Art of Hosting 3-day training
6 – 8 Febr. ’16
Heerlijckyt van Elsmeren, Geetbets, Belgium
-Registrations closed-
Guiding question:
What if it were up to us to embody a society where everyone and everything can thrive?
Context and theme of the training:
These days diversity is an inescapable fact of life in Belgian society: in language, culture, politics, ethnicity; in the gaps between professional silos, managers and workers, generations, faiths and personal histories – and more…
Wherever we look, we see canyons to be crossed, bridges to be built: how can top-down meet bottom-up? How can we engage with all stakeholders? Integrate successive waves of refugees? Reach out across the boundaries between generations, faiths, languages, worldviews and cultures? How can we invite all these differences into the rich dance of humanity?
What would it be like to embody a society where everyone and everything can thrive? Where I can accept and celebrate your culture and values without having to devalue or sacrifice my own?
Participatory leadership Training – what you will learn:
The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations that Matter teaches a body of methods and practices that can effectively support us in dealing with these questions in our everyday lives. It offers a practical approach for a different kind of leadership that is essentially participatory, where we talk with one another, and not about each other. It enables us to bring forth and base our decisions on the best collective wisdom that is present in any system.
At this training you will experience the power of collective intelligence as it is harnessed through carefully designed conversational processes, using methodologies such as Circle, World Café, Open Space Technology, Pro Action Café and others. You will also learn about the most important underpinning principles and worldviews that support successful application of the participatory approach; the basics of how to design successful processes; how to move the fruits of the conversation out of the room and into the world.
This will be a very experiential training – you will be invited from day 1 to step up and apply what you are learning directly, by hosting parts of the process yourself, with others, and with the support and guidance of the hosting team. Expect to work hard, be challenged, laugh a lot, perhaps being touched, and leave larger than you were when you arrived.
Find out more about the Art of Hosting
Is this training for you?
Are any of the following situations familiar to you?
- Well-intentioned collaboration that falls apart because of lack of clarity or good process among the partners
- Hours of meetings that lead to no action
- Conferences that have too many talking heads and not enough real engagement, depth and wisdom
- Good work that is derailed by silo thinking and political infighting
- Learning situations where both teachers and students are frustrated or unfulfilled
- Communities or networks that are marked by constant tensions, difference of opinion, lack of dialogue, indifference or resignation…
If so, then this training is for you!
Whether you come from the private or public sector or civil society, or simply show up as an engaged citizen, this cross-sectoral training offers a vibrant learning space where your thinking can expand, your projects can be honed and you can build lasting relationships that can support the impact of your work long into the future.
We invite you to join us and to connect with other practitioners, leaders and social innovators seeking to build their leadership capacity and serve their community. We look forward to welcoming you, your questions, your projects and your contributions.
All hands on deck
Healthy human society embraces wholeness and integrates all aspects of life – how we create meaningful work for all, how we prepare food, how we deal with money, how we find a natural rhythm in our work and our conversations, and much more. In this 3-day immersive experience, we intend to take care of as many of these aspects as we can, together, while focusing on the question:
What if it were up to us to embody a society where everyone and everything can thrive?
We are convinced that the challenge of diversity, as we live it here in Belgium, holds huge potential and offers countless opportunities and avenues that can enable all of us to thrive and live well. During our time together, we will focus on stretching ourselves to discover more forms of collaboration, more ways connecting people and enacting solidarity – and looking for ways and methods to enhance that capacity in all of us.
Shared economy
Learning how to embody such a society also means finding new ways to relate to money. Regarding prices, we are therefore deviating from the conventional approach of charging a standard fee for the training. Instead, we invite you to join us in a learning experiment to discover what the future holds for communities that can work well with economy, currency, value and generosity. We are calling this experiment Shared Economy.
Languages – yes we can!
Belgium is renowned as a hotbed of linguistic diversity. Although the training will mostly be in English, we do not wish this to be a barrier to those who are more comfortable expressing themselves in another language. We will do everything we can to facilitate communication across language boundaries, and with the good will and active participation of everybody present, we trust we can succeed.
The call of the future is already here. Are we able to listen, rise and respond?