Whidbey Art of Hosting AHA notes
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1.25.08 Whidbey Institute Art of Hosting: Session one of Art of Harvesting (AHO AHA) convened by Chris Corrigan
There’s more to the Art of Hosting – the Art of Harvesting has become an essential linked practice.
There are patterns that arise only with the harvesting process.
Is there a difference between hosting and harvesting? Can you really be Hosting without Harvesting? ‡ one and the same.
See H/O – put together by Chris and Monica and their friend Silas who is a permaculturist at Kufunda Learning Center, and knows everything about cultivation and gardening.
Opportunity to practice harvesting in service to the whole – to practice with organizing things differently. Mindmaps, etc. Can insert self into design teams for sessions here at the AoH training as the harvesters.
It is challenging to make meaning collectively.
Diamond of participation: divergence, then “groan zone” in the center, then convergence which is where emergence and a lot of the meaning starts to be made.
Moving through the Groan Zone there is often silence, a “line of crying,” then “line of laughter” (or both at once)
Whole other new things appearing – often a whole other process will happen – interlocking diamonds.
Two modes of harvesting:
Intentional – why the meeting happened in the first place. We do want to get to that point eventually. Don’t know what it’s going to be yet.
Emergent: The next meeting begins at the groan zone. Another mode of harvesting: what’s emergent. Stuff that’s not on the agenda. “A calling into being”. A sensing process.
Sometimes have different people present doing both different types; can be difficult for one person to do both at once.
Best thing is to have everyone doing it together – like the WC tablecloth drawing.
Inventing a pattern language for hosting and harvesting (a la Chris Alexander) for harvesting. “The River under the river”
Examples of patterns:
“The notes on the back of the napkin.”
“Just like a really big napkin, like the notes you already know how to make”
Play with the different modes. See what serves best.
Harvesting is always about making things visible. And sharing!
(Dynamic Facilitation: 4 flip charts including separate board to track “the Real Question” that emerges and unites the group and shifts the perception)
(Shift from seeing oneself separated from the system to people seeing themselves as part of the system.)
Always the invitation is to “get it out” and “make it visible”
The next level: co-owning our own meaning-making.
Very important that the harvest be appropriate to the group that it’s serving. All about designing for harvest, not designing for meeting. Harvesting is an integral part of designing the meeting – more than just “what are we going to do with the notes?” Always looking for ways we can create artifacts, and feedback loops.
Harrison Owen: the best artifacts would be sacraments – objects that create their own meaning.
Samples: big WC graphic facilitation murals reduced down in size and printed as 8-1/2 x 11 sheets that can be distributed and grasped by everyone in the community.
The point of harvesting design is to think as deeply about harvesting as about any other part of the meeting.
Requires a deeper level of listening, of tapping into source.
You join the field. The field speaks through you. A little tiny bodhisattva move – to serve the field at the expense of your own meaning – or do you learn for you too when you serve the field?
Q: when you’re with a group who has a certain objective in coming together, and you have a sense of being in service to the field, but the people may not have any interest in process or in “going deep,” want to stay very pragmatic. Understanding that there needs to be some bonding to be helpful to their objective.
Invitation for us all to be very graceful in our language with each other.
Story: running Open Space about what will it be like in the Caribou post-treaty. Including politicians, loggers, First Nations, other community members. People wanted to just get some projects started. Lots of tensions. Lots of projects generated. Corrigan insight at the end: here is why you all have such a reputation for being hostile, combative etc -- you guys all care so much about this place and no one wants anyone else coming in and telling you what to do. The insight brought everyone to another level. Led to second OS with all of the leaders present – time for you to catch up to what your citizens are doing. Noticing the intention supports the emergence.
The experience of being seen exactly relaxes the effort to assert yourself everywhere, opens the space. Harvesting is like this at a group level.
(HH The Dalai Lama: everyone just wants to be seen, heard and loved. If not feeling heard, will shout. If not seen, will bully or hide. )
Beautiful frame for harvesting as well.
The processes need to create space for people’s anger, hurt, deep pain to be seen, heard and loved. Question about how to create space for that without blowing away people who aren’t ready for that…
Still just learning about harvesting:
Simplest level:
Creating artifacts: things that can be transported.
Creating feedback loops – so system can know itself.
Specifically positive/reinforcing feedback loops. (there are also always negative feedback loops and balancing loops nearby)
Example of feedback loops as harvest: Royal Commission called on Aboriginal Peoples. Massive multiyear process with many many meetings. Proceedings titled “Gathering Strength” are now called “Gathering Dust” since they are so massive and unusable.
Client decided to follow up on the forestry part of that report. Wanted to create another report full of practical workable recommendations – sounded just like a smaller version of the royal commission report. Client reflected on that and came to: what if the other thing we created was Questions, to invite others to engage in this? Also was able to connect with several powerful (national, international) venues to take the plan and the questions to. There is a lot of power in knowing that your input is going to be taken to a much higher level.
Helps us to see ourselves as bigger than only our small selves.
(Another example of positive feedback: use of surveys – develop mirroring via piecharts and graphs, etc. Gives a feeling of participation via the physical act of writing, choosing buttons.)
Today: will be doing AI, Café this afternoon, check-in tonight. Can insert self into design teams. The spirals bring us to another level. Deepen our awareness of each other. Many ways to do this – like Teresa’s poem last night.
Entire process devoted to developing Questions.
We’ve had this meeting, what did we learn?
Trying to get both exclamation points and question marks.
