Differences
This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.
Both sides previous revision Previous revision Next revision | Previous revision Next revisionBoth sides next revision | ||
hosting_craft [2013-05-22 13:52] – maja | hosting_craft [2013-10-31 16:34] – maja | ||
---|---|---|---|
Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
//With thanks to Maggie Buxton, Simone Poutnik, Hendrik Tiessinga (and others from The Art of Hosting community), Nick Payne, Ineke Van Mulders, Edel Maex, Christina Stadlbauer, Helga Hartl and many others who have facilitated workshops, held trainings and retreats through which we experienced the practice and the craft of hosting and facilitation.// | //With thanks to Maggie Buxton, Simone Poutnik, Hendrik Tiessinga (and others from The Art of Hosting community), Nick Payne, Ineke Van Mulders, Edel Maex, Christina Stadlbauer, Helga Hartl and many others who have facilitated workshops, held trainings and retreats through which we experienced the practice and the craft of hosting and facilitation.// | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Session 1: Hosting, craft and the Host ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | Why call sessions about facilitation methods a craft? Because it is a practice, you can only learn it by doing. It is said that by the time you put in 10.000 hours, you can consider yourself to have mastered the basics. It is also artisanal, hand-made, customised for each occasion, never the same. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Facilitation, | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Dinner party === | ||
+ | | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | |||
+ | * How would you describe the host? write their characteristics and actions in a connected ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | * What are the elements of a good dinner party? Make a list of key elements needed for a good dinner party (e.g. people, atmosphere, refreshments, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Visualise a cloud of characteristics and actions of the host and another one of key elements of a dinner party.</ | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | Hosting workshops or meetings isn't too different from hosting a dinner party. The role of the host in both is to: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * welcome guests | ||
+ | * set the atmosphere | ||
+ | * frame and guide conversations | ||
+ | * make sure everyone is introduced to each other | ||
+ | * encourage networking | ||
+ | * resolve conflicts | ||
+ | * manage flow and timing | ||
+ | * wrap-up | ||
+ | * send people home when it's time | ||
+ | * conclude and follow-up. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A few key things to think about when hosting | ||
+ | |||
+ | * People (host, participants) | ||
+ | * Content, conversation topics | ||
+ | * Flow | ||
+ | * Space/ | ||
+ | * Refreshments | ||
+ | | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | == The Host == | ||
+ | |||
+ | Every hosting session starts with the host, his/her presence. The host's inner and outer appearance can set the tone of the meeting. The frame of mind of a host can influence how the participants feel as well. If you're stressed or worried, this will carry into their conversations as well. It's important to take time to let your worries and moods go. The host is like a river bed that gives shape to the water (the flow of the conversations) an entity through which everything flows. If your 'river bed' consists of big mental boulders and emotional dams, the flow will be interrupted, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Begin a hosting session by making sure you're comfortable with yourself, the room, the format and the topics chosen. This begins with a good preparation, | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | |||
+ | * a simple 3 minute breathing exercise: begin with asking yourself "what am I demanding from myself and others at this moment?" | ||
+ | |||
+ | * a longer 10-15 minute meditation: start with focusing your attention on your breath, then your whole body, the envelope of your body and its connection to the air, the air in the room, the sounds that the air brings to your ears, (what you can see without looking), the whole room and everything in it, and expand your attention to infinity, that includes the people you're hosting, their mind-states and expectations, | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Aside from the inner presence, the outer presence - your appearance is as important. to begin with, your posture: try having a conversation while leaning in, sitting straight and comfortable, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Finally, what might seem frivolous - think about what you are going to wear. The lines of the clothing (angular and strict, flowing and relaxed, messy and playful…) and their colours can have an impact on the mood of the conversation as well. There are colour theories that you can look at, but you can also intuitively check with yourself what colours resonate with you - this will help you at least get in the right frame of mind. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Session 2: The participants ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | === The participants === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | The participants will necessarily have different character traits. They might be outgoing, team-spirits, | ||
+ | |||
+ | If you have a chance to decide who is invited, take this opportunity to " | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | == Communication == | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | However, even in a well thought trough invitee list, you still don't know what will happen. It is the hosts' task to observe the group dynamics as it is developing and to steer it gently, or a bit less gently if the conversations are going off-track, or in circles, or if some people dominate the conversations for too long. The words gentle and patient are crucial here. Think about how children react to a calm or an abrupt interruption of something they shouldn' | ||
+ | * how about we pause this conversation for now and return to …, we will continue this thread in our next session/ | ||
+ | * I invite you to… / Let's / (Rather than You now have to…) | ||
+ | * I'd like to suggest to… | ||
+ | |||
+ | Another important aspect of hosting is observation. It is your task to observe if people are engaged. You can see this not only in how they speak, but also in their facial expression, posture, eye movements… Most of us have an intuition that tells us if someone is paying attention to us speaking. | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Take turns to tell a story. First person A talks, while person B listens. In the next round, person A continues to talk, but person B stops listening. Reverse roles after this round. Discuss your findings in the larger group. | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Having an intuition about people' | ||
+ | |||
+ | A course that can help develop your own communication skills and be more aware of how others communicate: | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | perspective of the other | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | information ------o------ experience | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | my own perspective | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | A good conversation is somewhere in the centre of the two axes. If you place yourself too much on either side of the perspective axis, the conversation will become a monologue (sometimes this can happen even if both people are speaking, e.g. in a conflict where both people are convinced that they are ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | * a person who is very close to you | ||
