The Art of Participatory Leadership

Workbook

Why is participation even more important now?

How can cultivating cultures of collaboration based on
practicing dialogue enable us to navigate uncertain
futures?

Sofia, Bulgaria
30 September – 02 October 2022
 ...a training and practice retreat for all who aspire to lead by
engaging in interactive ways with groups and teams.

Welcome leaders - those who care to help - entrepreneurs, social

The Art of innovators, youth workers, community builders, socialworkers,

academics, politicians, business professionals, man-agers,

Participatory
consultants, hosts.

The Art of Hosting has been offered in Europe, the MiddleEast,

Leadership Africa, and North and South America.

We are a growing community of practitioners, supporting each

other to further our ability as practitioners/hosts in co-creative
learning and problem-solving.
Workbook About this Workbook//This workbook is your personal reference
journal with the purpose of strengthening
your learning by offering the key materials of this training aswell
as a place for you to
take notes to help you remember, focus and deepen your
understanding and practice.

It shares the basic assumptions and world views underpinning

the Art of Hosting practice.

It includes several methodologies and practices that the

community of practitioners has found simple and helpful.They
are for you to use, improve, and share.

It provides you with resources - books, links, and information and

where to go next – in your learning and/or reading.

3
What is the Art of Hosting? 5
A “Definition”
A Few Assumptions
5
6 Table of
Contents
Purpose of this Art of Hosting 6
On Leadership 8

Two Complimentary World Views: Organizations as Machines and Adaptive Systems

Living Systems Approach
9
9
what
you’ll find
AoH and Living Systems as a Complement to Traditional Leadership Models 10

Mental Models 11
Working with Vision and Purpose
The Chaordic Path
11-12
13-14
inside...
Divergence and Convergence 15-16
Organising Patterns 17-18
The Fifth Organisational Paradigm 19

Methodologies and Practices 20

Overview of Core Methodologies 20
When Practicing Dialogue 21
Powerful Questions 22-23
The Four-old Practice 24-25
The Circle 26-27
Appreciative Inquiry 28-29
World Cafe 30
Open Space 31-32
Collective Mind Map 33
Pro Action Cafe 34-35
The Art of Harvesting 36-38
Seven Little Helpers 39-41

Working Together Using Art of Participatory Leadership 42

Hosting and Designing as a Team 42-44
Consensus Decision Making 46-47
Communities of Practice 48

Strategic Process Design 52

Checklist for the design of processes in specific contexts 53-57
The Chaordic Stepping Stones 60
The Chaordic Design Process 61-62
The U process 65-66

Resources and additional materials 66

Books, Articles, Websites 66-67
Article - The basics of hosting - Hosting in a hurry 68-75
Guide - Core elements of convening, designing, hosting and harvesting
participatory events and meetings
76-80
Article - New Solutions are Needed to Work Generatively with Complexity
81-90

4
What is ‘A’ Definition//The AoH is...An

the Art of The Art of Hosting is a response to a world that is becoming

increasingly complex and fragmented, where true solutions
emerging group of methodologies
for facilitating conversation
in groups of all sizes, supportedby
Hosting? and innovations lie not in one leader or one viewpoint, but
in the bigger picture of our collectiveintelligence.
principles that help maximise
collective intelligence, integrate and
The Art of Hosting is a response at a time when institutions

AoH
utilise diversity and minimise/
and democracies are failing to address the increasingchaos in
transform conflict. Processes facili-
our world. It is a testing ground for those seeking to find new,
tated in this way tend to result in
effective and healthy patterns for organising, innovating and
collective clarity and wise action
interacting, to create new forms that serve us better.
- sustainable, workable solutions to
The Art of Hosting is a practice ground for all who aspire
the most complex problems. The
to bring out the best in others. It is based on the
approach ensures that stake holders
assumption and experience that human beings have an
buy into the process (because they
enormous untapped wealth and resilience.
participate in the design and the
The leadership approach called the Art of Hosting (AoH)
process is by definition transparent)
activates the collective intelligence in a group to find new
and make ongoing feedback,
solutions to the increasing challenges of the world of work
learning and course correction a
today.
natural and efficient part of life
Like other organisations and as leaders we need to be more
flexible and creative in the context of accelerating changes,
And Art of Hosting is muchmore
increased complexity, and challenging economic realities. The
than this.
traditional command-and-control type of leadership alone is
It is a Practice, like mediation, martial
no longer appropriate. In the currentclimate, tapping into
arts or mindfulness is a practice. We
the potential held in the organisation is crucial. Inviting
see it as a Four Fold Practice.
everyone to participate with their diverse perspectives is the
It is an Invitation to live and work in
key to releasing this potential. AoH practice is based on
the space between chaosand order,
convening strategic dialogue and conversations as drivers for
the Chaordic Path.
development and change.This form of leadership is already
It is a Fellowship, which is morethan
used with successful results in multiple sectors (government,
a community. It is a web of
NGOs, and privatesettings) particularly in the following
practitioners and not an organi-
areas:
sation.
• Strategic organisational development It builds on and lives by the prin-
• Facilitating large-scale conversations around stra- ciples of Living Systems.
tegic questions
• Stake holder participation

5
What is the Art New Solutions are Needed// AoH is built on
the assumption and experiencethat we Meaningful Conversation can Lead to Wise

of Hosting? need to find new solutions for thecommon Action// Human beings that are involved and
good, whether in corporations, invited to worktogether take ownership and
government, education, non-profits, social responsibility when ideas and solutions

A Few movements, communities, or families. These

solutions are more comprehensive and more
must be put into action. Conversations that
surface
readily found and owned a shared clarity on issues of importance
Assumptions if they are co-created by the between us.
The time is now.
foster ownership and responsibility when
ideas and solutions must be put into ac-
tion. – Actions that come out of collective
New Solutions Grow Between Chaos and clarity are both wise and sustainable.
Order// If we want to in- novate we have to
be willing to let go of what we know and Paradoxes at Work// In hosting strategic and
step into not knowing. In nature all meaningful conversations we operate in a
innovation happens at the edge of chaos, or world that is not black or white – but rather
in the space betweenchaos and order (the full spectrum. We needto be able to
chaordic path). It isin the chaordic space operate in and hold para- doxes such as:
that new connections are created and new • Action and Reflection
possibilities emerge. - The way to any major • Content and Process
change ortransformation will go through
chaos intonew order.
• Leading and Following
• Hierarchy and Community
Conversation Matters// It is common sense • Commonality and Difference
to bring more people togetherin
conversation. It is the way we have done it
in generations past, gathering round fires
and sitting in circles. It is the way we
occasionally taste now, building core
relationships that invite real collabo-ration.

“Instead of looking on dis-

cussion as a stumbling block
in the way of action, we
think it an indispensable
preliminary to any wise ac-
tion at all.”
Pericles

6
We sit at the edge of transformation, the world
is changing rapidly and we are experiencing
unprecedented shifts in our com-munities,
our work and our daily lives. It is showing up in
our systems, in health, in education, in local
government
and in our global food and financial systems.
Many of us are hosting and leading trans-
formative initiatives, bringing movements and
people together in new and collaborativeways.
As this grows we meet new challenges of
complexity, diversity and rapid change, we are
challenged to work on many levels simul-
taneously. Amid this complexity, turbulence and
diversity, we are united in our aspirations to
grow and learn as individuals and as part of a
community. Meaningful conversations are
needed at the best of times, and right now we
need transformative practices and conversation
spaces more than ever.
As Participants in this Art of Hosting you
will…//Learn valuable approaches and tools for
engaging stakeholdersin meaningful
conversations
Develop a shared understanding of each other’s
work and opportunities for future andstrategic
collaborations
Explore and gain clarity on how to addressissues
at the at the centre of day-to-day decisions and
practices in our community Explore and
identify new strategies and approaches for
furthering your work in ourcommunity and/or
systems
Multiple Levels of Focus//AoH invites us to
operate at four interconnected levels at
once. The learning at each of these levels in-
Purpose of this
forms and is present in the subsequent levels,so
that a natural hierarchy results. These fourlevels
operate as characteristics of a whole and not as a
linear path, but rather as characteristics of
work. Art of Hosting
Individual
-To continue to connect to our passion
training
and reason for choosing a different way of
leading in our communities
-To strengthen individual courage to
lead as hosts
Team
-To train on the competencies of collective
reflection and wise action
-To practice co-creating, co-deciding and
co-hosting in order to host strategic
projects, meetings, community conver-
sations...
Community/Organization/Etc.
-To experience working in unity withother
leaders
-To experience new organizational forms
and work of co-creating relation-ships
that serve the deeper needs and
patterns in our community and world
Global
-To understand the bigger context that
we are always part of
-To benefit from knowledge and experi-
ence of a global or “trans-local” network of
practitioners and learners in this field
We have three days together to deepen a
practice of being present, focusing on ques-
tions that matter, listening to each other and to
what we create together, harvesting, and
choosing wise action. It is our opportunity tobe
in the practice of thoughtfully doing the work
that needs to be done in our community.
7
On Leadership
Margaret
Wheatley In fact, in this day and age, when problems are increasingly complex,and
there simply are not simple answers,
and there is no simple cause and effect any longer, I
cannot imagine how stressful it is to be the leaderand
to pretend that you have the answer.

So, what I see in life-affirming leaders is that they are willing to say topeople “I
do not know the answer, but together we will figure it out.”

So, they are also leaders who rely on other people’s intelligence.

And a life-affirming leader is one who knows how to rely on and use the
intelligence that exists everywhere in the community, or the school or the
organization.

And so these leaders act as hosts, as stewards of other people’s creativityand

other people’s intelligence.

And when I say host, I mean a leader these days needs to be one who
convenes people, who convenes diversity, who convenes all viewpoints in
processes where our intelligence can come forth.

So these kinds of leaders do not give us the answers, but they help gatherus
together so that together we can discover the answers.

8
 Living Systems/ A Natural Approach to
Some qualities of Living Systems:
Organizing Life// For three hundred years,
Two since Descartes and Newton, our thinking
has predominantlybeen influenced by
• A living system only accepts its own
solutions (we only support thosethings
we are a part of creating)
Complimentary
rationalism. We have been able to figure
things out and “be in control”. We tend to • A living system only pays attention to
view our organisations and communities as that which is meaningful to it (hereand

World Views we view ma- chines – as consisting of clearly

Organizations
as Machines and
as Adaptive
Systems
By Trenz Puca
‘‘People are intelligent,
creative, adaptive, self-
organizing, and meaning-
seeking.
Organizations are living
systems. They too are
intelligent, creative,
adaptive, self-organizing,
meaning- seeking.’’
defined parts with clearly defined roles
and a predictable output.
In a complex world, this mechanistic view
may not always be adequate to meetthe
complex problems and challenges we face.
What if communities and organisations
could be viewed as living systems aswell?
Living systems exist everywhere in nature
– bacteria forming colonies or ants
coming together to form a system thatis
capable of creating an anthill. – Some
termite nests even have air conditioningso
the temperature stays the same insidethe
hill!
There are two exciting phenomena in
nature and living systems:
1) Nature has the capability to
self-organise, i.e. it does not require
someone specific to direct the or-
ganisation instead of all who are in-
volved participate in what is neededto
achieve a purpose
2) Self-organisation can lead to
emergence = the emergence of to-
tally new properties and qualities =1+1
= 11 or something totally newand
surprising.
What if organisations really are living
systems and there could be a simpler way of
organising that opens up the possibilityfor
emergence – provided the right conditions
are in place?
What would our organisations and com-
munities look like then?
now)
• In nature a living system participatesin
the development of its neighbour - an
isolated system is doomed.
• Nature and all of nature, including
ourselves is in constant change (with-
out ‘change management’)
• Nature seeks diversity – new rela-
tions open up to new possibilities. It is
not survival of the fittest – but
everything that is fit – as many spe-
cies as possible. Diversity increases our
chances of survival.
• ‘Tinkering’ opens up to what is
possible here and now – nature is not
intent on finding perfect solutions,
but those that are workable
• A living system cannot be steered or
controlled – they can only be teased,
nudged, titillated
• A system changes (identity) when its
perception of itself changes
• All the answers do not exist ‘out
there’ – sometimes we must experi-
ment to find out what works
• Who we are together is always differ-
ent and more than who we are alone
- possibility of emergence. Our rangeof
creative expression increases as we join
others. New relationships create new
capacities.
• Human beings are capable of self-
organising – given the right conditions

Meg Wheatley

9
 AoH and
AoH and Living Systems
Traditional Leadership
Complement

Mechanistic Organic Living Systems

Management through controlling Leadership by trust
a complement
Executing procedures
to
Innovating process
No single person has the right answer but
Together we can reach greater clarity -
somebody has to decide

Silos/hierarchical structures
intelligence through diversity

Networks
conventional
Leading by giving instructions
Leading by hosting Leadership
Models
Top-down orders - often without full
information Decisions informed by consultation

Working without a clear purpose and Collective clarity of purpose is the

jumping to solutions invisible leader

Motivation via carrot and stick Motivation through engagement and

ownership
Seeking questions
Seeking answers
Purpose-oriented - the rest falls into place
Results-oriented

Chairing, reporting Hosting, harvesting, follow up

A Note on World views ... //Our world views, made up of our values, beliefs, assumptions,
attitudes, and ideas, impact everything from how we understand the nature of reality to
how we respond to the environment around us. Each person’s worldview influences their
goals and desires, consciously and unconsciouslyshaping perceptions, motivations, and values.

The convergence of our individual characteristics and our unique history, including our life
experiences, region, culture, religion, socioeconomic status, and family are expressed through
our worldview. Our world views inform and affect our individual realities and the actions we
take in the world. There is an infinite multiplicity of world views and more than one “right” way or
perspective. Each of us has our own unique worldview. We are each part of a complex, ever-
changing, interconnected living universe. What we do influences the world around us, and the
world around us influences us, even when we arenot aware of exactly how. Greater understanding
of the interdependence of all life leads to a more complete view of reality.

10
Mental Models
Working with Vision: Where do we want to go?What is The Purpose of Purpose: Why arewe all here

Vision and
our ideal future?//Definition: The act or collectively?//Discovering purpose is to
power of seeing discover why something exists. Often we
A vision statement is sometimes called a hurry to get into action,before we properly

Purpose picture of your organisation in the futurebut

it’s so much more than that. Your vision
statement is your inspiration, the frame-
work for all your strategic planning. A
vision statement may apply to an entire
company or to a single division of that
company. Whether for all or part of an
organisation, the vision statement answers
the question, “Where do we want to go?”
What you are doing when creating a vi-
sion statement is articulating your dreams
and hopes for your organisation or
community. It reminds you of what you are
tryingto build.
understand why we need to take action.
Gaining clarity on purpose, and especially
gaining collective clarity is setting the right
course for takingaction. A purpose, therefore,
becomes a navigational tool like a compass as
it helpsus to discover the direction of travel
for our efforts so they can be of service.
Purpose can also been described as ‘the glue’
that brings people’s contribution andwhy it
is worth working on this together.In fact,
purpose becomes an invisible leader as it
both connects different actionstaken and
supports everyone to know whytheir
contribution is valuable.

