The ART OF HOSTING AND HARVESTING CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER
The Art of Hosting is a participative training experience for all those who aspire to learn how to work with groups, committees, teams and communities in more interactive, engaging and effective ways: ways that nurture personal leadership, collective intelligence, shared learning and wise action fit for our time.
Based on the assumption that people give their energy and lend their resources to what matters most to them – in work as in life – the Art of Hosting blends a suite of powerful conversational processes to invite people to step in and take charge of the challenges facing them.
“Hosting is an emerging set of practices for facilitating group conversations of all sizes, supported by principles that: maximize collective intelligence; welcome and listen to diverse viewpoints; maximize participation and civility; and transform conflict into creative cooperation.”
LEADER AS HOST
Many of us are involved in efforts of change in some way or another. In our organizations, families, communities, our country or region. Undoubtedly, our experience has left us questioning what is required to genuinely transform organizations, communities or systems.
We are living that inquiry - and are engaged in learning from this place of participatory leadership about actually transforming community, civic structures and systems:
Our aspiration and commitment is to move beyond episodes of enthusiasm or moments of illumination, to sustainable and on-going shift that can fundamentally transform our organizations and systems to being something that works in life-affirming ways with everyone involved.
The Art of Hosting is core to this work. The trainings we have held to date have contributed to significant shifts in how communities come together and in how organisations develop, plan and reflect together. Locally practitioners are applying their work in urban renewal, clean up campaigns, church work, schools, youth organisations and community organising. We are seeing significant shift in localised initiatives – and feel that spreading this training to targeted organisations and communities over the next few years will enable a generative shift in how we operate as a society.
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PARTICIPANT QUOTES
“The Art of Hosting is a highly motivating experience for everyone who feels the need of realising some kind of a project for a better future. The combination of theory and practice, with the focus on practising, creates a complete learning experience.”
“The option of staying connected with the Art of Hosting community and being able to call for support when you need it is a true gift and an opportunity for growth and action.”
“I most appreciate the practicality of the workshop in solving the problems that we battle with everyday. It is participatory, empowering and involving all actors. Thought provoking, l liked ending with the wiser action. It's action oriented.”