to an expensive business school to learn about positive leadership. All it takes is 4 days, an open mind and the opportunity to practice.”
A vibrant group of changemakers
Art of Hosting practitioners can be found all over the world and in all types of environments from local government practitioners in Sweden and Scotland and officials within the European Commission, to people at all levels of business organisations, and peace practitioners in Côte d’Ivoire — wherever people need powerful conversations that matter to create wiser action together.
Summer School begins…
Participants in the Summer School came from all over the world and represented the diversity of Forum Alpbach:
The room was full, both of excitement and curiosity, as eightyseven people gathered for the first introduction round of the Summer School for Facilitation & Participatory Leadership. Some were well-seasoned Forum “I’ve been to Alpbach • 40 were Scholarship Alpbach attendees wanting to gain new skills and four times, but I have deepen their contribution to the event. Others were holders, chosen for never learned as much their talents, drive and first timers enticed by the possibility of collective in the first three days as this time.” spark learning within the Forum Alpbach promise of leading edge conversation and fascinating people. As • 30 came from the private people spoke in smaller circles, it became clear that many and public sectors and from participants were coming both with the intention to explore Civil Society. They represented working in a more participatory way and with important projects a diversity of organisations and they wanted support on. They were also hoping to find individuals connections and project partners to take their work to the next level. • 19 nationalities were in the room • Our most seasoned participant
has attended the Forum 12 times and there were also many first timers • The international Hosting Team
were themselves a picture of diversity, coming from as far away as New Zealand and as close as the next valley to Alpbach.
European Forum Alpbach 2015
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Day One
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Our first full day together began with a World Café conversation exploring the questions: Where do I see inequality in the world? and What does participatory leadership have to do with it? The conversation was deep and vibrant as people gained new perspectives, built connections and began to dig into the ways that inequality could be impacted through the use of participatory leadership. Here are some highlights: CONCEPTS DIVERSITY - INEQUALITY • Inequality - Diversity - Injustice are all different concepts • New ideas and innovations to transform inequality into diversity • Participation makes inequality visible and finds better solutions NEW AND OLD FORMS OF LEADERSHIP • Leadership as a dialogue to achieve responsible contributions • The nature of participatory leadership is rooted in equality - the underlying assumption is that everyone has something of value to contribute • People are tired of hierarchies we need new forms of democratic organisation BOUNDARIES • Safely transcending boundaries • Disagreement vs consensus: what is the right amount? • Participatory leadership helps to mitigate the power gradient • How much inequality is good for progress? INCLUSION • From speaking to listening to meaningful action • Participatory leadership is a chance to see, build opinion and to build willingness to change inequality • Inequality leads to exclusion. Being heard is the basis for giving people equal chances • Common creation of the rules of the game PROMOTING DIALOGUE • Participatory leadership gives the opportunity to see things from different angles. • Bringing everyone to the table to talk about needs • Dialogue needs to be equal, safe and trustful
At the heart of participatory practice Art of Hosting works with a suite of methods to support groups to make sense and create action together. • Working in Circle helps groups
to get to know each other, check in on how the work together is going, and take stock • World Café is a great way to
dig into the topic we want to focus on and to begin to weave our community conversation, or meet different views on an issue • When we want to enhance our
collective capacity and strength, using Appreciative Inquiry helps to remind us of times when we experienced being at our best • Open Space Technology is a
light but effective structure for everyone to invite others into conversations about what they have passion about and are prepared to take responsibility for • Our collective wisdom and
capacity is enhanced when we consult and sift our stories of practice, organisation and communities through Collective Story Harvest. European Forum Alpbach 2015
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What’s behind the Art of Participatory Leadership? Next we took a look at some of the foundations of this way of working. Participatory practice is especially effective in complexity and where people need to work together on knotty and inter-related problems. The Art of Hosting takes its worldview in part from living systems theory, complexity science and Dee Hock’s work naming the chaordic path. Building capacity for people at all levels of organisation and society to host and harvest conversations that matter and lead to wiser action is the intention. An afternoon in Open Space
What’s behind Art of Hosting?
During the afternoon, the group was invited into Open Space to explore questions, practice or projects to support their participatory leadership practice. Thirteen topics were proposed and posted. Using the basic principles and the “law of two feet”, people moved to and between the sessions that most called their attention. Here were the topics:
Art of Hosting may seem like a toolkit of methods, but it is really a practice anyone can learn, and the aim of the Summer School was to support participants to start practicing.