A Statement of Purpose defines, with absolute clarity

and deep conviction, the purpose of the
community. An effective statement of purpose will
be a clear, commonly understood statement of that
which identifies and binds the communitytogether
as worthy of pursuit. When properly done it can
usually be expressed in a single sentence.
Participants will say about the purpose, “If we could
achieve that, my life would have mean-ing.”
Dee Hock

11

Mental Models
Working with Purpose to be a useful navigational tool in
seeking the way forward contains three
elements:
Vision and Higher Intent – why action is needed forthe
greater good in service of life, e.g. “Weare not
Purpose
forming coalitions of states, we areuniting
men” - Jean Monnet (one of the founding
fathers of the European Com- munity)
Statement of Purpose – what effort is needed
here and what is being pursued so that
direction of action can be set, (does not
define the destination, instead it invites and
inspires others to participate withclarity
Intention – The will to be in pursuit of
grounding the higher intent through the
actions we take regardless of the challenges
that might arise
When these three elements are aligned
and collectively understood – the greater
good of why we need to take action, the
clarity of what we are pursuing in order to
ground the higher intent and the will to do
this regardless of the conditions – then
purpose becomes a powerful attractor that
allows people to put their individual effortsto
work together on making a difference for
all.
‘‘Collective clarity
of purpose is the
invisibleleader.’’
Mary Parker Follett
In an organisation or a community, many
purposes co-exist, and often not enough
effort is given to interconnect these pur-
poses so that it can often feel that differ-
ent and conflicting purposes are at play.
It is therefore important to remember that
different purposes are at play, for example:
• purpose of the stakeholders that the
organisation serves
• purpose of the whole community /
organisation
• purpose of the core group
• purpose of each member of the core
team
In the light of this, the following ques-tions
may inspire your collective inquiryinto your
shared purpose:
• What is our collective purpose?
• What is the purpose of our func-
tion, team, project?
• How does my purpose and the
purpose we are all here to accomplish
align?
• What is the purpose that is at the
heart of this work and that will alignus
all to accomplish it?
Putting effort, therefore in gaining clarity
and specifically collective clarity on purpose
is a key strategic action that if overlooked,
usually ends up confusion and even conflict
instead of achieving outcomes that make a
difference. Seeking purpose is not
something to be doneonce, either. As
action is taken and moreis discovered as a
result, coming back to check in with
purpose – are we still on course or do we
have a new one arising isa wise thing to do.
12
Emergence(new
consciousness,new Mental Models
awareness, andnew
solutions) The Chaordic
Innovation
Emergent
Practice
Status Quo
Best
Practice
Path

Chamos Chaos Order Control

Stifling Control or
Destructive Chaos or Could also be called Could also be called
micromanaging
fundamental Emergence Natural Harmony
breakdo
The Chaordic Path
wn

When you learn to practice the Chaordic

Path, it begins to look like this...

Chaos

Chamos Control

Order

And of course, here is how our practice fits together...

13
There is a path to take between Chaos

Mental Models
As we move between chaos and order, individually and
and Order that leads us to the new,
collectively, we move through confusion and conflict
collective learning, real time innova-
toward clarity. We are all called to walk this path
tion. Instead of relying on controlling
every detail in our organisations or
communities from the top down,
without judgement – some will feel more comfortable
with chaos, others with order. Both areneeded as, The Chaordic
together, we walk the edge that is be- tween these

Path
many leaders today see the need to
two toward something wholly new.
access the collective intelligence and
On the far side of chaos is chamos – or destructive
collective wisdom of everyone, which can
chaos. On the far side of order is stifling control. When
be, at times, a “messy” process until we
we move toward either of these extremes, theresult is
reach new insight and clarity.
apathy or rebellion.
We are beginning to understand and
The very opposite of chaordic confidence, where thenew
treat organisations and communities
cannot be born.
more like living systems than static
machines. After all, the chaordic path
There is a path toward common ground, co- creation,
is the story of our natural world
and wise and strategic action. There is a “sweet spot” of
– form arises out of non-linear, com-
emergence with tangible results. If we are looking for
plex, diverse systems. “At the edge of
innovative, new solutions we willfind them in a place
chaos” is where life innovates – where
between chaos and order – thechaordic path.
things are not hard wired, but are
flexible enough for new connections
Chaos/Order is the Place for Leadership//The practice
and solutions to occur. New levels of
of leadership resides in the place between chaos and
order become possible out of chaos.
order. When facing new challenges that cannot be met
This “chaordic confidence” – the ca-
with the same way we arecurrently working, we need to
pacity we need to stay in the dance of
learn new ways of operating. It is during these times of
order and chaos – supports a genera-
uncertainty and increased complexity, where results
tive emergence that allows the new,
cannot be predicted that leaders need to invite others
collective intelligence and wise actionto
to share diverse knowledge to discover new purpose
occur. In this space of emergence, we
and strategies and decide the way forward.
leave our collective encounters with
that which not one of us individually
Order/Control is a Place for Management//The practice
brought into the room. Thisrequires us
of management lies between order and control where
to stay in a transformativeshift, though
activities need to be maintained and executed
we may want to veer toward either
routinely so that a particular standard results. It is the
chaos or order.
place where “more of the same” is required. Therefore,
And in fact, we will move between
when predictability iscalled for and where procedures
chaos and order – this is the genera-
and standards are clearly defined and need to be
tive dance, an oscillation often seen in
adhered to.
the natural world. A balance be-
tween two seeming polarities, which
are instead compliments of each
other.

How much or- der

do we need? How
much chaoswould
be helpfulhere?

14
 In entering into an inquiry or multi stake- The convergent phase is goal-oriented and

Mental Models holder conversation we operate with three

different phases in the process – divergent,
focused, linear, structured and usually subject
to time constraints. It is focused ongetting
results and may require quick decisions.
emergent and convergent. Each of these
Divergence phases is different, and it is important for a
host to know where we are in the process – Convergent thinking means evaluating al-
ternatives, summarising key points, sorting
and
and what is needed in each phase.
ideas into categories and arriving at general
The “breath’ of divergence and convergence,of conclusions.

Convergence breathing in and breathing out is at the heart

of our process design. Every process goes to a
few or
more of these
‘breathing’ phases.
In the divergent phase, there is as yet no clear
goal. This is a “goal- seeking” phase where a
clear shared purpose gives the collective
direction. An- other driver in thisphase is
asking theright questions.
The emergent phase, betweenthe divergent
and conver- gent, is fondly known as the
‘groan zone’ –It is the phase where different
ideas and needsare integrated. It may require
us to stretch our own understanding to hold
and include other
points of view. We call it the groan zone
because it may feel messy - an uncomfort-
able stretch - but it is also the phase wherethe
new solution emerges.

If you close the divergent phase too soon, the

level of newness or innovation will be less.
Ideally a group will stay in inquiry in the
divergent phase until a new shared and
agreed solution or goal is seen by everyone.

Divergent thinking typically generates

alternatives, has free-for-all open discussion,
gathers diverse points of view and unpacks the
problem.

The divergent phase is non-linear and needs

”chaos time”. It is process-oriented and
needs prolonged decision time.

Diamond graphic by Darrell Freeman at Colour

15
Mental Models
Divergence
and
Convergence

Reflections on Divergence and Convergence:

Divergent Thinking Convergent Thinking

Generating alternatives Evaluating alternatives

Free-for-all open discussion Summarizing key points

Gathering diverse points of view Sorting ideas into categories

Unpacking the logic of a problem Arriving at general conclusions

16
Over the millennia, human beings have
developed many different ways of organising
together. One of the questions that theArt of
Hosting community is continually asking
itself is “What are the organisational concepts
that we can develop together that are
actually good for us, and are good for this
time?”
Four organisational paradigms:
Circle//The mother of all our organisational
forms – humans started sitting in circle as
soon as they invented fires to sit around. We
told stories, held elder councilsand solved
problems in this way. This formis very useful for
reflection, storytelling, being together.
Purpose is in the centre – it isshared.
Triangle (hierarchy)//Then we stopped our
nomadic wandering and settled in one place,
we developed agriculture. Some people had
more or better land than others, andwe began
to develop hierarchies where one person or
group of people had power and everybody
else did not. And now we had belongings
that we needed to protect. The triangular
form of hierarchy is very useful for action, for
getting things done. The boss
Circle/Council
- Nomadic Age
Networks -
Information Age
says “this is what needs to happen”, and the
others say “yes, sir!” and do it. Purpose is at the
top.
Square (bureaucracy)//The more we got
Mental
Models
settled, the more we had to sustain. Our
systems got very complicated, our
population exploded, and the bureaucracy
developed. It really is a development of the
hierarchy, and becomes very complex, with Organizing
lots of structures and processes involved.
Bureaucracy is fantastic for stability and
maintaining the status quo, and for managing
Patterns
complex situations. It typically moves slowly.
Purpose in the bureaucracy is also atthe top.
Networks//A more recent organisational form,
networks are collections of individuals, circles or
triangles – nodes that are connected together.
We rarely find networked collections of
bureaucracies, but networks can and often do
spring up inside them.
Networks are great for relationship and in-
novation, and for getting things done fast.
The connection is guided by individual
purpose. The different nodes are connected
together because their respective purposes
need each other. Once the need is no longer
there, the network connection will most often
lapse.
Hierarchy - Agricultural
Age
Bureaucracy -
Industrial Age
17
 When a new organisational form emerges, the older onesdo Mental
not disappear. Each form has both advantages and short-
comings – each is good for different things.
Models
Organizing
When we want to start an organisation ourselves or organise
something in our lives, which one of these organizational forms
do we choose? What we have seen in the Art of Hosting
community is that we need to build structures that canuse
any of these forms at the right time. As need arises, howare we Patterns
able to respond with the most useful organisational
form?

When something needs to get done, then triangle is great.

When we need to stop and reflect, circle is useful. When we
need stability, it is good to have a bureaucracy. When we need
to innovate, networks work best. So what is the next level of
organisational form that can hold all of these? The Art of
Hosting community is observing the emergence of a
new pattern…

‘‘Successful organizing
Pace of Change is based on the
recognition thatpeople
Organic Models Mechanistic models get organized because
they, too, have a vision.’’

Simple
Paul Wellstone
Circle/Council Hierarchy -
- Nomadic Age Agricultural Age

random
slow
fast medium

Chart, Bureaucracy -
Complex

Networks -
Jessica Industrial Age
Information Age
Lipnerand
Jeffrey
Stamps A NEED!

18
 Mental
Models
The Fifth
Paradigm
‘‘Then perhaps we would
discover that ‘organiza-
tional miracles’ are always
happening, and have al-
ways been happening.’’
Mario Tronti
The fifth organisational pattern is a
combination of the circle or councilfor
collective clarity, the triangle or project
team (hierarchy) for action and the
square or bureaucracy for
accountability, structure, and stability
and the network for rapid sharing
information, inspiration and linking
all the parts together.
At the centre, always, is our pur-
pose. Typically, a core team will gather
in a circle around a purpose, which
will be based on meeting a need that
is felt in our life contexts.As we gather
around the core purpose, we begin to
form relationshipswith others in the
circle that, as we map the
connections, start to showup as a
network. But while these
relationships can help us all with our
individual work, they do not
necessarily allow us to manifests our
shared purpose in the world, which
will typically involve making things
happen. The first step might be to
develop actions to sustain the core
team. So individual members take
responsibility for different aspects –like
organising meetings or raising funds -
other members step up in
a support role and this leads to the
formation of triangles. The triangles
will be dictated by the central pur-
pose. Hierarchy forms in response to
central purpose – not somebody’sego!
Once the core team is sustainable, the
next step is typically to open
up the conversation to the wider
community that feels the need that
informs the purpose at the centre of
our circle. A triangle from the core
team might then get together to call
a larger-scale assembly, which might
become a circle of supporters for the
larger project. The inner circle is
reaching out to the next level, which
will in turn reach out to a wider
community, creating con- centric
circles rippling out into oursociety,
each circle connected to theothers by
triangles animating actioninformed
by the core purpose.
The pattern of core purpose, circles,
triangles and networks repeats again
and again. Another typical finding is
that as the core team goes out into
the community and the con-
versation expands, the core purposeis
informed by a broader perspective
and is adjusted accordingly, to
accommodate the next level of scale
and action.
It is important to understand that
what we are describing here is nota
deliberately designed model, butthe
description of a pattern that has
emerged naturally and spon-
taneously throughout the global
hosting community as we have
collectively developed our work of
hosting in ever-larger and more
complex adaptive systems.
19
Methodologies Method:Circle// Adaptable to a
variety of groups, issues, and

and Practices
timeframes. Circle can be the
Method:Appreciative Inquiry// Useful when a
process used for the duration of
different perspective is needed, or when we
a gathering, particularly if the
wish to begin a newprocess from a fresh,
Overview of group is relatively small and time
for deep reflection is aprimary
positive vantage point. It can help move a
group that is stuck in “what is” toward
aim. Circle can also beused as a
Core
“what could be”. Appreciative Inquiry can be
means for “checking in” and
used with individuals, partners, small
“checking out” or a wayof making
groups,or large organisations.

Methodologies
decisions together, particularly
decisions based on consensus.

Method:World Café//Process used to

foster interaction and dialoguewith both
large and small groups.
Particularly effective in surfacing the
collective wisdom of large groups of
diverse people. Very flexible and adaptsto
many different purposes – information
sharing, relationship building, deep
reflection exploration and action
planning.
Method:Open Space//Useful
in many contexts, including
strategic direction-setting,
envisioning the future, conflict
resolution, morale building,
consultation with stakeholders,
community planning, collabora-
tion and deep learning about
issues and perspectives.

Method:Collective Mind Map//Quick and simple way

to create a shared overview of issues and
opportunities relevant to a particular subject or
challenge. Always has a clear focus that can be
captured in a ”burning” question, Can be done
either on a large sheet of paper or screen, elec-
tronically with a mind-map program projected ona
screen.
When all themes and issues have been recorded on
the mind-map, the group can decide on the
priorities by voting on the map. This gives a clear
indication on which themes or issues have the
highest leverage for further action.

20
 The following practices can radically shift the quality of any conversation,
whether with one person, or in a small circle or with hundreds of people.As a
muscle, they need to be practiced regularly to become natural in anycontext.
When
Practice them and invite others to practice them with you!

Focus on what matters//We have no time to lose for what doesn’t.