One of the tasks of leadership is to leave things incomplete – it’s in the holes that the tension for moving forward will be. “parking downhill”
There’s more to the Art of Hosting – the Art of Harvesting has become an essential linked practice.
There are patterns that arise only with the harvesting process.
Is there a difference between hosting and harvesting? Can you really be Hosting without Harvesting? ‡ one and the same.
See H/O – put together by Chris and Monica and their friend Silas who is a permaculturist at Kufunda Learning Center, and knows everything about cultivation and gardening.
Opportunity to practice harvesting in service to the whole – to practice with organizing things differently. Mindmaps, etc. Can insert self into design teams for sessions here at the AoH training as the harvesters.
It is challenging to make meaning collectively.
Diamond of participation: divergence, then “groan zone” in the center, then convergence which is where emergence and a lot of the meaning starts to be made.
Moving through the Groan Zone there is often silence, a “line of crying,” then “line of laughter” (or both at once)
Whole other new things appearing – often a whole other process will happen – interlocking diamonds.
Two modes of harvesting:
Intentional – why the meeting happened in the first place. We do want to get to that point eventually. Don’t know what it’s going to be yet.
Emergent: The next meeting begins at the groan zone. Another mode of harvesting: what’s emergent. Stuff that’s not on the agenda. “A calling into being”. A sensing process.
Sometimes have different people present doing both different types; can be difficult for one person to do both at once.
Best thing is to have everyone doing it together – like the WC tablecloth drawing.
Inventing a pattern language for hosting and harvesting (a la Chris Alexander) for harvesting. “The River under the river”
Examples of patterns:
“The notes on the back of the napkin.”
“Just like a really big napkin, like the notes you already know how to make”
Play with the different modes. See what serves best.
Harvesting is always about making things visible. And sharing!
(Dynamic Facilitation: 4 flip charts including separate board to track “the Real Question” that emerges and unites the group and shifts the perception)
(Shift from seeing oneself separated from the system to people seeing themselves as part of the system.)
Always the invitation is to “get it out” and “make it visible”
The next level: co-owning our own meaning-making.
Very important that the harvest be appropriate to the group that it’s serving. All about designing for harvest, not designing for meeting. Harvesting is an integral part of designing the meeting – more than just “what are we going to do with the notes?” Always looking for ways we can create artifacts, and feedback loops.
Harrison Owen: the best artifacts would be sacraments – objects that create their own meaning.
Samples: big WC graphic facilitation murals reduced down in size and printed as 8-1/2 x 11 sheets that can be distributed and grasped by everyone in the community.
The point of harvesting design is to think as deeply about harvesting as about any other part of the meeting.
Requires a deeper level of listening, of tapping into source.
You join the field. The field speaks through you. A little tiny bodhisattva move – to serve the field at the expense of your own meaning – or do you learn for you too when you serve the field?
Q: when you’re with a group who has a certain objective in coming together, and you have a sense of being in service to the field, but the people may not have any interest in process or in “going deep,” want to stay very pragmatic. Understanding that there needs to be some bonding to be helpful to their objective.
Invitation for us all to be very graceful in our language with each other.
Story: running Open Space about what will it be like in the Caribou post-treaty. Including politicians, loggers, First Nations, other community members. People wanted to just get some projects started. Lots of tensions. Lots of projects generated. Corrigan insight at the end: here is why you all have such a reputation for being hostile, combative etc -- you guys all care so much about this place and no one wants anyone else coming in and telling you what to do. The insight brought everyone to another level. Led to second OS with all of the leaders present – time for you to catch up to what your citizens are doing. Noticing the intention supports the emergence.
The experience of being seen exactly relaxes the effort to assert yourself everywhere, opens the space. Harvesting is like this at a group level.
(HH The Dalai Lama: everyone just wants to be seen, heard and loved. If not feeling heard, will shout. If not seen, will bully or hide. )
Beautiful frame for harvesting as well.
The processes need to create space for people’s anger, hurt, deep pain to be seen, heard and loved. Question about how to create space for that without blowing away people who aren’t ready for that…
Still just learning about harvesting:
Simplest level:
Creating artifacts: things that can be transported.
Creating feedback loops – so system can know itself.
Specifically positive/reinforcing feedback loops. (there are also always negative feedback loops and balancing loops nearby)
Example of feedback loops as harvest: Royal Commission called on Aboriginal Peoples. Massive multiyear process with many many meetings. Proceedings titled “Gathering Strength” are now called “Gathering Dust” since they are so massive and unusable.
Client decided to follow up on the forestry part of that report. Wanted to create another report full of practical workable recommendations – sounded just like a smaller version of the royal commission report. Client reflected on that and came to: what if the other thing we created was Questions, to invite others to engage in this? Also was able to connect with several powerful (national, international) venues to take the plan and the questions to. There is a lot of power in knowing that your input is going to be taken to a much higher level.
Helps us to see ourselves as bigger than only our small selves.
(Another example of positive feedback: use of surveys – develop mirroring via piecharts and graphs, etc. Gives a feeling of participation via the physical act of writing, choosing buttons.)
Today: will be doing AI, Café this afternoon, check-in tonight. Can insert self into design teams. The spirals bring us to another level. Deepen our awareness of each other. Many ways to do this – like Teresa’s poem last night.
Entire process devoted to developing Questions.
We’ve had this meeting, what did we learn?
Trying to get both exclamation points and question marks.
One of the tasks of leadership is to leave things incomplete – it’s in the holes that the tension for moving forward will be. “parking downhill”
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