• Efficiency, decision making and participatory leadership: a conflict or a recipe for success? •Dealing with emotional responses to corporate downsizing: How might Art of Hosting help us make the emotional journey visible and help people do it together? •
How can participatory leadership contribute to the function of organisations and the tension between cooperation and competition?
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Participatory leadership in higher education
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What is the role of money and value in alternative processes?
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How can we work with and implement Art of Hosting in organisations? How can we foster participatory leadership in our Alpbach Club?
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How to build the inner capacity for participatory leadership?
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Passion vs patience in participatory leadership
• The use of social media to involve large scale groups • Managing leadership: How to work with dominating people and include the participation of everybody • How do we have a rational discussion about immigration? • Participatory projects — methods & risks • How do you include participatory practices in your daily life in an organisation?
A rich afternoon of conversations and learning was followed by time for the next day’s teams to get prepared and an optional evening of European Forum Alpbach 2015
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•Immediately after the
introduction round, the group was introduced to all the possible ways they could step in and begin to practice. Even if they were not familiar with a method, they were invited to learn it, and supported by a coach, to present it to the group. Action Learning is an important way to get started and get a hands-on experience. Some of our group were already “in the fire” on the next day. •The Fourfold Practice is the
foundation for becoming a good host and has four element: Host Yourself (develop a personal practice that helps you stay present and grounded); Be Hosted (become an excellent participant and help others participate fully); Host Others (keep developing the capacity to host and harvest conversations that matter along with others); Be in co-creation (being part of a community of practice) 4
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sessions to choose from to deepen knowledge and practice.
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Day Two We began the day by exploring how divergence, emergence and convergence fit together. Every time a group meets, this pattern repeats itself — first we need to find a way to meet all the different perspectives, offer our different ideas and vision and then we are in emergence. Some call this the “groan zone”. It is often a time when processes fall apart and people find they can’t agree. But good hosting can take us through this time and turn it into a “grown zone” where emergence leads to fruitful action and convergence towards the goal. Collective Story Harvest Listening to stories of challenge and practice is an ideal way to deepen our sense of what’s possible and what it takes to really embed participatory leadership into structures, systems and initiatives. We spent time in the morning of Day 2 listening to seven powerful stories of practice:
“We live in a story, and that means we can change it!”
• Controversial heritage — working with the past to create a new future in Mauthausen • Theory U and the Change Lab with the Commission for Psychiatric Care for Children in Ohio, USA • Creating peace through participatory practice in Côte D’Ivoire • Applying participatory principles in an organisational context across the bounds of place, space, age and perspective • Downsizing and creating a positive impact in Brazil • Using Wisdom Councils in the dialogue between politicians, administrators & Civil Society in Voraarlberg • Introducing participatory leadership in the European Commission Each of us had a role in listening for a purpose. Some of us listened for participatory leadership in action, some for success factors or questions that could work anywhere. Others of us were listening for
European Forum Alpbach 2015
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The power of stories for transformation Every human being is a born storyteller. But what most of us don’t realise is that stories are key to unearthing our collective wisdom. Within the Art of Hosting practice, we use stories both to help us uncover the core success factors within projects, systems, organisations and life experiences, and as a medium for helping group connection, understanding and clarity to grow. The Collective Story Harvest.method is used to sift through and harvest our stories of practice, organisation and communities. Each member of the group listening takes a specific role, listening to the story through a specific theme. In this way, we can work as a collective intelligence, digging deeply into the story for our own — and the storyteller’s! — learning. In this way we discover how to take success further or how to handle the challenges that arise. And often the storyteller is amazed to find out that they can also learn more about their own experience through the eyes of others. Listening — and witnessing — are powerful leadership tools for deeper learning. 5
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how what we were hearing could be applied in our own work. And finally the last group were taking the role of “witness”, the deep listeners who contributed respect and attention to the storytellers and the circle. Just after lunch we gathered in role groups in a café setting to discover what we’d found out across the stories. Some highlights: • Make it a “we” effort instead of an “I” effort. It’s all about the people.
“If you can change your focus, you can change society..”