Practicing
Suspend judgments, assumptions, certainties// No one knows it all and it is not about
knowing who is right or wrong. It is about exploring together and surfacing what we do not Dialogue
know or see yet.
Speak one at a time//Invite to speak with intention.Listen
to each other carefully//Invite to listen with attention Listen together for
Helpful Hints
insights and deeper questions//Do not remain at the surface of what you
already know. Engage fully with othersinto bringing what we do not know
yet to the surface.
Link and connect ideas//This is how you can learn, surface what do
not know yet, and innovate.
Slow down//We are so often caught in a hectic flow of actions. Slowing
down helps to foster more reflection.Be
aware of your impact on the group//Do not monopolise the speaking time.
Make sure everybody can be heard. Focus on what is in the
middle rather than what is in your mind.
Accept that divergent opinions are okay//We do not need to reach a
consensus on what we are discussing. Innovation comes from put-
ting different perspectives together.
Contribute with your mind and heart//Bring your full self into the room. Allow
yourself to be both a professional and a human being. Play, doodle,
draw//Use a large sheet in the middle of your group as aspace to capture the
results of your collective reflection.
Have fun!//What if enjoying ourselves was the key to improving our
learning and performance?

(The above “hints” adapted from world cafe etiquette, circle practice, and
Theory U.)

‘‘Never doubt that a small

group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed,
it is the only thing that ever
has.’’

Margaret Mead

21
Powerful
Powerful Questions
Focus Attention,
Intention, and
Questions Energy

inquiring
about things
that matter While answers tend to bring us to closure, questions open up to
exploration.

Asking the right question//Asking the right question is the most

effective way of opening up a conversation and keeping it engaging. A
high-quality question focuses on what is meaningful for the
participants, triggers our curiosity and invites us to explorefurther.
When inviting people into a conversation that matters, it is helpful to
have an overall question, one that itself embodies the purpose of the
meeting. This is the key question or the “calling question” for the
conversation or meeting. The calling question isbest formulated
together with key stakeholders.
The conversation may include other questions than the calling
question. The questions you choose or that people discover during
conversation are critical to its success. A hosted conversation could
explore one question or a series of related questions.

Some guidelines for choosing questions:

• A well-crafted question attracts energy and focuses attention
on what matters. Experienced hosts recommend askingopen-
ended questions, not ones that have a simple yes/no answer.
• Good questions invite inquiry and curiosity. They do notneed
to promote action or problem solving immediately.
• You’ll know a good question when it continues to surface
good ideas and possibilities.
• Check possible questions with key people who will take part
in a conversation. Does it hold their attention and energy?

22
 A Story about the Power of Questions//
“You can eat an apple,” I said and gave him the green fruit.
A powerful question… It was as if he had seen an apple for the first time. First he just held it there andsmelled it,
but then he took a little bite.
• Is simple and clear “Mmmm,” he said and took a bigger bite.
“Did it taste good?” I asked.
• Is thought He bowed deeply. I wanted to know how an apple tastes the very first time you tasteit, so I
provoking asked again, ”How did it taste?”
• Generates energy He bowed and bowed.
• Focuses inquiry “Why do you bow?” I asked.
Mika bowed again. It made me feel so confused, that I hurried to ask the questionagain.
• Challenges “Why do you bow?”
assumptions Now it was him who became confused. I think he did not know if he should bow again
• Opens new or just answer. ”Where I come from we always bow, when someone asks an interest-ing
possibilities question,” he explained, ”and the deeper the question, the deeper we bow.”
That was the strangest thing I had heard in a long time. I could not understand that aquestion
• Evokes more
was something to bow for. ”What do you do when you greet each other?”
questions ”We always try to find something wise to ask?” he said.”Why?”

First he bowed quickly, because I had asked another question and then he said:
”We try to ask a wise question to get the other person to bow”.
I was so impressed by the answer that I bowed as deeply as I could. - When I lookedup Mika
had put his finger in his mouth. After a long time he took it out.
“Why did you bow?” he asked and looked insulted.
“Because you answered my question so wisely,” I said.
Now he said very loudly and clearly something that has followed me in my life ever since. -
“An answer is nothing to bow for. Even if an answer can sound ever so right, stillyou should not
bow to it.”
I nodded briefly. But I regretted it at once, because now Mika may think that I bowedto the
answer he had just given.
“The one who bows shows respect”, Mika continued, “You should never show respectfor an
answer.”
“Why not?”
“An answer is always the part of the road that is behind you. Only questions point to thefuture.”
Those words were so wise, I thought, that I had to press my hands against my chin not
to bow again…-
Jostein Gaarder, 1996 in Norway

‘‘If I had an hour to solvea

problem and my life de-
pended on it, I would use
the first 55 minutes to
formulate the right
question because
as soon as I have identified
the right question I can solve
the problem in less than five
minutes.’’

Albert Einstein

23
24
 ...be courageous, inviting and willing to initiate conversations that matter - find and host
powerful questions with the stakeholders – and then make sure you harvest the insights, the
patterns, learnings and wise actions...
Hosting conversations is both more and less than facilitating. It is an act of leader-ship and
means taking responsibility for creating and holding the “container” in which a group of
people can do their best work together.
You can create this container using the seven helpers (p. xx) as starting points, and although you
can also do this in the moment, the better prepared you are the better. The bare minimum to do Self-organising
is to discern the need, get clear on the purpose of the meet-ing, prepare a good, powerful
question to initiate the conversation and know how you will harvest and what will be done
with that harvest, to ensure that results aresustainable and the effort was worth it.
Hosting conversations takes courage and it takes a bit of certainty and faith in people. We
sometimes give short shrift to conversational spaces because of the fear we experi- ence in
stepping up to host. It is, however, a gift to host a group and it is a gift to be
hosted well.

...be willing to listen fully, respectfully,

...be willing to cocreate and co-host with others,
blending your knowing, experience and practices
with theirs, working partnership…
The fourth practice is about showing up in a
conversation without being a spectator, and con-
tributing to the collective effort to sustain results.
The best conversations arise when we listen for
what is in the middle, what is arising out of the
center of our collaboration. It is not about the
balancing of individual agendas, it is about find-
ing out what is new. And when that is discovered
work unfolds beautifully when everyone is clear
about what they can contribute to the work.
In a truly co-creative process it becomes ir-
relevant who said or contributed what – the gift
is in the synergy and inspiration when we each
build on each others knowledge and the whole
becomes much bigger than the sum of the parts.
This is how results become sustainable over time
– they fall into the network of relationships that
arise from a good conversation, from friends
working together.
The collaborative field can produce unexpected
and surprising results.
do...
Emergence
1 be fully present. Being present also means being aware of one’s environment, other
without judgment and thinking you already
know the answer – practice conversation
Host Others
Contrib mindfully...
be had Flowin Conversation is an art, it is not just talk.
Encour
honour It demands that we listen carefully to one
another and that we offer what we can in the
service of the whole. Curiosity and judg-
ment cannot live together in the same space.
If we are judging what we are hearing, we
Be Part of a
cannot be curious about the outcome, and
if we have called a meeting because we are
Hosting uncertain of the way forward, being open is
Community Be Hosted a key skill and capacity. Only by practicing
pr
skilful conversation can we find our best
ersp Bein practice together.
o be in
t when Sup If we practice conversation mindfully we
Hel g pr
porti
Keep
might slow down meetings so that wisdom
ng
Start Here!
ping and clarity can work quickly. When we talk
y ing
mindlessly, we neither hear each other nor
Host Yourself
do we allow space for clarity to arise. The art
of conversation is the art of slowing down to
speed up.
...be willing to endure chaos - keep the “space” or possibilities open - stay in the fire of
thepresent...
Being present means showing up, undistracted, prepared, clear about the need and Evolution
what your personal contribution can be. It allows you to check in with yourself and
develop the personal practice of curiosity about the outcomes of any gathering.
Presence means makingspace to devote a dedicated time to working with others. If you
are distracted, called out orotherwise located in many different places, you cannot be
present in one. For meetings to have deep results, every person in the room should
people and what impactsyou and how you impact others.
Collectively, it is good practice to become present together as a meeting begins, be it
through a welcome, a good framing, through “checking-in” to the subject matter or task The dance of Chaos &
at hand by hearing everyone’s voice in the matter or as simple as taking a moment of Order
silence. Invite a collective slowing down so that all participants in a meeting can be
present together.
25
 The Circle, or council, is an ancient form of meeting that has gathered human beings into respectful
Circle conversations for thousands of years. In some areas of the world this tradition remains intact, but in
some societies it has been nearly forgotten. Peer Spirit circling is a modern methodology that calls on
this tradition and helps people gather in conversations that fulfil their potential for dialogue,
practicing an replenishment, and wisdom-based change. www.peerspirit.com One of the beautiful things about
circle is its adaptability to a variety of groups, issues, and timeframes. Circle can be the process used

ancient form
for the duration of a gathering, particularly if the group is relatively small and time for deep reflection
is a primary aim. Circle can also be used as a means for “checking in” and “checking out” or a way of
making decisions together, particularly decisions based on consensus. Be creative with circle!
Principles of Circle:
• Rotate leadership among all circle members.
• Responsibility is shared for the quality of the experience.
• Reliance on Wholeness, rather than on any personal agenda.
Practices of Circle:
• Speak with Intention: Noting what has relevance to the conversation in the
moment
• Listen with Attention: Respectful of the learning process of all members of thegroup
• Tend to the Well-being of the Group: Remaining aware of the impact of our
contributions
Setting Circle Agreements:
The use of agreements allows all members to have a free and profound exchange, to
respect a diversity of views, and to share responsibility for the well-being and direc-tion of
the group. Agreements often used include:
1.Listen without judgment (slow down and listen)
2.Whatever is said in circle stays in circle
3.Offer what you can and ask for what you need
4.Silence is also part of the conversation
5.We agree to employ a group guardian to watch our need, timing, and energy.
General Flow of the Circle
o Intention
Welcome/Sta
rt-point
o Centre and Check-In/Greeting
Agreements
o Three Principles and Three
PracticesGuardian of the
Process
o Check-Out and Farewell

26
Circle
practicing an
ancient form Intention shapes the circle and determines who will come, how long the circle will meet,
and what kinds of outcomes are to be expected. The caller of the circle spendstime
articulating intention and invitation.
Welcome/Start Point. Once people have gathered, the circle host (or a participant) will
typically open the circle with a gesture to indicate that the circle will start. Poems,silence,
song, or gesture may be used.
The centre of a circle usually holds objects that represent the intention of the circle. Check-
in usually starts with a volunteer and proceeds around the circle. If an individual is not
ready to speak, the turn is passed and another opportunity is offered afterothers have
spoken.
To aid self-governance and bring the circle back to intention, having a circle member
volunteer to be the role of guardian is helpful. This group member watches and safe-
guards the group’s energy and observes the groups process.
Closing the circle by checking out provides a formal end to the meeting, a chance for
members to reflect on what has transpired.
(The above was adapted from a handout which was generously provided by Peer Spirit to
the Art of Hosting)

What is Circle Good For?//One of the beautiful things about circle is its adapt- ability to a
variety of groups, issues, and timeframes. Circle can be the process used for the duration of
a gathering, particularly if the group is relatively small and time fordeep reflection is a
primary aim. Circle can also be used as a methodology of “check- ing in” and “checking out”
or a way of making decisions together. Be creative with circle and be ready for the deep
wisdom it can unearth!
Materials Needed:
• Chairs/cushions arranged into a circle – folks should be able to view each other
without impediments (i.e. tables or desks)
• Object for the centre – this can be flowers, a bowl, basket, or even a poster stating
the intention or purpose of the gathering
• Talking piece
• Chime, bell, or other gentle noisemaker
• Materials for harvesting conversation
‘‘In helping others, we shall
help ourselves, for whatever
good we give out completes
thecircle and comes back to
us.’

Flora Edwards

27
Appreciative Inquiry is a strategy for intentional
Appreciative
change that identifies the best of ‘what is’ to
pursue dreams and possibilities of ‘what could be’; Inquiry
a cooperative search for strengths, passionsand
life-giving forces that are found within every
system that hold potential for inspired, positive
working with
what’s possible
change. (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1987)
http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/

Assumptions
•In every community something works
•What we focus on becomes our reality
•Reality is created in the moment – thereis
more than one reality
•The act of asking questions influences
the community in some way
•People have more confidence and com-fort
to journey to the future when theycarry
forward parts of the past
•If we carry forward parts of the past,they
should be what is best
•It is important to value differences
•The language we use creates our reality

Problem Solving Appreciative Inquiry

We focus on identification of Appreciating and valuing the

the problem best of “what is”

Analysis of causes Envisioning “what might be”

Analysis of possible solutions Dialoguing “What could be”

Innovating “What will be”

Basic Assumption: An or- Basic Assumption: An or-

ganization is a problem to be ganization is a mystery to be
solved. embraced.

28
General Flow of an Appreciative Inquiry process://Ap- preciative inquiry
can be done as a longer structured process goingthrough phases of
DISCOVER: identifying organisational processes that work well.
DREAM: envisioning processes that would work well in the future.
DESIGN: Planning and prioritising those processes.
DELIVER: implementing the proposed design.

The basic idea is to build organisations around what works, ratherthan

trying to fix what doesn’t.

At the centre is a positive topic choice. How What is Appreciative Inquiry Good For?// Appreciative Inquiry is useful when a different
we ask even the first question contains the perspective isprocess with a fresh, positive vantage point. It can help move a group that is
seeds of change we are looking to enact. stuck in “what is” toward “what could be”. Appreciative Inquiry can be used with
Appreciative Inquiry can also be used as a individuals, partners, small groups, or large organisations.
way of opening a meeting or conversation
by identifying what already works. What do
you value most about yourself/work/
organisation?