+ | * a person with whom you have a problematic relationship. | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | The horizontal range is a continuum between information and experience. The two are often confused, for example when a person describe their own experience as ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | * job description, | ||
+ | * describe how you feel at your work. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Compare notes in the group. How do you talk when you describe facts/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | As a conversation host, you can be the compass for the group and pay attention where the conversation is going, paying attention to people' | ||
+ | |||
+ | In most participatory meetings the conversations should be dialogues, rather than debates. Edel Maex describes this as: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * dialogue: who are you, who am I, what are our views, and what is the vision that surpasses (or builds on) our distinct views | ||
+ | * debate: this is me and this is you, this is my view and this is yours. in a debate people come out as winners or losers, or through a compromise where everyone supposedly wins, but the vision is lost (aka belgisch compromis / poldermodel). | ||
+ | |||
+ | When designing your meeting/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | |||
+ | Throughout the session you're hosting, you should observe how the communication unfolds, look for signs of loss of attention, skewed perspectives, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | === Icebreaking === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | Whoever comes through the door, has come from somewhere else, and this somewhere else has necessarily an impact on how they will participate in the conversations. It needs to be acknowledged that just by walking into a space people haven' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The moment of gathering the group together is always a bit awkward. You can use a clear sound signal (a bell, a gong, a tea spoon on a glass…), or just project your voice and invite people to come to the space where your session will take place and pause their conversations. | ||
+ | |||
+ | To begin, it's good to have a short " | ||
+ | |||
+ | * "How are you?" | ||
+ | * "Shake off your worries and expectations" | ||
+ | * " | ||
+ | * Sociometry exercises - "How old are you", "Where do you come from", "Touch the person you've known the longest" | ||
+ | * " | ||
+ | * "Pick a plant and describe why" | ||
+ | * " | ||
+ | * "Pick an animal that resonates with your character and describe it" | ||
+ | * "Pick a word that describes what you're passionate about" | ||
+ | * ... | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Session 3: The Framing ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | By now we should have all the participants in the room, they arrived and introduced themselves to each other, and there is a nice buzz of anticipation. At a dinner party, people have had their aperitifs, have sat down in anticipation and you might now bring out the menu and an amuse bouche. In gatherings that we're talking about this moment is called " | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | === Thematic framing and powerful questions === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | Aside from defining the boundaries, framing can tickle people' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Questions for group conversations are the ones that can't be answered with a simple yes or no, this or that. Otherwise the discussion will be very short. For example, a question "will we survive the next winter" | ||
+ | * how will we live next winter? | ||
+ | * what will our next winter be like? | ||
+ | * why are we afraid of the winter? | ||
+ | * what will we do to survive (and thrive) next winter? | ||
+ | |||
+ | What (if), how and why questions usually have sufficiently juicy answers to allow for interesting conversations and multiple perspectives. Why questions can be seen as patronising, | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | |||
+ | Paraphrasing from The art of powerful questions: a powerful question is a three-dimensional one. The three dimensions are: construction, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Before the gathering design several questions and check with someone you trust to see which one resonates better and is seen as more ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | < | ||
+ | |||
+ | Context: A bureaucrat from the Flemish Authorities asks you to host a workshop about the " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Challenge: Design a question and frame it in a way to make the invitees excited to participate. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Result: Each person presents their framing and the question. We discuss the questions and experiences in the group. Which characteristics of powerful questions can we distill?</ | ||
+ | |||
+ | (From our exercise on 20131031) A powerful question: | ||
+ | * invites you personally, not you as a group to engage with the topic (you can't hide behind the group) | ||
+ | * is phrased in a positive and stimulating way | ||
+ | * calls out for creativity | ||
+ | * connects to the participants through intuition and feeling (this might not work in all groups, the framing of the question should pad it in enough intellectual substance to speak to the more fact- and perception oriented people) | ||
+ | * has the ability to take you elsewhere and allow you to leave the burden behind | ||
+ | * works inclusively, | ||
+ | * speaks to imagination, | ||
+ | * makes the participant think: "i want to be a part of this" | ||
+ | * uses speculation and imagination to stimulate forward thinking | ||
+ | * encourages playfulness and flights of fancy (can be even seen as ' | ||
+ | * can be delivered with a joy and excitement in the voice or with calmness, softness and earnestness, | ||
+ | * reminds people of the importance of the topic (waardering, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | === Framing the flow and participation === | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | The flow is the ' | ||
+ | |||
+ | You can start by framing the goal of the session (even if it is something like " | ||
+ | |||
+ | With the goal and the flow people will have a picture of what will happen, but still need guidelines to know how they' | ||
+ | * please chose to talk to people you don't know (so well) | ||
+ | * observe, then interact | ||
+ | * people with blue tags join breakout group in the blue corner | ||
+ | |||
+ | There can also be instructions to avoid disruptive behaviours (" | ||
+ | * allow others to finish their sentences | ||
+ | * please switch your mobile phones | ||
+ | * try to use " | ||
+ | * ... | ||
+ | |||
+ | These instructions should be short, clear and memorable. Specific instructions what to do for each session can be given in the beginning of a session. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | //next session: 20131216 10-14h: hosting and summarising conversations// | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ==== References ==== | ||
+ | |||