Art of Hosting
Training in Hosting Conversations that Matter

22-24 May 2008 at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, Glencree, County Wicklow, Ireland

How can the practices of Art of Hosting and Art of Harvesting questions and conversations that matter, support better leadership, systems change and greater sustainability in our World?

The Art of Hosting & Harvesting Conversations that matter

• is an opportunity for all who aspire to learn
• and find new ways of working with others
• in more, interactive, engaging and meaningful ways.

Who could benefit from participating?
We invite people living in Ireland and else where in the world: leaders, consultants, teachers, social entrepreneurs, voluntary and private sectors, young and old for training in the Art of hosting and harvesting questions and conversations that matter for us at this time.

Why Now?
Ireland is a changing landscape, with changing times comes new opportunities and challenges. We sense there is a real need for a space where people can gather to learn and share new and more effective ways of being together. The best way to predict the future is to create it! This is where we begin.

What to expect?
This training will explore and support…

• Hosting as an art, and as a core leadership practice.
• Conditions needed to create space for meaningful conversation.
• Specific interactive processes through which learning and creation can emerge – Open Space Technology, Circle, Council, Appreciative Inquiry and World Café.
• Recommended conditions and timing for using particular methods and tools.
• The practice of hosting in key areas relevant in each of our lives and work.

This training is not for spectators…

• Our learning will grow out of participants’ contributions and presence. We will support each other as co-learners.
• We will learn by observation, experience and practice – everyone will have an opportunity to step into the fire of hosting.
• We will practice – being present, participating in conversations, hosting conversations, and being a community of practitioners and co-learners.
• We will each have a chance to work with projects/processes that we are committed to in the near future, and for which we each intend to apply our new skills

"The time of the lone wolf is over.  Gather yourselves,
We are the ones we have been waiting for"
Oraibi, Arizona, Hopi Nation

Logistics…

Summary of details:

Costs
The fee includes full board and accommodation, also Learning Journal and all materials
B&B for the night of the 21st May. € 30, will be charged separately
If there are 2 or more of you coming from the same organisation or company we can negotiate a discount.

If the price of this training is not affordable for you, let us know as we hold the following principle: "To be part of the training, everyone should contribute as much as they can and a little bit more" The minimum contribution should be €350. If you are in a position to offer more then the full cost, this will be used to fund scholarships.

To Register
Chris Chapman, The Change Exploratory, c/o 6 Fruithill Court, Graiguecullen, Carlow, Ireland
Tel : 0(0353) 87 243 3691 E-mail : chris.chapman@ireland.com
Cheques should be made payable to 'The Change Exploratory'

For further information
You may contact Chris Chapman (chris.chapman@ireland.com)
OR Alan Hayes (jedi.training@gmail.com)

More Information

The chaordic path
We have discovered that the principles of self-organisation, participation, ownership and non-linear solutions are key to both individual and collective learning.

We are particularly inspired by what happens in the creative tension between chaos and order – the chaordic field – where learning, innovation and harvesting take place and where wise and sustainable change can be discovered and grounded into action.

Together we will create a learning environment
A safe space to play and practice. By designing projects/processes that will happen in the near future, we will explore how to continue our practice beyond this training, to make a difference in our respective areas of work, family, and community. We will form a network of learners and practitioners, helping each other on the journey.

Who we are
We are a growing global community of practitioners, supporting each other to explore and accomplish what we most care about. The Art of Hosting has, the past 9 years, been offered in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South and North America. It is a self-convening network of practitioners / hosts trained in conversational group
processes and dedicated to creating sustainable local networks.

We have each spent years organising, designing, and hosting inspired spaces – dialogues, strategic change processes, learning conferences, circle councils,
networked organisations – each in support of life-affirming leadership, interactive learning, organisational and social change and self-organisation.

Together, we feel inspired to bring this body of experience to others and to create a space in which we can all find and take our next steps to create the future we want. These are our core questions and we trust that we together can give birth to a new way of working, leading, and being human being in the world, if we just go for it.

A few words from the hosting team of this training...

Toke Paludan Möller, InterChange Denmark  www.interchange.dk

For 40 years I have worked with my own professional leadership development and personal mastery through work, professional trainings and the practice of the art of self knowledge, aikido and meditation, as an expression of who I am professionally and as a person.  I choose consciously to co-create, co-learn and co-operate with bold people, leaders, companies and organizations that want to explore and take responsibility for the needs and possibilities at this time both in global and local contexts. I consciously “invest” in the growth of bold and young leaders, new “learning centers” and new ways of working and doing business. I participate actively in learning networks to stay a learner.  I am co-founder of InterChange, a training and consulting company, as well as a steward and co-founder of The Art of Hosting practice and the Flow game.

Alan Hayes, Ireland

Have you ever been to a meeting which just flowed naturally? Where people just synchronized? When you left feeling inspired and connected to what you REALLY care about? These are the spaces I want to create! This is the potion I want to bottle.  I have been experimenting with this for six years in various capacities, with young people and with older. I currently work for the National Youth Council of Ireland as Development Education Trainer and teach Youth Work at Liberties College in Dublin. I passionately believe that if we slow down enough to listen to what is occurring in our world, we will be compelled to ACT for change. The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Chris Chapman,  Ireland

I am an independent coach and facilitator with an extensive background in partnership working in Ireland and the UK. Over many years, I have become painfully aware of the vast resources consumed by planning processes which try to control the future, without regard to changing environments and the diversity of the human beings involved.  I feel deeply that now is the time to shift to more inclusive and deeper processes as we try to respond to immense social, ecological and spiritual challenges. 
The company that I have set up, 'The Change Exploratory' exists to support people with this shift.

Monica Nissen, InterChange Denmark
www.interchange.dk

Starting my professional life with a degree in architecture – I found very early on, that designing processes, was just as interesting as designing buildings. For the past 25-30 years I have worked as a process consultant. Since Toke Moeller and I co-founded InterChange aps in 1991, we have worked with dialogue based, participatory processes, engaging larger groups of people in co-creating solutions, strategies or the futures they want. In working with larger groups, my special interest has been "Learning Ecology" – that is to harvest the results of these conversations, as newsletters, documentations or as graphic facilitation, so that the collective wisdom can be captured and put to use and fed back “into the system”.

Lesley Williams

I am a free agent working with dialogue and process facilitation. The focus of my work for the past 6 years has been to build vibrant and inclusive communities where decision making occurs through broad participation. To achieve this, I have conceptualized and facilitated learning programmes and chaired conferences across sectors with the aim of building relationships across diversity and developing the personal leadership capabilities of individuals to respond to societal and organizational issues. I am Co-founder of Africa++, an organization that facilitates collaborative action for Africa’s development. I am also part of the core leadership team of Pioneers of Change and an Unfolding Cards Associate. I have worked and lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa and have also either delivered or participated in workshops across Europe, Brazil, and Zimbabwe.

About Glencree: 

The Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that is devoted to peace building and reconciliation in Ireland, North and South, Britain and beyond. The Centre was founded in 1974 as a response to violent conflict in Ireland, and in light of a conviction that non-violent solutions must be pursued to encourage reconciliation within and between communities.

We look forward to seeing you!
Lesley, Toke, Monica, Chris and Alan

"Not just any talk is conversation
Not any talk raises consciousness
good conversation has an edge
It opens your eyes to something
It quickens your ears

And good conversation reverberates
It keeps on talking in your mind later in the day;
The next day, you find yourself still conversing with what was said
The reverberation afterward is the very raising of consciousness
Your mind and heart have been moved
Your are at another level with your reflections. "

James Hillman