29
The World The World Café is a method for creating a noticing deeper themes and questions.

Cafe living network of collaborative dialogue

around questions that matter in real life
situations. It is a provocative metaphor...as
• The intelligence emerges as the
system connects to itself in diverse and
creative ways.
dialogue we create our lives, our organisations, and
our communities, we are, in effect, moving
General Flow of a World Café:
-Seat 4-5 people at café-style tables orin
among ‘table conversations’ at the World
method for
conversation clusters.
Café. (From The World Café Resource -Set up progressive rounds of conver-
Guide) sation, usually of 20-30 minutes each

large and www.theworldcafe.com

What is World Café Good For?// A World
Café is a great way of fostering interaction
small and dialogue with both largeand small
groups. It is particularly effective in surfacing
– have some good questions!
-Ask one person to stay at the table as
a “host” and invite the other table
members to move to other tables as
ambassadors of ideas and insights

groups
the collective wisdom of large groups of
diverse people. The café format is very
flexible and adapts to manydifferent
purposes – information sharing,
relationship building, deep reflection
exploration and action planning.
When planning a café, make sure to leave
ample time for both moving through the
rounds of questions (likely to take longer
than you think!) and some type of whole-
group harvest.
Operating principles of World Cafe:
• Create hospitable space
• Explore questions that matter
Cafe
• Encourage each person’s contribution
Etiquette • Connect diverse people and ideas
Focus on • Listen together for patterns, insights
what matters Listen and deeper questions
to understand • Make collective knowledge visible
Assumptions of World Cafe:
Contribute your
• The knowledge and wisdom we need is
thinking Speak your present and accessible.
mind and heartLink • Collective insight evolves from hon-
and connect ideas ouring unique contributions; connect-
ing ideas; listening into the middle;
Listen together for themes,
insights,
and deeper
questions Play, Doodle,
Draw - HAVE FUN!
-Ask the table host to share key in-
sights, questions, and ideas briefly to new
table members, and then let folks move
through the rounds of questions.
-After you’ve moved through the rounds,
allow some time for a whole-group
harvest of the conversations
Materials Needed:
• Small tables (36-42”), preferably
round
• Chairs for participants and present-
ers
• Tablecloths
• Flip chart paper or paper placemats
for covering the tables
• Markers
• Flip chart or large butcher paper for
harvesting collective knowledge or
insights
• Posters/Table Tents of Café Etiquette
• Materials for harvest
(The above info adapted from Café to Goat
www.theworldcafe.com)

30
Open Space The goal of an Open Space Technology
meeting is to create time and space for
Technology people to engage deeply and creatively
around issues of concern to them. The
agenda is set by people with the power
participants and desire to see it through, and typically,
Open Space meetings result in trans-
call the
formative experiences for the individuals
and groups involved. It is a simple and
powerful way to catalyze effective working
conversation conversations and truly inviting
organizations – to thrive in times of
swirling change.
www.openspaceworld.org
What is Open Space Good For?//Open
Space Technology is useful in almost any
context, including strategic direction
setting, envisioning the future, conflict
resolution, morale building, consultation
with stakeholders, community planning,
collaboration and deep learning about
issues and perspectives.
Open Space Technology is an excellent
meeting format for any situation in which
there is:
• A real issue of concern
• Diversity of players
• Complexity of elements
• Presence of passion (including
conflict)
• A need for a quick decision
Open space can be used in groups of10
to 1,000 – and probably larger. It’s
important to give enough time and space
for several sessions to occur. The out-
comes can be dramatic when a group is
uses its passion and responsibility – andis
given the time – to make something
happen.
Principles of Open Space:
• Whoever comes are the right
people
• Whenever it starts is the right time
• Whatever happens is the only
thing that could have
• When its over its over
The four principles and the law work to
create a powerful event motivated by the
passion and bounded by the responsibility
of the participants.
General Flow of an Open Space
Meeting://The group convenes in a circle
and is welcomed by the sponsor. The
facilitator provides an overview of the
process and explains how it works. The
facilitator invites people with issuesof
concern to come into the circle, writethe
issue on a piece of paper and announce it
to the group.
These people are “conveners.” The convener
places their paper on the wall and chooses a
time and a place to meet. This process
continues until there are no moreagenda
items.
The group then breaks up and heads tothe
agenda wall, by now covered with a variety of
sessions. Participants take noteof the time
and place for sessions they want to be
involved in.
31
Open Space
Technology
participants
call the con-
versation
The Law of 2 feet (=The Law
ofMobility)
If you find yourself in a
situation where you are not
contributing orlearning,
move somewhere were you
can.
The four Principles
 Whoever comes is
the right people
 Whatever happens is
the only thing that
could have
 Whatever it starts is
the right time
 When it is over it is over
The host of the group captures the
important points on a report / har-
vest sheet. All of these reports will be
harvested in some way and returned
to the larger group. Roles in Open Space
Following a closing or a break, the
whole group comes together for
Host - announces and convenes a
conversation
convergence, a process to bring the
essences and wisdom form the small Participant - participates in a conversation
sessions back to the whole group.
Depending on the focus of the whole Bumble bee - moves between con-
open space, you might want to invite versations, cross-pollinating
the group to develop action plans to
put the collective wisdom into action. Butterfly - takes time out to reflect
The group then finishes the meeting
with a closing circle where people are
invited to share comments, insights, and
commitments arising from the process.
Materials Needed:
• Circle of chairs for participants
• Letters or numbers around the
room to indicate meeting loca-
tions
• A blank wall that will become
the agenda
• A news wall for recording and
posting the results of the dialogue
sessions
• Breakout spaces for meetings
• Paper on which to write session
topics/questions
• Markers/Pencils/Pens
• Posters of the Principles, Law of
Two Feet, and Roles (optional)
• Materials for harvest
Passion and
Responsibility
32
 A collective mind-map//A
collective mind-map is a quick
and simple way to create a
shared overview of issues and
opportunities relevant to a par-
ticular subject or challenge. The
mind-map always has a clear
focus that can be captured in a
”burning” question, i.e. What are
the main issues or opportunities
you as a team are facing
now?
The mind-map can be done
either on a large sheet of paper
or screen, electronically with a
mind-map program projected
on a screen.
Ground-rules for making a
collective mind-map:
• All ideas are valuable! Wedo
not evaluate or discard
ideas at this point.
• Whoever presents an idea
or issue decides where it
goes on the mind-map,
and whether it is a major
theme or a sub-issue.
• It’s OK to have contra-
dicting themes or issues.
• Whenever possible, give
concrete examples.
Collective
Mind Map
Making the mind-map//The mind-mapprocess
is lead by a host. All participants have access to
post-it notes. When anyone has an idea or issue
Making
visible our
they want to suggest for the mind-map, they
write their name on thepost-it and hold it up.
Runners will collect the post-its and give
thinking
them to the facilitator,who will then call out
the names in the orderreceived. Once a person’s
name is called, theycan present their idea or
issue.
If the group is large there will be a need for
radio-microphones. These will be provided bythe
runners when it is the participant’s turn to
speak.
The actual map is drawn up by two scribes. The
central question is at the centre of the mind-
map. The major themes – and differ-ent issues
under each theme, are recorded onthe mind-
map radiating out from the centralquestion.
Voting//When all themes and issues have been
recorded on the mind-map, the groupcan
decide on the priorities by voting. Eve- ryone
gets a number of votes i.e. sticky dotsthat they
can place on the themes or issues they see as
“A mind map is a
most important. diagramused to
represent words, ideas,
The voting procedure gives a clear indicationon
which themes or issues have the highest tasks or other items
leverage for further action. linked to and arranged
radially around a
(The above process is adapted and inspired by
“Future Search” – a social technology devel- oped centralkey word or idea.
by Marvin Weisbord & Sandra Janoff) It is used to generate,
visualise, structure and
classify ideas, and as an
aid in study,
organisation, problem
solving, decision
making, and writing.”
(Wikipedia)
33
 The Pro Action Cafe is a space for creative and
Pro Action action oriented conversation where
participants are invited to bring their call -
project - ideas - questions or whatever theyfeel
Cafe called by and need help to manifest in the
world.
combining
The concept of Pro Action Cafe is a blend of
“world cafe” and “open space” technologies. It
world cafe was first conceived by Rainer von Leoprechting
and Ria Baeck in Brussels, Belgium.
and open What is Pro Action Cafe Good For?//As a
conversational process, the Pro Action Cafe is a
space
collective, innovative methodology for hosting
conversations about calls, questions, and
projects that matter tothe people that attend.
These conversations link and build on each
other as people movebetween cafe tables,
cross-pollinate ideas andoffer each other new
insights into the questions or issues that are
most important in their life, work, organization,
or community.
As a process, the Pro Action Cafe can evoke and
make visible the collective intelligence ofany
group, thus increasing people’s capacity for
effective action in pursuit of good work. Pro
Action Cafe can be used with a network of
people and/or as a methodology for a specific,
group, organization, or community to engage in
creative and inspirational conversation leading
to wiser and more collectively informed action.
General Flow of a Pro Action Cafe//A
quick check in circle to connect to
purpose of the session and with each
other. If check-in hasalready taken
place as part of a longer process go
straight to building the agenda.
You need 2 1/2 to 3 hours for a goodPro
Action Cafe. Invite participants to step
forward with their call and inthat way
ask the community for thehelp you
need to move your projectinto action.
People with a call/project stand up,
speak it and write it on the agenda
that corresponds to anumbered cafe
table.
Count the amount of participants,
divide by four - this gives you the
amount of callers with projects/ses-
sions that can be worked. (ie. with 40
participants, you can have 10 call-ers
maximum) The principle is first come,
first served. If you have less callers, add
chairs to cafe tables but no more than 5
at a table. During this process each
contributing participant (those who do
not step forward)get to support up to
three different calls/projects.
When the agenda has been created,
invite the callers to go to their num-
bered cafe tables. There will be three
rounds of conversation in cafe style of
20-30 minutes - each guided by afew
generic questions to help deepenand
focus the conversations.
34
Pro Action
Cafe
combining
world cafe
and open
space
Materials and Set Up
• Ideally create a large circle in
onepart of the room and
enough cafetables with four
chairs in anotherpart. (If the
size of the room doesnot allow
this, then participants will move
the tales and chairs themselves
as soon as the agenda is
created.)
• Dress the tables with flipchart
paper, colored pens, and
markersas basic cafe set up.
• Prepare the matrix for the
agenda setting of the session
with the right amount of
sessions according to the
number of participantsdivided
by four.
• Have fun and do good
worktogether.
http://sites.google.com/a/pro-
action.eu/pro-action-cafe/how-
to- become-a-host/hosting-kit
Round 1//What is the Round 2//What is Round 3//What am I
quest behind the call/ missing? - when the learning about myself?
question/project? - to quest has been deepened, What am I learning about
deepen the purpose of the
call
explore what could make
the project more com-
my project? What next
steps will I take? What help
plete and possible do I still need? - to help
bring it all together forthe
caller and their project
Round 3 is in 2 steps:
1. First 20-25 minutes for the callers to reflect by themselves on the 4 ques-
tions above and harvest their key insights.
2. Round proceeds as the previous rounds - in conversation with partici-
pants. The new participants visit the table to listen to the harvest of the
caller, their learning, their steps, help needed - and then offer any insight
and any further support they can offer.
Between each round, crate breaks for the participants to have a drink, relax
together, and get ready to support another caller in their quest/project.
Last step is to meet in circle and invite the callers from each table to share
answers to these two questions:
1. What am I grateful for?
2.What are my next steps?
If there is time, the whole group can shortly reflect on: What applicationsdo we
see for practicing Pro Action Cafe in our contexts?
End the Pro Action Cafe with a collective gesture to appreciate the work
done and the gifts offered and received.
35
What if we were planning not a meeting but a har- Stage 1: Sensing the need//Sensing
The Art of
vest? In taking such an approach, we must become
clear about why we are initiating any process. The Art of
the need may at first be intuitive or
very basic – like sensing hunger, but Harvesting
making
Hosting and the Art of Harvesting dance together as once the sensed need becomes
two halves of the same thing. conscious one can act on it.
Harvesting is more than just taking notes. To get a We sense that we are hungry and
sense of the complexity of this art, let’s begin by pic-
turing a field in which someone has planted wheat.
from there we plant a garden,
knowing that the work of plant- meaning of
How can that field of wheat be harvested? ing and harvesting lies before us
We first imagine the harvest from that field as a farmer
using equipment to cut down the wheat, thresh it,
but that the end result meets the
need for sustenance.
our
and separate the seeds from the stalks. Thefarmer
might store the grain, further refine it, sell it quickly or
The need is not complicated; it is
real and clear and it speaks deeply conversations
wait for the price to increase. and inspires invitation and action.
Now imagine a geologist, a biologist and a painter Everything begins from thisneed,
harvesting from the same field. The geologist picks and the way we hold it andinvite
through the rocks and soil gathering data about the others into it informs the harvest
land itself. The biologist might collect insects and that we take at the end ofthe day
worms, bits of plants and organic matter. The paint-er
sees the patterns in the landscape and chooses a
palette and a perspective for work of art.
They all harvest differently from the field. The results of
their work go to different places and are put to different
uses. But they all have a few things in common; they
have a purpose for being in the field and a set of
questions about that purpose, theyhave a pre-
determined place to use the results of theharvest, and
they have specific tools to use in doing their work.
Despite the field being the same, the tools and re-
sults are specific to the need, purpose and inquiry.
There are eight stages of harvesting, elucidated in the
companion book to this one. Briefly they are:

36
Stage 2: Preparing the field//In some cases the
caller creates the readiness of the field by creating
The Art of
Harvesting
awareness around the need. Otherswith a similar
Stage 3: Planning the Har-
need will recognise the call.
vest//Planning the harvest starts
In preparing the field – sending out the call,
giving the context, inviting etc.– we set the tone
of the whole process – the seriousness andquality
with and accompanies the design
process. A clear purpose and some making
success criteria for the process of the
will determine the quality of what we reap. The
work of readying a field for planting can take a
harvest itself will add clarity and
direction.
meaning of
whole year during which we condition the soil,
clear the rocks and prepare things.What we are
doing here is actually harvesting afield so that the
What would be useful and add value
- and in which form wouldit serve our
best?
seeds can be planted.
In other words: start thinking about the harvest
Translated into a simple check-list,it
becomes:
conversations
from the very beginning – not as anafterthought.
• What intent are you holding?
• Who is going to benefit?
• How can you add most value to
the work at hand – how will the
harvest serve best?
• What form or what media willbe
most effective?
• Who should host or do the har-
vesting?
• What is the right timing?

Stage 4: Planting the seeds//The questions around which we structure the hosting
become the seeds for harvesting. All gardeners and farmers know that plant-ing seeds
depends on the time and the conditions. You can’t just plant whenever youwant to. You
plant once the conditions are right to maximise the yield.
In hosting practice, this means being sensitive to timing when asking questions.
In sowing the seeds that will drive the inquiry – identifying and asking the strategic and
meaningful questions – you determine the output. So in planning the harvest, ask
yourself, “What it is that this process needs to yield? What information, ideas, output or
outcome will benefit us here and now, and what might take us to the nextlevel of
inquiry?”
The process itself is an on-going one. With each part of the process, you harvest
something. Some of it you need to use right away, to help lead you into the next
process. Some of the harvest you will need later.
So part of planning the harvest is also knowing for whom, when and how you need to use
it. Another part of the planning is asking yourself in which format the harvestwill serve
you best.

37
Stage 5: Tending the crop//Protect the integrity of the crop. Nurture the crop as it grows,
weed it and thin it to keep the strong plants growing and get rid of all thatwill not nourish
or serve. This involves a combination of feeding the field and letting
it grow. But it also involves just sitting in the field. Holding space for what is emergingand
enjoying it.
During the process, enjoy seeing your work unfold in all its complexity. The more you can
welcome the growth you are witnessing, the higher the quality of the harvest. Nowyou are in
the pulse of noticing both the quality of the field and the quality of the crops.
This is where we engage in conversation and exploration – where the richness of the
A few comments//The
harvest is born. The richer the conversation or exchange, the richer the harvest!
above reflections mainly
Stage 6: Picking the fruits//Picking the fruits corresponds to recording or creating a collective concern collective
memory. The simplest way to harvest is to record what is being said and done, the output of harvesting.
the conversations, etc. This creates a record or collective memory. Recording can be done in Individual reflection and
words. harvest will raise the level of
• your notes, which will be subjective the collective harvest. During
• or transcripts of output from conversations recorded on tapes, etc., which will be learning processes, individual
objective. harvesting can be done
Recording can also be done with pictures / photographs / video / film. intentionally, by using a
pictures evoke and recall feelings, atmospheres, situations. journal as alearning tool.
or you can video the conversation - record both verbally and visually Web-based tools open up a
It is helpful to give some thought in the planning phase to how you want to harvest. What whole world of possibilities
kind of records, templates etc. will help you gather the relevant information or that are not dealt with here.
knowledge?
Harvesting the “soft” is much
subtler and subjective than
Stage 7: Preparing and processing the dealing with the “cognitive”
fruits// Creating a memory is the first step.
Stage 8: Planning the next or more objective, tangible
As we pick the fruits or seeds for
harvest - feeding for-ward//Most parts. A qualitative inquiry
processing, some will be used right away,
harvesting is doneto bring closure into what we have noticed,
some will be used for further
to a process or bring us to the what has shifted or changed
processing and some will be used as seed
next level of understanding. More
for the next season. inour relationships, in the
importantly,it helps us to know
The second step is making collective sense
collectively,to see the same
culture or atmosphere may
and meaning. This is where we add value give us some information
picture and share the same
and make the data useful. There are many about thesofter part of the
understanding together.
ways of doing this. The general idea is harvest.
to take loads of bits of information and
For the most effective
transform them into “holons” – wholes
that are also parts of greater wholes. harvest, these eight steps
should be planned
beforehand, as part of
designing the whole process.
(Summary of The Art of Har-
vesting version 2.6.; written
by Monica Nissen and Chris
Corrigan with input from
the Art of Hosting
Community ofPractice. The
full article can be
downloaded from the Art of
Hosting website.)

