The Art of Hosting events are NOT for spectators! They are trainings for a hands-on, participatory, group centered way of working. Expect to step in, step up and take responsibility for whatever it is that calls you. Expect to be challenged as well as supported as we step into learning together.
Art of Hosting is a practice of looking for the deep patterns around groups that work and creating meetings where people can do their best work together. Practically, it is a fusion of some very powerful participatory facilitation tools (Appreciative Inquiry, World Café, Open Space Technology and Circle work).Each of these practices is powerful in its own right and has been in use for more than 20 years with international practitioner communities and solid case study examples. Many of these practices came out of the need for radical change. Used together, they are a flexible way to help people lead and help groups to come into connection and deep conversation and action fast.It has come from a group of practitioners who were looking for ways to support the people they were working with to practice better at the boundary of connection and innovation.
We’ve noticed that plenty of people hold meetings, many people lead meetings, and some people facilitate meetings. But there aren’t many meeting spaces where people step in, step up and take action together. This demands a different way of working and a different type of container to work in. The word “hosting” indicates a different kind of approach. We know a lot about being a good host here in Bulgaria. Being a good host means making sure people are looked after well so that they can do their best work together and step into common ground. We’ve all attended meetings that have been well managed, but not well hosted, and often the result is “same old, same old.” Just as “hosting” has a particular connotation, so does “art”, indicating that this way of working is not a recipe or a set of tools, but an "artform" in practice. You’ll notice a different language around the Art of Hosting and there’s a reason for that - we want to stimulate our thinking about this way of working in a new way.
The Art of Hosting has been used in all types of communities from indigenous tribal settings to large organizations. It has been used for small to large scale meetings and is currently being used by the European Commission to initiate participatory leadership practices and citizen engagement. It is also being used for dramatically shifting health care in a major US city and with Native American and First Nation tribes in North America. It has been scaled to community events and has been used inside organisations.
Two things. First, the training is offered by a Hosting Team using action learning. The team will facilitate the first day, but from Day 2, participants will be asked to step forward to lead and the Hosting Team will become the clients and the coaches, supporting participants to “learn on the job” and gain hands on, practical skills. We learn together as a community and immediately apply what we've acquired.Secondly, there is a focus both on hosting the meeting and on harvesting the meeting. Hosting is about how you create group meetings that help people to work well together, innovate from within and make a commitment for action. Harvesting is about making sure that what gets covered in a meeting actually goes somewhere. We’re finding the harvest is one of the most important parts of our work now. After all, why have a meeting if nothing comes out of it?If you are simply looking for new tools, this might not be for you, but if you know that the old way of doing things isn’t going to work for much longer, and you’re willing to challenge your thinking and your style, you will be stepping into a community that will help you. This training looks different, and is different than anything else in this field.
Last year we told many of our participants the “frozen chicken” story - they might have laughed, but they knew it was true! When you come alone to a training experience - especially one which has such a dramatically different way of working at its core, like the Art of Hosting - you can feel like you’re the only chook to have thawed out and gotten a new way of operating in the world. When you go back to the office, it can feel like a blast from the freezer. People roll their eyes, look at you in that patronising way and say: “You’ve been on a course, haven’t you?”. And nothing changes...We’ve learned in our own practice that this way of working takes a team to do it. If you want to shift the field in the place you work, you need to be a field, already operating in the new way - and you can’t do that alone! We encourage you to come along again and to bring others with you. If you know of others who’d like to attend, make sure they come with others so that they can put what they learn to work.
Begin by being clear in your intention. If your intention is to demonstrate leadership in your sector, build capacity within your organisation and with stakeholders, and integrate what you find out fast, then we can support you to create the process to make this happen.
How many meetings have you gone to that didn’t work? Don’t you think it’s time they did? What if meetings were a place where people came together to get really innovative, engaged and charged up about the challenges they’re facing and the work they have to do? If you know something different needs to happen in your organisation or in the wider sector, this could be the place where you find out how to innovate, create a new conversation and get to where you really want to go.
You can sponsor the participation of someone who cannot afford it via our crowdfunding campaign.
IndiegogoYou can invest your time and efforts during the event and help us as a volunteer. If you think this is the role for you, drop us a line...
Volunteer!You can pay your participation fee or cover someone else’s expenses using PayPal
E-Mail: aohbulgaria [at] gmail [dot] com
Phone: +359 884 913 567