• Use the ancient tool of talking to people. Make it a safe place for disagreement. • Participatory leadership is universally applicable across different cultures, situations and conditions. It can start very small but scale up very far. It can complement existing systems. • Be clear about purpose: What’s the question? Why are we here? • Be clear about people: Who are the relevant stakeholders? How do we invite the right people? • Be clear about process: Do those involved feel ownership for the questions or how do we foster ownership? How do we ask the right questions? What can each of us do right now? How do we capture and harvest the sense? • About yourself: Am I ready? Am I present? Don’t start the process without a clear purpose. Know you will make mistakes, but remember to host yourself!
What we learned… Here’s what some of us said during the training: • “Participatory leadership is NOT
about having no leader or hierarchy, but rather that everyone can be a leader!”
• “Hosting means inviting someone
— not forcing them.”
• “Passion and patience go
together.”
• Authentic storytelling attracts authentic presence. Story touches your head, heart and belly.
• “I will try to listen to other people’s
• Telling our story to human beings who are witnessing the story allows greater learning for ourselves.
• “The coaches are a visible team,
Appreciative Inquiry
community-like, they demonstrate what they teach.”
• “Celebrate questions — powerful
We ended the afternoon in trios, sharing stories about times when we had practiced equality and inclusion and it made a difference. Using the method of Appreciative Inquiry, we found out what helped to make equality and inclusion happen and discovered together how we could use the root success factors to help move us forward. Key factors included: • Be ready to accept & respect diversity, be willing to learn. Go out of your comfort zone. European Forum Alpbach 2015
excitement, not only my own!”
questions!”
• “Walking the pathway of practice
allows you to stop focusing on the opposites.”
• “If you want to have peace, be
peaceful yourself.”
• “I wonder why business schools
don’t teach participatory leadership more often — it’s the future!”
• “Keep breathing!”
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• Trust is the bridge to equality and inclusiveness. • Trust your instinct and act. • Create the right atmosphere. • Ingredients: open dialogue, awareness through information sharing, trying it out — prototyping. • Equality: collective decision making during challenging times.
“Appreciation is microhosting..”
Appreciative Inquiry is a method that helps people focus on what they want more of and supports them to research the root causes of success already present in the system. It can be applied as simply as asking an appreciative question and taken up to full scale systemic transformation. Once again our day together was followed by time for the next day’s teams to get prepared and another evening of learning options to choose from.
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Designing for Wiser Action The Designing for Wiser Action process is the human equivalent of a glasshouse for plants — projects get a massive shot of attention and peer input to kickstart them into higher gear. • First the Project Holder needs
Day Three Our final day together began with laying out a process architecture which can take participatory practice to the next level. Then 18 project holders introduced their projects and asked for help. Teams formed and for the rest of the day, worked on a collection of meetings, initiatives and challenges, some of which were happening the following week. The projects included: • Designing a conference on why journalism matters • Planning for the Forum Alpbach Network general assembly • Bringing participation to a hospital department • Creating an HR plan for an global NGO in the health field • Amplifying youth voices in local politics • Designing an online/offline innovation process for an open innovation strategy for Austria • Preparing for an international board meeting
to be clear and committed — this process is for action that will take place from now and up to the next 12 months. • A team forms around the
Project Holder and works onto a template using innovative ideas and Post It notes. Process and practice ideas from the training now come into handson application. • Mid-way through, the teams
rotate and offer peer coaching. A fresh set of eyes and ideas are brought to bear. The Project Holder gets fresh input and a second opinion. • Then the original team returns
and incorporates the input into the 2.0 version. • The Project Holder reports
back their appreciation and next steps to the whole group. • As one Project Holder said: “It
was like magic! The perfect people came to help me.” European Forum Alpbach 2015
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Teams worked away for much of the day and finally the Project Holders were asked to report in on their experience. They said: • “I thought at the beginning of my project I was facing the Matterhorn and I’d never reach the top, but now it’s just a small hill along the way.” • “It was fantastic energy, empathy and creativity — I never would have gotten there alone!” • “I need to change my time plan — what we’ve learned here is valuable even before the meeting.” • “I’m not a person who often asks for help — it was amazing to experience the generosity and support given without any expectation.” Completing our time together All too soon it was time to say goodbye. We had each taken an active role in the training. And that was about to be tested as Summer School participants took up hosting and harvesting roles in other Forum Alpbach events. Reflecting on our time together, people said: • “The teaching is in the practice.” • “Make things happen — the right time to do it is now!”