38
 There are seven “helpers” that help us
The Seven design a good conversation. At the bare
minimum, if you use these tools, conversa-
2. Have a good question//A good question
is aligned with the need and purpose of the
meeting and invites us to go toanother level.

Little Helpers tions will grow deeper and work will occurat a
more meaningful level. These seven helpers
bring form to fear and uncertainty and help
Good questions are put intothe centre of a
circle and the group speaks through them.

essentials of
Having a powerful question at the centre
us stay in the chaos of not knowing the keeps the focus on the work and helps a
answers. They help us to move through groups stay away from unhelpful behaviours
uncomfortable places together, like conflict,
conversation uncertainty, fear and the groan zone and to
arrive at wise action.
like personal attacks,politics and closed
minds.

A good question has the following characteristics:

1. Be Present//Inviting presence is a core • Is simple and clear
practice of hosting, but it is also a keypractice • Is thought provoking
for laying the ground work for a good
meeting. There are many ways of bringing a • Generates energy
group to presence, including: Start with an • Focuses inquiry
intention or prayer • Challenges assumptions
Start with a moment of silence • Opens new possibilities
Check in with a personal question relatedto • Evokes more questions
the theme of the meeting
Pass a talking piece and provide space for It is wise to design these questions before-
each voice to be heard hand and make them essential pieces of the
Start well. Start slowly. Check everyonein. invitation for others to join you. As you dive
into these questions, harvest the new
questions that are arising. They represent the
path you need to take.

2. Work
1. Be together with 3. Have a
Present mates ‘wicked’
question
7. Act wisely
& follow up 4. Invite inten-
tional listening
and speaking

6. Make a
wise collec- 5. Harvest
tive decision something
useful

39
The Seven Little
Helpers 3. Use a talking piece//In its simplest
form a talking piece is simplyan object
that passes from hand to hand. When
essentials of one is holding the piece,one is invited to
speak, and everyone else is invited to
conversation listen. Using a talking piece has the
powerful effect of ensuring that every
voice is heard and it sharpens both
speech and listening. It slows down a
conversation so that when things are
moving too fast, or people begin
speaking over one an- other and the
listening stops, a talkingpiece restores
calm and smoothness. Conducting the
opening round of a conversation with a
talking piece sets the tone for the
meeting and helps people to
remember the power of this simple
tool.
Of course a talking piece is really a
minimal form of structure. Every
meeting should have some form of
structure that helps to work with the
chaos and order that is needed to co-
discover new ideas. There are many
forms and processes to choose from but
it is important to align them withthe
nature of living systems if innovation
and wisdom is to arise from chaos and
uncertainty.
At more sophisticated levels, when you
need to do more work, you can use
more formal processes that work with
these kinds of contexts. Each ofthese
processes has a sweet spot, its own best
use, which you can think about as you
plan meetings. Blend asnecessary.
4. Harvest// Never meet unless you plan to
harvest your learnings. The basic rule of thumb
here is to remember that you are not planning
a meeting, you are instead planning a harvest.
Know what is needed and plan the process ac-
cordingly. Harvests don’t always have to be visible;
sometimes you plan to meet just to create learning.
But support that personal learning withgood
questions and practice personal harvesting.
To harvest well, be aware of four things:
• Create an artefact. Harvesting is about
making knowledge visible. Make a mind map,
draw pictures, take notes, but whateveryou do
create a record of your conversation.
• Have a feedback loop. Artefacts are use- less
if they sit on the shelf. Know how you will use
your harvest before you begin your meeting. Is
it going into the system? Will it create
questions for a future meeting? Is itto be
shared with people as news and learn-ing?
Figure it out and make plans to sharethe
harvest.
• Be aware of both intentional and emergent
harvest. Harvest answers to the specific
questions you are asking, but also make
sure you are paying attention to the cool stuff
that is emerging in good conversations.There is
real value in what’s coming up that none could
anticipate. Harvest it.
• The more a harvest is co-created, the moreit
is co-owned. Don’t just appoint a secretary,
note taker or a scribe. Invite people
to co-create the harvest. Place paper in the
middle of the table so that everyone can reach
it. Hand out post it notes so peo-
ple can capture ideas and add them to the
whole. Use your creative spirit to find waysto
have the group host their own harvest.
40
The Seven
Little Helpers 5. Make a wise decision//If your meeting
needs to come to a decision, makeit a wise
one. Wise decisions emerge from
essentials of conversation, not voting. The simplest way
to arrive at a wise decision is to use thethree
conversation
thumbs consensus process. It works like this:
First, clarify a proposal. A proposal is a
suggestion for how something might be
done. Have it worded and written and
placed in the centre of the circle. Poll the
group asking each person to offer their
thumb in three positions. UP means “I’m
good with it.” SIDEWAYS means “I needmore
clarity before I give the thumbs up” DOWN
means “this proposal violates my integrity...I
mean seriously.”
As each person indicates their level of sup-
port for the proposal, note the down and
sideways thumbs. Go to the down thumbs
first and ask: “what would it take for you to be
able to support this proposal.” Collectively
help the participant word another proposal,
or a change to the current one.
If the process is truly a consensus building
one, people are allowed to vote thumbs
down only if they are willing to participatein
making a proposal that works. Hijacking a
group gets rewarded with a vote.
Majority rules.
Once you have dealt with the down
thumbs, do the same with the sideways
thumbs. Sideways doesn’t mean “no” but
rather “I need clarity.” Answer the ques-tions
or clarify the concerns.
If you have had a good conversation lead- ing
to the proposal, you should not be surprised
by any down thumbs. If you are,reflect on
that experience and think aboutwhat you
could have done differently.
(For more, refer to The Facilitator’s Guide to
Participatory Decision Making by Sam
Kaner.)
6. Act.//Once you have decided what to
do, act. There isn’t much more to say
about that except that wise action is action
that doesn’t not over-extend or under-
extend the resources of a group. Action
arises from the personal choice to respon-
sibility for what you love. Commit to the
work and do it.
7. Stay together//Relationships cre- ate
sustainability. If you stay together as
friends, mates or family, you become
accountable to one another and you can
face challenges better. When you feel your
relationship to your closest mates slipping,call
it out and host a conversation about it.Trust is
a group’s most precious resource. Use it well.
41
Working Together to Create a
‘Container’//How are we going to
behave together in pursuit of our
purpose?
When we enter an inquiry where we
do not have ready or easy answers and
we cannot see the obvious solution –
we also enter “chaos” together. In
walking the chaordic path together it
is wise to start by creating the
conditions that can help containthat
chaos. - We call this creating
a “container”. One fundamental way
to create a container is to agreeon how
we want to work or “travel”together in
pursuit of our goal. – Inother words we
define some agree- ments or
principles of co-operation.
Principles - when defined with clarity,
conviction and common un-
derstanding - guide our pursuit of
purpose. Developing them requires
engaging the whole person, not
just the intellect. Principles binda
community together and serve asa
touchstone to remind us of howwe
have agreed to act and decide
together around our purpose.
Working
Who Makes Up a Core Hosting Team//An Together
ideal hosting team consists of:
• The caller who has sensed the needto
convene this process
Using AoH
• Members of his/her team who havean
in-depth understanding of the content hosting
• Internal consultants who under- stand
the culture of the organisation and
how change can be led and ac-
and
companied successfully in this context
• External consultants who bring designing
their experience and practices from
outside and help the team to take
some distance from the context in
as
a team
which they are absorbed in order to
gain some fresh perspectives.
The size of this team will vary dependingon
the scale of the process.
A Core Hosting Team is About Learning
Together//In such a team, everybody is
learning. Being clear about what you can
contribute and what you can expect to
learn will help the team to work consciously
together in service of the
people invited and the purpose. It is highly
recommended to have seasoned people in
the team who can help less experienced ‘‘Scientists have discovered
practitioners to deepen their understanding that the small, brave act of
of this way of working through practicing. cooperating with another
Sometimes, these seasoned practitioners will
even not be visible to the participants. They person, of choosing trust
act then as coaches of the team. over cynicism, generosity
over selfishness, makes the
brain light up with quiet
joy.’’
Natalie Angier, Pulitzer
Prize-winning New York
Times reporter, describ-
ing a study of the effects of
behaviour on brain chem-
istry
42
 Working
Detailed Roles in a Core Hosting Team/Several roles can be held by one person
Caller//The caller is the client of the process. They have sensed the need for it and have
Together
Using AoH
invited the hosting team to help them initiate a process where others are invitedin order to
produce outcomes from sharing their knowledge together. The caller is
part of the process and:
•Co-drafts and send the invitation
• Welcomes people hosting
and
• Frames the context and the purpose
• Listens to what is coming out of the conversations
• Helps the hosting team to adapt the process if necessary
• Commits to follow-up on the outcomes designing
Strategic Perspective Holders//The people who hold the strategic perspective include the
caller and other people who have a key stake in the outcomes of the event.These people as
specifically:
• Liaise with speakers to help them see where their interventions fit
• Liaise with guests to help them catch up when they arrive and make sense of the
a team
outcomes of the seminar
• Listen intentionally for horizontal questions
• Capture the key aspects learned by the group
• Liaise with the hosts to keep the event on tracks
Process Hosts//Before an event Process Hosts offer their skills of designing so thatan
architecture for the process can be created. This is created taking into account
the context and purpose of the process, as well as the desired outcomes. During an
event, the focus of the process hosts is on facilitating the processes that make up the overall
architecture. This includes framing in each method, explaining how people will participate,
offering stillness whilst people are in conversations, i.e. holding space, and supporting the
gathering of insights as a result of the conversations. In terms of an, the process host is the
most visible part of the team, but they cannot do their role without the support of the
other members of the team

43

Speakers//At different points during an
event, e.g. welcome, framing a process or
closing, a speaker offers in perspective.
The purpose for doing thisis to inspire and
catalyse the subsequentconversations
that the participants will engage in.
Perspective can be offering in the key
challenge that needs to be faced or the
Working
throughout the event, e.g. work-
sheet, flip charts, etc.
• Recording real time visually, e.g.
mind maps, photographing, video-
ing, creating a visual landscape
Together
• Producing the artefacts of what
the process produced, e.g. land- Using AoH
scape, newsletter/live minutes, full

hosting
most important questions that if
record, strategic report, etc.
engaged in would make a difference. It
can also be offering in a new way of

and
Space and Beauty Hosts//The purpose of
looking at issues. This role of speaker is
space hosting is to contribute to creating
different to more traditional speakers in
the optimal learning conditionsby tending
that they do not take the stance of an
expert with the preferred approach or
option. Instead they offer their
the physical and non-physical (energetic /
subtle) levels. It consistsof multiple levels designing
which depending on the context, includes:

knowledge and perspective to invite in
more diversity of views and collective
Physical Hosting//
intelligence.
Harvesters//During the design phase of a
process, thinking ahead to what we wish to
collect as a result of the conversation, i.e.
the harvest is very important and shapes
what the Harvesters will be gathering and
looking out for during anevent.
Specifically, during an event theirrole
includes
• Being of service to the strategic
group and speakers at anytime
• Collecting the results of the
conversations depending on the
level required, e.g. detailed notes of
what was spoken, worksheets
participants have filled in, graphic
recording, meta level, etc.
• Collecting all pieces of harvesting
as
• Location of venue– proximity to
access to nature, transport links, etc. a team
• Venue – standard and style of
facility, e.g., main group room,
break out rooms, accommodation,
catering, etc.
• Main Group Room – Spacious,
light, adaptable, wall space for
harvesting
• Setting the optimal learning space
when in location e.g., comfort and
access for participants, learning space
for optimal flow, which includes
ample space for harvesting, location
of food/drinks, amenities, e.g.,
restrooms, cloakrooms, etc.

44
 Working
Together
Energetic Hosting, sometimes known as holding space//
• Connecting to the authentic higher purpose that serves the
common good
Using AoH
• Working intentionally with the subtler levels of emotional,
subliminal (unconscious) and thought-based aspects of human hosting
interaction that can distract or negatively disturb the creation of a
generative learning field
• Noticing the ‘unspoken’, the shadow, and if in service, giving voice to
and
them, either by asking a question, naming the energy oremotion in
the field, or ground it intentionally designing
Logistics and Admin Team//When hosting a very large event, then it is
applicable to have a logistics person or even team as tendingto the
as
practical details becomes even more important when working with large
number. Specifically, this role includes: a team
• Liaise with people in charge of the venue on any issue
• Ensure proper set-up of the space
• Handle laptops & USB sticks whenever used
• Handle requests coming from all other teams
• Test all equipment: microphones, PC, projector...

FOLLOW-UP / STRATE- GIC

CONTINUITY//After an event, it is good
practice to gatheras an entire Core
Hosting Team and to harvest out both
the key content insights that will
move the work forward as well as the
key process in-
sights that will help to shape the next
process steps. This allows the wisest
next steps in service of the develop-
ment of individuals, the organisation
and the common good to be identi-
fied.

45
 consensus:
-we see the

Consensus
same-collec-
tive clarity
-Not manip-

Decision ulated agree-

ment
Not yet in consensus

Making
deciding wise
Consensus

action One of the

most impor-
together Core
purpose
tant roles of
the leaders is
toexpand the
consensus field
by conversa-
tion & partici-
what we agree upon & do patory
not need discuss. Here we decision
can develop & act freely in making.
rhythm.

‘‘Serve, serve well, serve False Consen-

others above yourself
and be happy to serve...
you are the change
that you dream, as I am
the change that I
dream, andcollectively
we are the change that
this world needs to be.’’
Efren Penaflorida
sus:
False Disagree-
Agree in
ment:
theory but not
in practice
We think we are
in disagreement
but in reality we
agree but we do
not know it...
Consensus can be a very powerful model of participatory decision making when it is
considered to be a “win-win” process and held as integral to the purpose of the
group. Although it is sometimes abandoned as being overly complex and time
consuming, consensus decision making, in itself, opens the process to careful
consideration, listening, and negotiation. In this context, decisions must be fully
understood and agreed to by all members of the group, and the group holds the
process of making a decision which is in the best inter-ests of everyone.
Consensus should not be seen as giving power to a small group to veto a
decision. Opposing a suggestion or decision also means being willing to take
responsibility for moving the process forward.
In working with participatory processes the important thing is to agree on the
decision-making process ahead of time.

46
Consensus
Decision
Making Reflections on Decision Making:

deciding wise Members act alone on

their own & speak from

action their own perspective-

soon the left hand does
not know what the right
Someone always gets

together
their way
hand is doing

The meeting just goes

on and on After a meeting
What Happens When Your with no decision
Don’t Agree on a Decision making process a
few people meet
A badly prepared is- Making Process? behind closed doors
sue is delegated to a and make the REAL
poor underling who decisions
later is conveniently
Just before you are clos- Those that shout
blamed for not hav-
ing the conversation the loudest get their
ing taken it further
and make the decision way
in a good way
somebody comes up with
something completely
new that becomes the
decision

Sometimes a group will move

forward on their path and begin
making decisions before agree- ing
on how such decisions will bemade.
This may work – or appear
to work – at the outset of a process,
but some difficulties can occur.

47
 Communities
(This is a brief and shortened version of an introduction to
communities of practice by Etienne Wenger)
of Practice
This brief and general introduction examines what com- an
munities of practice are and why researchers and practi-
tioners in so many different contexts find them useful as an
approach to knowing and learning.
introduction
What are communities of practice?
Communities of practice are formed by people who en- gage
in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human
endeavour: a tribe learning to survive, a bandof artists
seeking new forms of expression, a group of engineers working
on similar problems, a clique of pupils defining their identity in
the school, a network of surgeons exploring novel techniques,
a gathering of first-timemanagers helping each other cope.

In a nutshell: Communities of practice are groups of people

who share a concern or a passion for somethingthey do and
learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

Note that this definition allows for, but does not

assume, intentionality: learning can be thereason
the community comes together or an incidental
outcome of member’s interactions.
Not everything called a community is a commu-
nity of practice. A neighbourhood for instance, is
often called a community, but is usually not a
community of practice. Three characteristics are
crucial:

48
1. The domain://A community of practice is not
merely a club of friends or a network of
connections between people. It has an identity
defined by a shared domain of interest. Mem-
bership therefore implies a commitment to the
domain, and therefore a shared competence that
distinguishes members from other people. (You
could belong to the same network as someone and
never know it.) The domain is not necessarily
something recognised as “expertise” outside the
community. A youth gang may have developed all
sorts of ways of dealing with their domain: surviving
on the street and maintainingsome kind of identity
they can live with. They value their collective
competence and learn fromeach other, even
though few people outside the group may value or
even recognise their expertise.
2. The community://In pursuing their interest in
their domain, members engage in joint activities
and discussions, help each other, and share
information. They build relationships that enable
them to learn from each other. A website in itself is
not a community of practice. Having the same job
or the same title does not make fora community of
practice unless members inter- act and learn
together. The claims processors in
a large insurance company or students in Ameri-
can high schools may have much in common, yet
unless they interact and learn together, they do not
form a community of practice. But members of a
community of practice do not necessarily work
together on a daily basis. The Impressionists, for
instance, used to meet in cafes and studios to
discuss the style of painting they were inventing
together. These interactions were essential to
making them a community of practice even
though they often painted alone.
3. The practice://A community of
practice is not merely a community of
Communities
of Practice
interested people who like certain kinds
of movies, for instance. Members of a
community of practice are
practitioners. They develop a shared
repertoire of resources: experiences, an
stories, tools, ways of addressing
recurring problems—in short a shared
practice. This takes time and sustained
introduction
interaction. A good conversation with a
stranger on an airplane may give youall
sorts of interesting insights, but itdoes
not in itself make for a community of
practice. The development of
a shared practice may be more or less
self-conscious. The “windshield wipers”
engineers at an auto manufacturer make
a concerted effort to collect and
document the tricks and lessons they
have learned into a knowledge base. By
contrast, nurses who meet regularly for
lunch in a hospital cafeteria may not
realise that their lunch discussions are
one of their main sources of knowl-
edge about how to care for patients.
Still, in the course of all these conver-
sations, they have developed a set of
stories and cases that have become a
shared repertoire for their practice.
It is the combination of these three
elements that constitutes a community
of practice. And it is by developing
these three elements in parallel that
one cultivates such a community.
Communities of practice are not calledthat
in all organisations. They are known under
various names, such as learning networks,
thematic groups, or tech clubs.
49
 Communities
of Practice
an
While they all have the three elements of a domain, a community,and a introduction
practice, they come in a variety of forms. Some are quite small; some
are very large, often with a core group and many peripheral members.
Some are local and some cover the globe.
Some meet mainly face-to-face, some mostly online. Some are within
an organisation and some include members from various
organisations. Some are formally recognised, often supported witha
budget; and some are completely informal and even invisible.

Communities of practice have been around for as long as humanbeings

have learned together. At home, at work, at school, in
our hobbies, we all belong to communities of practice, a number of
them usually. In some we are core members. In many we are merely
peripheral. And we travel through numerous communitiesover the
course of our lives.

In fact, communities of practice are everywhere. They are a familiar

experience; so familiar perhaps that it often escapes our attention.
Yet when it is given a name and brought into focus, it becomes a
perspective that can help us understand our world better. In
particular, it allows us to see past more obvious formal structures
such as organisations, classrooms, or nations, and
perceive the structures defined by engagement in practice and the informal
learning that comes with it.

50
Where is the concept being applied?//The
concept of community of practice has
found a number of practical applications in
among people across organisational and
Communities
business, organisational design,
government, education, professional
associations, development projects,and civic
geographic boundaries.
From this perspective, the knowledge of an of Practice
organisation lives in a constellation of
life.
Organisations. People have adopted the
communities of practice each taking care of
a specific aspect of the competence that
an
concept most readily in business because of
the recognition that knowledge is a
critical asset that needs to be managed
the organisation needs. However, thevery
characteristics that make communities of introduction
practice a good fit for stewarding
strategically. Initial efforts at managing
knowledge—autonomy, practitioner-ori-
knowledge had focused on information
entation, informality, crossing bounda-
systems with disappointing results.
ries—are also characteristics that make
Communities of practice provided a new
them a challenge for traditional hierar-
approach, which focused on peopleand on
chical organisations. How this challenge is
the social structures that enablethem to
going to affect these organisations
learn with and from each other.
remains to be seen.
Today, there is hardly any organisation ofa
The web. New technologies such as the
reasonable size that does not have some
Internet have extended the reach of our
form communities-of-practice initiative. A
interactions beyond the geographical
number of characteristics explain this rush
limitations of traditional communities, but
of interest in communities of practice as a
the increase in flow of information does
vehicle for developing strategic capabilities
not obviate the need for commu- nity. In
in organisations: Communities of practice
fact, it expands the possibilities for
enable practitioners to take collective
community and calls for new kinds of
responsibility for managing the knowledge
communities based on shared practice.
they need, recognising that, given the
proper structure, they are in the best The concept of community of practice is
position to do this. influencing theory and practice in many
domains. It has now become the foun-
Communities among practitioners create a
dation of a perspective on knowing and
direct link between learning and perfor-
learning that informs efforts to create
mance, because the same people partici-
learning systems in various sectors and at
pate in communities of practice and in
various levels of scale, from local com-
teams and business units.
munities, to single organisations, part-
Practitioners can address the tacit and
nerships, cities, regions, and the entire
dynamic aspects of knowledge creation
world.
and sharing, as well as the more explicit
aspects.
(Further Resources on Communities of
Communities are not limited by formal
Practice are listed in the Resources Sec-
structures: they create connections
tion.)

51
 The following pages will give a short introduction to how you can combine and

Strategic apply some of the core methodologies in exercising leadership in a strategic organiza-

Process tional context.

Design The following qualities or conditions support a successful implementation.

introduction •Leadership and the approach described in this workbook are particularly usefulwhen
working with complexity (complex problems and situations), but where there are no
clear, unambiguous, fixed solutions, but where the context is constantly changing and
you have to work flexibly with what is emerging.
• To create a successful intervention you have to plan a process not an event. This
means that there is a preparatory phase or process, the actual engagementprocess
(one event or a series of events), and a follow-up process, each with some steps that
need to be clarified before proceeding to the next phase or “breath”. (see 6
breaths of design)
•Planning and designing an emergent process or strategy (rather than a pre-
scriptive one) means operating in the “chaordic space.” (see see the chaordicpath)
•Designing a process in this context means creating a framework or light struc-ture
(process design) within which one can operate and produce results in an
environment of self-organizing order rather than control.
•The Chaordic Stepping Stones and the Chaordic Design Process offer a step-by-
step approach to structuring and creating progress in this space.
•A good knowledge of the methods and means available will allow you tochoose the
right means for the right situations.
•A good process design is responding to the need in the moment, allowing yourself to
be well prepared but flexible and able to respond to what is actuallyhappening.
• Fully combining and integrating content with process, each in support of the other
is crucial for creating good results. A good content combined witha poor process or
a good process without some real content - both fall short of the mark.
• To be able to operate well in this environment one needs to embrace both the
ability to work in a highly structured way as well as in a chaordic way. The 5th
paradigm shows a way of organizing that combines both. (see the 5th para- digm)

52
 Before the process – meeting//Preparation (Purpose:
Developing to create focus for, and prepare for the
meeting/process).

and • Getting the participants’

the table
‘meaningfulnesses’on

• Need check
Implementing • Burning questions
• Clarify purpose-goals-and methods
Conversations • Send out an invitation with a clear purpose
• Preparation of logistics and material etc.
in Specific • Preparation of yourself as host (over prepared
and under structured)

Contexts • Make the room/space yours

The Process - the meeting//

Checklist for 1. Opening of the meeting/process
(Purpose to create a “safe space”, ac-

the design of ceptance, meaning and overview.)

• Context: “The bigger picture…the

processes
many aspects, conditions and
relations, that surround a certain 2. The meeting/process
situation or case, and that con- Choice of content (what) and process/
tribute to defining the meaning method (how) in relation to purpose, tar-
to give to the situation.” get group and the desired outcome.
• Purpose – short and long term
• Possibly a framing – set bound-
aries – and what are givens 3. Closing the meeting/process (Purpose:
• Check in – physically, mentally,and summary/wrap up, conclusion, closing) -
emotionally – so everyone’s voice is • Review of results, decisions
heard, and everyone is present. • Conclusions
• Expectations – and hopes for • Agreements
outcomes • Check-out (personal)
• Share meeting design/structure
… or
• Create a shared agenda

53
Developing
and After the meeting/process
• Follow up (Purpose: review, learning, anchoring)
Implementing • Review of experiences and results
• Evaluation
Conversations • Learning
• Anchoring of the meeting/process
in Specific • Full stop… or beginning

Contexts ‘Learning Ecology’//Documentation of content and process (Pur-pose: to

maintain and anchor common/shared knowledge, insights, agreements
etc. – to feed knowledge back into the system, so it is not lost, and so it is
Checklist for possible to further build upon the knowledge that is already present. This
is to create a shared memory.

the design of Other possible ingredients

processes Disturbance//It is important that there is a good amount of distur-

bance. The disturbance can be so small that it doesn’t move anything, or
really challenge, and it can be too much, so that it is rejected as too
overwhelming (inspired by Maturana).

The ability to handle chaos – the courage to stand in chaos.

To dare let go of control.

Variation – in rhythm – content – methods – process etc.

Experience-based – “Tell me and I will forget – show me and I willremember

– involve me and I will learn.”

From head to feet – personally meaningful – mentally – emotionallyand

action-wise

54
 Purpose//It is important to let the purpose

Developing shape the meeting.

A key is to determine whether the meeting al-
ready has a determined content – does it need to
and have a formal structure (i.e. the group wantsto
agree upon or make a decision around a pre-

Implementing determined issue/content), or – is the purpose of

the meeting to explore, inquire, develop ideas or
Different purposes:
• Show up
in other ways make space for co-crea- tion and
Conversations development – in other words, let a new content
emerge – have an open structure.
• Learning processes
• Idea development/inno-
in Specific vation
• Dialogue

Contexts • Experience sharing

• To find consensus
• To build team
Checklist for • Information meetings
• Planning meetings
the design of • Distribution of tasks
• Decision making meet-
processes ings
• Problem solving meeting
• Need clarification meet-
ings
• Etc

Types of meetings Formal structure Open structure

Creative (Directed/’controlled’) Idea-generation meetings, brain-

design and planning storming, development meetings
meetings

Learning Education, Interactive processes, Dialogue

meetings, Experience sharing,
etc.
Decision making Information meetings Council, etc.
common Decision making meet-
meeting ings
Common ground Copied from InterChange’s on-
line resources:
http:www.interchange.dk/
resources/checklistfordesign/

55
The 8 Breaths of Process Architecture
The Stewarding / grandmothering
practice is: to keep inspiring and
creating opportunities for people to
find and nurture their own gifts as
part of a wider practice. Keep
inviting, keep witnessing, keep
calling us to see each other’s
brilliance. Offer space for others to
step in, becoming even more
exquisite practitioners. Hold space
for a diversity of offering to arrive.
Maintain the quality of the field and
invitation surrounding the work.
First Breath: THE CALL//Name the issue: sur-
facing the core question - birth of the callers.
We have notice that there is always ‘a caller’, a per- son
who deeply holds a question, sees a problem or an
opportunity, feels a challenge. Sometimes there are
several callers. The callers are the ones who in- vite the
host(s) to help them.
Wise action: Focus the chaos of holding the col-
lective uncertainty and fear - step into the centre of the
disturbance. Don’t move too fast.
Question: What is really at stake here? What if some
of us worked together to surface the real ques- tion and
need that matters to the community?
When the caller has committed to call the process, we
can go to the next phase/breath.
Second Breath: CLARIFY//Creating the ground:
The callers and hosts work to create collective clar-ity of
purpose and the first articulation of principles Wise
action: engagement; Don’t make assumptions.
Question: How to get from need to purpose? What is
our purpose? How to see and feed the group value?
This phase is over once the core of clarity has
emerged.
The 8 Breaths of
Process Over the years many hosts have seen their work with
Architecture different (larger scale) initiatives as a sequence of dif-
ferent ‘breaths’, different phases of divergence and
convergence. This iterative flow has become known
among practitioners as the ‘Eight Breaths’. As we learn
through reflecting on our work, this pattern will no
doubt become clearer.
The Senseing / grandfathering
practice is: to keep inspiring and
creating opportunities for practice
and for building capacity to build
more capacity. Co-­­create trainings,
practitioners gatherings, dojos for
Stewards - or elders - are also needed to
practicing with each other,
help host the whole. They are the reminder learning villages…. (a “sensei” is
of the long term purpose of the work, and the master teacher & practitioner
tend to supporting and hosting the people in the martial arts dojo)
acting in the project.
Third Breath: INVITE//Giving
form and structure: design and invita- Sixth Breath: ACT//Practice: Perform the wise actions decided on
tion process during the conversation and harvest. Follow-up—continued
Wise action: keep checking to be sure learning and leading from the field
your design and invitation serve the pur- Wise Action: Always come back to purpose Don’t lose sight of the
pose. Don’t make your design too com- purpose or it won’t be embodied
plex (match it to the purpose) Question: How do we sustain the self-organisation?
Question: How do we invite people to Here the seed of community gets born, and the results are a con-
participate in a way that moves them nectedness between the stakeholders and wiser actions.
to show up? How do we let go of our
expectations that certain people need to
be there?
The meeting has been designed, a larger
group of stakeholders has been invited, a Fifth Breath: HARVEST
good meeting space has been found: it’s – MAKE SENSE AND
time to meet! MEANING//Callers &
Fourth Breath: MEET …//Meeting: Conversa-tion Core / Harvesting team -
Wise Action: our role is to host the group, the purpose, harvest the harvest of the as-
and the questions. Don’t go alone. sembly and make the needed
Question: How can I best serve as the instrument/con- wise decisions for the wiser
tainer to allow the collective wisdom to emerge? way forward in all directions
…and make meaning together
When the meeting is done, the group of stakeholders
find collective meaning and start to co-create. This is
where the harvest is important—to capture key mes-
sages and insights and make sense of them
56
 3rd Breath: Preparation behind the scenes