Planning for the Harvest Why “harvesting”? Any good gardener will be planning for the harvest — fruits, vegetables, a beautiful floral display, a healthy forest. We do the same. We think about what we want to harvest from an event or meeting and then plan our processes accordingly. That’s why we call it the Art of Hosting & Harvesting Conversation & Work that matters.
• “Believe in yourself.”
During the training, participants signed up to be part of the Harvesting team. They
• “Don’t be scared — it’s probably in your head.”
• Worked alongside the teams
• “If your dreams don’t scare you, they are probably not big enough.”
• “If you see an opportunity to make a positive impact on the world, make it!” • “Don’t do it alone.”
hosting processes to make sure the harvest was clear • Posted results on a “Harvest
Wall” so the group could refer back to what we were discovering together
• “I will miss you!”
• Recorded highlights and
essences on the landscape depicting our 3 day agenda
The 2015 Hosting Team Mischa Oliver Altmann, Mary Alice Arthur, Phil Cass, Mirjam Dondi, Diego Heatherman, Martina Handler, Ursula Hillbrand, Christian Hörl, Thomas Hutle, Gwendolyn Kohlhaupt, Simon Mathis, Toke Paludan Møller, Monica Níssen,, Melinda
• Supported the group to
remember what we had learned and discovered together by reporting back each morning • Interviewed each other and
Varfi, Anna Wohlesser. Photos by Harald Preyer, Mary Alice Arthur & the Harvesting Team
European Forum Alpbach 2015
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important others to help us get the bigger picture — this newsletter is a result! 8
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SUMMER SCHOOL BLOG POST What was it really like? As I entered Alpbach in the Post-bus the drops of water still clung to my jumper. On this damp morning in the Tirolian Alps I was to start with the European Forum Alpbach’s Summer School of Facilitation and Participatory Leadership. “What a long title,” I thought. “What is it going to be like?” I sat down restlessly in a circle of 87 participants, feet tapping the ground in a mixture of excitement and nervousness. After all, this was my first time at the Forum and my very first real training in the Art of Hosting. This year I had already hosted some 50 students, professors and officials from my university, Amsterdam University College, to engage in constructive deliberation and an empowering conversation. Here I wanted to learn the tools and methods to do an even better job next time. Everyone in the room seemed to be walking around with similar stories and ambitions as me, since we all started our first participatory practise, called ‘World Café’, with buzzing energy. My initial reaction was: “This stuff is contagious!”. All around, people were sharing stories on where they saw inequalities in today’s world. “Draw a mind map! Express your thoughts in doodles! Whatever you do, record your ideas”, our hosts insisted. In the afternoon we learnt a new method - and with it came new rules. In what is called “Open Space Technology” participants can suggest themes related to their daily practise and discuss it with whoever feel like joining their topic. The only rules are that notes should be taken and that anybody can leave a conversation at any time to go to another group or to relax by themselves. Open Space simulates the passionate and inspiring talks we have in our free Here’s Michael… and at work in the photo above time (in between university classes or during coffee breaks). I realised it also eliminates those awkward moments you can have while networking (when you are having a forced and boring conversation but you feel that you cannot walk away). I went to a small group of people talking about participatory practise in education and stayed for the entire time. At the end of the day all the information collected during the sessions had to be processed and abstracted to the next level. There were so many good ideas and quotes. We tried to order them, find connections and overarching themes and it was really difficult. Our brains had lost steam and the only thing I could think of was having Schnitzel for dinner. In the end it was worth it because we could visually display the results of 87 intelligent, motivated and hardworking people. Key images and quotes, short stories and outcomes and a giant poster with our learning path as red thread would serve to remind us of what we had learnt today. This is what it had to be about: Giving everybody a chance to participate, bring in their hopes, ideas and experiences and then condensing that thought into clear ideas of which we had become proud collectively. As I sat in the bus back from Alpbach to my hostel, overwhelmed, tired and satisfied, the following thoughts went through my head: “These methods are what I want to take with me to guide me in what I will do in the future. I’ll put them to practise at other symposia at the Forum and of course I will start using them when I come back to Amsterdam, at the university and beyond.”
— 2015 Scholarship holder Michael Vermeer
European Forum Alpbach 2015
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