Seventh Breath: REFLECT AND LEARN//Reflection in the

core team and with key stakeholders. What have we
INVITE
learned? Have we gained results in alignment with
need and purpose? What arethe next long term
steps? Helpful reflection questions might also be:
What? So what? Now what? (More exercises on collective
reflection here:
www.nationalserviceresources.org/filemanager/.../615/
nwtoolkit.pdf)
From here the next calling question arises…

Eighth Breath: THE BREATH THAT HOLDS THE

WHOLE//The eagle practitioners & perspective -
hosting and sensing the whole – being aware of all
the 7 breaths, tending to the long-term intent and
the wisdom of the actions & practices of this
The Art of Venue Meeting Design Hosting Team
community of practitioners and the wellbeing of Invitation Where will we What is the field What pre-­‐work
everyone in this systems. Who is invited? work? What we are working in? is needed?
Although the above is a step by step description, the
How will they be arrangements What is the flow When/How will
process is not linear but rather cyclical, and making invited? are needed? of hosting we come together
sense (harvesting), reflecting on alignment to
design? as a team?
purpose and next wise steps happens throughout
What is the
the process. economy?

Although we’ve given a step by step description,the

process is not linear but rather cyclical, and
making sense (harvesting), reflecting on align-
ment to purpose, and next wise steps happens
throughout the process.

Basic Rhythms

Many other parts of our practice sit within and

support the 8 Breaths pattern. There are different
kinds of questions and stories that can be used or
gathered during each part of the process. Questions
Harvesting can take place during each breath. Stories
There are different organising patterns and the Harvesting
Chaordic Stepping Stones can be applied. Chaordic Stepping Stones
Organising patterns

57
 People & Teams within the Process Architecture
Hosting the whole team
Wisdom Council
Circle of Elders

Calling Team
Core Hosting/Harvesting
Team (Core Team & others)
Preparation Team All teams putting their
The overlap: Each breath is two harvests -­­-­­ an purpose into practice (Calling
intentional harvest at the right end of the Assembly of Stakeholders Team, Core Hosting/
diamond and an overlapping emergent harvest Harvesting Team, Preparation
as the next breath begins, often just after the Team, Assembly members
Groan Zone. Important to commit to close & acting out their purposes)
harvest the intention, while working with
emergence.

Art of Hosting & Harvesting

Membranes

Threshold of Longing Threshold of Memory

Threshold of Memory: The work becomes a

Threshold of Longing: Following the sense of legacy passed on to others. It is time to let go and
longing to a spark of insight, which, over time and allow the influence to ripple out and do what it
sensing in becomes clarity about a deep calling. The fear of letting go The fear of acting will. When we and our acts are forgotten, the
Crossing the threshold initiates the birth of the call. threshold of memory has been crossed.

58
 The Chaordic purpose
stepping
stones
Need
Practice
Walking the
Chaordic path
Structure
Beliefs
That limit
There are clear strategic steps we can take
when walking the Chaordic path. These steps
are a way of bringing just enough structure or
order into the chaos to keep us moving for-
ward on the Chaordic path. These steps allowus
to progress gradually giving our project or
organisation more form as we progress.
The first step is identifying the real need,
followed by formulating a clear purpose, then
defining the principles that help guide us
towards our goal (as attributes or character-
istics describing where we want to be or howwe
want to get there), gradually proceeding to
defining a concept, then giving it more
structure and moving into practice. These steps
can be used both as a planning tool andto help
understand what you are discovering about an
organisation, community or initiative.
The
Chaordic
Principles
Stepping
People
Stones
walking
Concept the
Chaordic
path
However, these stones don’t have a con-
sistent starting point. For example, you
might find yourself (or those you are
working with) beginning with a concept,
lacking clarity of need or purpose,then
returning to clarify those before you
proceed. Another way to think of these is
as facets, sides to a gem. Each piece
illuminates the gem.
The Chaordic process is in continual motion,
each step integrating and including the
previous steps. It is not alinear process - it is
an iterative process
- supported by an ongoing documen-
tation or harvest and feedback loop.
Once you have defined the principles you
check back if they support the purpose
etc. The process allows us to beable to
remain in reflection and practice.
59
 The chaordic design process has six dimensions, beginning with
The purpose and ending with practice. Each of the six di- mensions
can be thought of as a lens through which partici- pants examine

Chaordic
the circumstances giving rise to the need for anew organisation or
to re-conceive an existing one.
Developing a self-organising, self-governing organisation worthy

Design of the trust of all participants usually requires intensive effort. To

maximise their chances of success, most groupshave taken a year
or more on the process. During that time, a representative
Process group of individuals (sometimes called a drafting team) from all
parts of the engaged organisation or community meet regularly

Dee Hock
and work through the chaordic design process.

The steps involved in conceiving and creatinga more chaordic organisation are:

Develop a Statement of Purpose// The first step is to define, with absolute clarity and deep
conviction, the purpose of the community. An effective statement ofpurpose will be a clear,
commonly understood statement of that which identifies and binds the community
together as worthy of pursuit. When properly done, it can usu-ally be expressed in a single
sentence. Participants will say about the purpose, “If we could achieve that, my life would
have meaning.”

Define a Set of Principles// Once the purpose has been clearly stated, the next step is to
define, with the same clarity, conviction and common understanding, the principles by
which those involved will be guided in pursuit of that purpose. Principles typically have high
ethical and moral content, and developing them requires engaging the whole person, not
just the intellect. The best will be descriptive, not prescriptive, and each principle will
illuminate the others. Taken as a whole, together with the pur- pose, the principles constitute
the body of belief that will bind the community togetherand against which all decisions
and acts will be judged.

60
The
Identify All Participants//With
clarity about purpose and
principles, the next step is to

Chaordic identify all relevant and affected

parties - the participants whose
needs, interests and perspec-

Design tives must be considered in

conceiving (or re-conceiving) the
Create a New Organisational Concept// When all
relevant and affected partieshave been

Process
organisation. As drafting team identified, drafting team members creatively
members pursue their work, search for and develop a general concept for
their perceptions of who the organisation. In the light of purpose and

Dee Hock constitutes a stakeholder will

typically expand. They now have
an opportunity to ensure that all
concerned individuals and
groups are considered whena
new organisational concept is
sought.
principles, they seek innovative organisational
structures that can be trusted to be just,
equitable and effective with respectto all
participants, in relation to all prac-
tices in which they may engage. They often discover
that no existing form of organisationcan do so and
that something new must be conceived.

Write a Constitution// Once the organisational conceptis clear,

the details of organisational structure and functioning
are expressed in the form of a written constitution and by-laws. These
documents will incorporate, with precision, the substanceof the
previous steps. They will embody purpose, principles andconcept,
specify rights, obligations and relationships of all par- ticipants, and
establish the organisation as a legal entity under appropriate
jurisdiction.
Foster Innovative Practices
With clarity of shared purpose and principles, the right partici-
pants, an effective concept and a clear constitution, practices will
naturally evolve in highly focused and effective ways. They will
harmoniously blend cooperation and competition within a
transcendent organisation trusted by all. Purpose is then realised far
beyond original expectations, in a self-organising, self-governing
system capable of constant learning and evolution.

61
The
Chaordic
Drawing the Pieces into a Whole// Theprocess is
iterative. Each step sheds new light on all of the
preceding steps and highlights where

Design modifications or refinements need to be made. In

effect, the process continually folds back on itself,
more fully clarifying the previous steps even as
Process each new dimension is explored. Over time, the
elements become deeplyintegrated. None is truly

Dee Hock
finished until all are finished.

Two risks are frequently encountered - moving onto the next stage too quickly
and allowing the striving for perfection to bog down the process. The first risk is
common when working on purpose and principles, where agreement on
“platitudes” can often be reached even when underlying differences persist. In
these situations, finding an easy answer that pleases everyone is not enough;
digging deeper to find richer and more meaningfulunderstanding and
agreement is essential. This can be taken to an extreme, of course, which leads
to the second risk. Perfection is not required and will never be attained. Getting
a very good answer that is “good enough” to
move on to the next step is the goal. Keep in mind that what is done at each
stage will be subsequently refined.

62
The most difficult parts of the process are releasing preconceived notions about the na-ture
and structure of organisations and understanding their origins in our own minds.We often
catalyse this process by asking the question: “If anything imaginable were possible, if there
The Chaordic
were no constraints whatever, what would be the nature of an ideal
institution to accomplish our purpose?” Design
There is no absolutely right or wrong way to undertake and proceed through the Process
chaordic design process, but we typically observe the following pattern in our work
with organisations:
One or two sessions exploring the core chaordic concepts with a leadership or initiating
continued
group. We urge groups and organisations to take time to assess the relevance and “fit” of
chaordic concepts and processes for their circumstances. Having key partici- pants consider
and endorse a major change initiative is essential if the effort is to have
a serious chance of success.
One or two sessions determining participants, developing resources and devising a strategy
for working through the chaordic design process. One or more months of work are
typically required to organise the resources and support that an organisation-al
development effort will need. This includes the development of several dedicated teams
with responsibility for project management and staffing, outreach and commu-
nications, and organisational concept and design.A
series of in-depth meetings, each several days in length, to work through each of thesix
elements. Some elements, such as principles and organisational concept, often takemore
than a single meeting. It is not uncommon for this series of meeting to take at least a year,
sometimes two, especially when dealing with large, complex organisations
or industries.
Ongoing analytic and educational support for process participants. Issues invariably arise
that require more detailed research or attention by a special team. Research on industry-
specific matters, or mapping potential participants and their current relation-ships to each
other, are examples. Legal analysis is often required.
Chartering and implementation. Our aim is to create a dynamic, evolving organisa-tion.
Yet implementation of the new concept can take several month. In the case of existing
organisations seeking to transform themselves, a careful strategy for the transi-tion from one
structure to another must be created. When a new organisation is beingformed, it may
take some months for individuals and other institutions to elect to join
and participate.

(Dee Hock, Birth of the Chaordic Age, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco.)

63
 The U-Process is a methodology for addressing highly complex challenges— for

The U Process solving complex problems or realizing complex opportunities. It isa “social
technology” for effecting the transformation of reality, within and across the
worlds of business, government, and civil society.
(Theory U) In using the U-Process, an individual or team undertakes three activities ormovements:

connecting Sensing the current reality of the system of which they are part, carefullyand
in depth through experiential learning journeys and in-depth inter- views;

to the Presencing and reflecting to allow their “inner knowing” to emerge, aboutwhat
is going on and what they have to do; and then
future that Realizing, acting swiftly to bring forth a new reality through rapid pro to-typing and

wants to
scaling up local solutions that work.

The U-Process is simultaneously a cutting-edge technology and a distillation of

emerge ancient wisdom. It is a process that many creative people— businessand social
entrepreneurs, inventors, artists—use when they generate breakthroughs.

For tools to facilitate a U-process see www.presencing.org (check the toolssection).

www.presencing.org
www.theoryu.com

‘‘We are longing for pro-

found renewal and
change in our collective
structures and
institutions.We have been
waiting, consciously or
not, all our lives. And
now, it seems,
a window is beginning
toopen.’’
Otto Scharmer

64
The U Process
(Theory U)
connecting
to the
future that
wants to
emerge

The picture above shows broadly the steps to take when

engaging a group into a U process. A U processcan take
weeks, months or years, depending how complex the
issue and how urgent the need for a ‘solution’. Note that
even though it might often be portrayed like that, a U-
process is not a linear process.

For a practical illustration of a U-process see http://

www.natural-innovation.net/theory-u-in-practice/

65
Many resources are available – books, articles, websites, blogs, communities.

As starting points or hubs for more extensive lists of resources, we suggest: Resources
 www.artofhosting.org (co-created by many art of hosting stewards)
 http://artofhosting.ning.com (an online conversation and knowledge space
for the Art of Hosting community.)
books,
 http://www.vimeo.com/groups/hosting (provides videos about several AoH
topics) articles,
Here are a few gems with which to start or perhaps, like old friends, return to: websites
Baldwin, Christina Calling the Circle – The First and Future Culture
Storycatcher Making sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story
Brown, Juanita with David Isaacs & the World Café Community
The World Café – Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
www.theworldcafe.com
Corrigan, Chris
The Tao of Holding Space
Open Space Technology – A User’s Non-Guide (with Michael Herman)
www.chriscorrigan.com
Cooperrider, David and Srivastva (2000)
Appreciative Inquiry: Rethinking Human Organization Toward a Positive Theoryof
Change
www.appreciativeinquiry.case.edu
www.appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/uploads/whatisai.pdf
Owen, Harrison
Open Space Technology – A Users Guide
Expanding our now - The Story of Open Space Technology The Spirit of
Leadership - Liberating the Leader in Each of Us
Holman, Peggy (Editor), Tom Devane (Editor) The Change Handbook
Isaacs, William Dialogue and the art of thinking together
Kahane, Adam Solving Tough ProblemsPower and Love
Kaner, Sam et. al. The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making

66
 Scharmer, Otto
Presencing
Theory U
Resources
Senge, Peter
The Fifth Discipline
The Fifth Discipline Field Book (with Ross, Smith, Roberts, and Kleiner)
books,
The Dance of Change
The Art and Practise of The Learning Organization
(with Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts)
Wenger, Etienne (Communities of Practice)
articles,
Cultivating Communities of Practice: a Guide to Managing Knowledge. (with
Richard McDermott and William Snyder)
Communities of Practice: the Organisational Frontier. Harvard Business Re-view.
websites
January-February 2000, pp. 139-145. (with William Snyder) Knowledge
Management is a Donut: Shaping your Knowledge Strategy withCommunities of
Practice. Ivey Business Journal, January 2004.
Supporting Communities of Practice: a Survey of Community-Oriented Tech-
nologies. www.ewenger.com/tech, 2001.
Communities of practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1998.
Learning for a Small Planet: a Research Agenda.www.ewenger.com/research,
2004.
Wheatley, Margaret J.
Leadership and the New Science:
Turning to One Another Finding
Our Now
A Simpler Way (with Myron Kellner-Rogers)
Perseverance
Walk out walk on! (with Deborah Frieze)
Whitney, Dianna and Trosten-Bloom, A.
The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: a Practical Guide to Positive Change.

67
 Putting the Art of Hosting into practice//A quick reference for convening conversations that matter.

Resources - All conversations are opportunities for us to connect a little deeper with one another. Inthe
Art of Hosting practice we often talk of the four fold way and the seven little helpers: the
simplest tools for convening any conversation.
Articles By far most of the conversations we host in our lives at work or in the community are

Basics of conversations with small groups. These simple processes are offered as a quick referencefor
bringing depth and life to those conversations.

Hosting: The Four Fold Way of Hosting//We have learned that quality conversations lead-ing to close
teamwork and wise action arise when there are four conditions present:

Hosting in a 1. Be Present
2. Participate and practice conversations
Hurry 3. Host
4. Co-create
written by We call these four conditions the Four Fold Way of Hosting, because you can practicethese any
ChrisCorrigan, time. They form the basis for all good hosting.

Steward,
Canada-
Vancouver Be Present// ...host yourself first - be willing to sit in thechaos -
Island keep the space open - sit in the fire of the present...
Questions to help
you become pre- Being present means showing up, undistracted, prepared, clear
sent about the need and what your personal contribution can be. It
What am I curious allows you to check in with yourself and develop the personal
about? practice of curiosity about the outcomes of any gathering.
Where am I feel- Presence means making space to devote a dedicated time to
ing anxiety coming working with others. If you are distracted, called out or otherwise
into this meeting located in many different places, you cannotbe present in one.
and how can I let For meetings to have deep results, every person in the room
that go? should be fully present.
What clarity do I Collectively, it is good practice to become present together as a
need? What clarity meeting begins. This might be as simple as taking a momentof
do I have? silence to rest into the present. If an Elder is present, a prayer
does this very nicely. Invite a collective slowing down so that all
participants in a meeting can be present together.

68
Resources - Participate and practice conversation//...be willingto listen fully,
respectfully, without judgment and thinking you already know
all the answer – practice conversation mindfully...
Articles Conversation is an art, it is not just talk. It demands that we
listen carefully to one another and that we offer what we can

Basics of Practicing conver-

in the service of the whole. Curiosity and judgmentcannot live
together in the same space. If we are judg-
ing what we are hearing, we cannot be curious about the
Hosting: sation
Listen and help outcome, and if we have called a meeting because we are
uncertain of the way forward, being open is a key skill and
others to listen
Hosting in a Use silence
Contribute to the
capacity. Only by practicing skillful conversation can we find
our best practice together.
If we practice conversation mindfully we might slow down
Hurry
harvest
Put good questions meetings so that wisdom and clarity can work quickly.
in the centre When we talk mindlessly, we don’t allow space for the clarity to
Connect ideas arise. The art of conversation is the art of slowing down to
speed up.

Host conversations//...be courageous, inviting and willing to initiate

Hosting basics
conversations that matter - find and host powerful questions withthe
Determine the
stakeholders – and then make sure you harvest the answers, the pat-
need and the
terns, insights learnings and wise actions...
purpose
Hosting conversations is both more and less than facilitating. It means
Create a powerful
taking responsibility for creating and holding the container in which
question
a group of people can do their best work together. You can create this
Host an appropri-ate
container using the seven helpers as starting points, and although you can
process Encourage
also do this in the moment, the more preparation you have the bet-
contri-butions
ter.
Harvest
The bare minimum to do is to discern the need, prepare a question and
know what you will do with the harvest. If there is no need to meet, don’t
meet. If there is a need get clear on the need and prepare a processthat will
meet that need by asking a powerful question. And always know how you
will harvest and what will be done with that harvest, to ensure that results
are sustainable and the effort was worth it.
Hosting conversations takes courage and it takes a bit of certainty and
faith in your people. We sometimes give short shrift to conversational
spaces because of the fear we experience in stepping up to host. It is,
however, a gift to host a group and it is a gift to be hosted well. Work
in meetings becomes that much better.

69
Resources -
Articles
Basics of
Hosting: Co-create//...be willing to co create and co-host with others,
blending your knowing, experience and practiceswith theirs,

Hosting in a
working partnership..
The fourth practice is about showing up in a conversation
without being a spectator, and contributing to the collec- tive

Hurry effort to sustain results. The best conversations arise when we

listen for what is in the middle, what is arising out of the
centre of our collaboration. It is not about thebalancing of
Co-creation individual agendas, it is about finding out what is new. And
Speak truth when that is discovered work unfolds beautifully when
Speak for what is in everyone is clear about what they can contribute to the work.
the middle This is how results become sustainable over time – they fall
Offer what you can Ask into the network of relation-ships that arise from a good
for what you need conversation, from friends working together.
Commit to what you So contribute what you know to the mix so that patterns
can may become clear and the collaborative field can produce
Let go unexpected and surprising results.

70
Resources - The Seven Helpers///Over the years, we have identified seven little toolsthat are the
source of good conversational design. At the bare minimum, if youuse these tools,
conversations will grow deeper and work will occur at a more meaningful level. These
Articles seven helpers bring form to fear and uncertainty and help us stay in the chaos of not
knowing the answers. They help us to move through uncomfortable places

Basics of
together, like conflict, uncertainty, fear and the groan zone and to arrive at wise
action.
Be present

Hosting: Have a good questionUse

a talking piece Harvest
Make a wise decisionAct
Hosting in a Stay together

Hurry 1. Be Present//Inviting presence 2. Have a good question//A good question is aligned

is a core practice of hosting, but it
is also a key practice for laying the
ground work for agood meeting.
There are many ways of bringing
a group to presence, including:
• Start with a prayer
• Start with a moment of
silence
• Check in with a personal
question related to the
theme of the meeting
• Pass a talking piece and
provide space for each
voice to be heard
• Start well.
Start slowly.
Check everyone in.
with the need and purpose of the meeting and invites
us to go to another level. Good questions are put into
the centre of a circle and the groupspeaks through
them. Having a powerful question at the centre keeps
the focus on the work and helps
a groups stay away from unhelpful behaviours like
personal attacks, politics and closed minds.
A good question has the following characteristics:
• Is simple and clear
• Is thought provoking
• Generates energy
• Focuses inquiry
• Challenges assumptions
• Opens new possibilities
• Evokes more questions
It is wise to design these questions beforehand and make
them essential pieces of the invitation for others to join
you. As you dive into these questions, harvest the new
questions that are arising. They represent the path you
need to take.

71
Resources -
3. Use a talking piece//In its simplest form a talking piece is simply and object that passes
from hand to hand. When one is holding the piece, one is invited to speak and everyone is
invited to listen. Using a talking piece has the powerful effect of ensuring that every voice is

Articles heard and it sharpens both speech and listening.

It slows down a conversation so that when things are moving too fast, or people begin
speaking over one another and the listening stops, a talking piece restores calm and
Basics of smoothness. Conducting the opening round of a conversation with a talking piece setsthe
tone for the meeting and helps people to remember the power of this simple tool. Of

Hosting:
course a talking piece is really a minimal form of structure. Every meeting should have some
form of structure that helps to work with the chaos and order that is neededto co-discover
new ideas. There are many forms and processes to choose from but it is important to align

Hosting in a them with the nature of living systems if innovation and wisdom is to arise from chaos and
uncertainty.
At more sophisticated levels, when you need to do more work, you can use more formal
Hurry processes that work with these kinds of context. Each of these processes has a sweet spot, its
own best use, which you can think about as you plan meetings. Blend as necessary.

Process Requirements Best uses

Appreciative At least 20 minutes per person for interviews, Discovering what we have going for
Inquiry with follow up time to process together. Can us and figuring outhow to use those
be done anywhere. assets in other places.

For reflecting on a question

Circle A talking piece and a space free of tablesthat together, when no one personknows
can hold the group in a circle. the answer. The basis for all good
conversations.

Open Space For organising work and get- ting

Technology A room that can hold the whole group ina circle, people to take responsibility for what
a blank wall, at least an hour per they love. Fastest way to get people
session. You have to let go of outcomes forthis to working on what matters.
realise its full power.

World Cafe Tables or work spaces, enough to hold three to
four at each, with paper and markers in the middle.
You need 15 to 20 minutes per round of
conversation and at least two rounds to get the
full power. People need to change tables each
round so ideas can travel.
For figuring out what the whole
knows. World Cafe surfaces the
knowledge that is in the whole,
even knowledge that any given
individualdoesn’t know is shared.

72
Resources - 4. Harvest// Never meet unless you plan to harvest your learnings. The
basic rule of thumb here is to remember that you are not planning a meeting,

Articles
you are instead planning a harvest. Know what is needed and plan the process
accordingly. Harvests don't always have to be visible; sometimes you plan to
meet just to create learning. But support that personal learning with good

Basics of questions and practice personal harvesting.

To harvest well, be aware of four things:

Hosting: Create an artefact. Harvesting is about making knowledge visible. Make a mind

Hosting in a
map, draw pictures, take notes, but whatever you do create a record ofyour
conversation.
Have a feedback loop. Artefacts are useless if they sit on the shelf. Know how you will

Hurry use your harvest before you begin your meeting. Is it going into the system? Will it
create questions for a future meeting? Is it to be shared with people as news and
learning? Figure it out and make plans to share the harvest.Be aware of both
intentional and emergent harvest. Harvest answers to the specific questions you
are asking, but also make sure you are paying attention to the cool stuff that is
emerging in good conversations. There is real value in what's coming up that none
could anticipate. Harvest it.
The more a harvest is co-created, the more it is co-owned. Don't just appoint a
secretary, note taker or a scribe. Invite people to co-create the harvest. Place paper
in the middle of the table so that everyone can reach it. Hand out post itnotes so
people can capture ideas and add them to the whole. Use your crea- tive spirit to
find ways to have the group host their own harvest.

For more information and inspiration, consult The Art of Harvesting booklet from Monica
Nissen or Chris Corrigan.

73
Resources - 5. Make a wise decision//If your meeting needs tocome to 6. Act.//Once you have
Articles a decision, make it a wise one. Wise decisions emerge from
conversation, not voting. The simplest way to arrive at a
decided what to do, act.
There isn't much more to
wise decision is to use the three thumbs consensus
Basics of
say about that except that
process. It works like this: wise action is action that
doesn't not over-extend or

Hosting:
First, clarify a proposal. A proposal is a suggestion forhow under-extend the resources
something might be done. Have it worded and written of a group. Action arises
and placed in the centre of the circle. Poll from the personal choice to
Hosting in a the group asking each person to offer their thumb in
three positions. UP means “I'm good with it.” SIDE-WAYS
responsibility for what you
love. Commit to the work
means “I need more clarity before I give the thumbs up”
Hurry
and do it.
DOWN means “this proposal violates myintegrity...I mean
seriously.”
As each person indicates their level of support for the
proposal, note the down and sideways thumbs. Go to the 7. Stay together//Rela-
down thumbs first and ask: “what would it take for you to tionships create sustaina-
be able to support this proposal.” Collectively help the bility. If you stay togetheras
participant word another proposal, or a changeto the friends, mates or family,you
current one. If the process is truly a consensus building become accountable to
one, people are allowed to vote thumbs down only if they one another and you can
are willing to participate in making a pro- posal that works. face challenges bet- ter.
Hijacking a group gets rewarded witha vote. Majority When you feel your
rules. relationship to your closest
mates slipping, call it out
Once you have dealt with the down thumbs, do the same and host a conversation
with the sideways thumbs. Sideways doesn’t mean“no” but about it. Trust is a group's
rather “I need clarity.” Answer the questions or clarify the most precious resource.
concerns. Use it well.

If you have had a good conversation leading to the

proposal, you should not be surprised by any down
thumbs. If you are, reflect on that experience and think
about what you could have done differently.

For more, refer to The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory

Decision Making.

74
Resources - Acknowledgements and contact information.// The “Basics of Hosting: Hosting in a
Hurry” guide was written by Chris Corrigan for the Vancouver Island Aboriginal

Articles Transition Team based on material developed by the Art of Hosting practitioner’s
community. It would not have been possible without the wisdom, friendship and
inspiration of Monica Nissen, Toke Moeller, Kris Archie, Tenneson Woolf, Teresa
Basics of Posakony, Tim Merry, Phil Cass, Tuesday Ryan-Hart, Caitlin Frost, David Stevenson,
Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea – all of them wise and wonderful stewards and

Hosting: practitioners of the Art of Hosting. If you want to contribute to this document
please do, but make your contributions move this piece towardssimplicity. I’ve
already said more than enough.

Hosting in a Please share this document and contact Chris at chris@chriscorrigan if you need to.
His website at www.chriscorrigan.com has links to or copies of most of the resources
Hurry discussed here

75
Resources -
Guide A successful participatory event happens when it is designed and prepared well. This section
covers all the core elements that must be taken into consideration in order for a participatory
event to be both productive and a good experience for all who participate.

Core elements Start with need, purpose and WHY - The Participation Ladder

of convening, Context is all important. A participatory event responds to a need, a compelling and clear
reason for bringing people together.

designing, Each of these reasons for designing and hosting an event is valid and each will influence

hosting and
the design you use. Equally it’s important to be clear in your invitation which is being
served by the event. If participants come thinking they are going to collaborate and co-
create with you but when they arrive they find it’s mostly a done deal and all about giving
harvesting them information they are likely to be very disappointed. Likewise, If your aim is to really
involve people, spending a lot of time downloading information will eat up in the time you

participatory have available to generate ideas for action.

events and
meetings

Convening and inviting

Who?

Clarify the audience/target group that you will invite to the meeting, and especially, think
about whose voices are not usually heard. Consider how you can extend a wider invitation
so you have a truly diverse group of people. This might mean reaching participants
through your networks, i.e. someone in your network who has contact with the target
group you wish to engage, etc.

How?

Create an invitation that clearly shares the purpose of the event and how it will be run, i.e.
describe it will be participative. Make sure your invitation is designed in an attractive way,
such as including a photo of a participatory process. Pay attention to using easy to
understand language and do not use jargon or acronyms. The venue you choose to hold
the event is crucial.

76
 Where?
Resources - Try to find welcoming venues where people can sit in small groups or circles rather than in
formal lines of chairs. It helps if the venue has a feeling of ‘hospitality ‘about it, attention to
Guide small details like this can make enormous differences to the levels of engagement that
people feel when they feel really welcomed into a space and a participative conversation. If
possible, make sure it has natural light.

Core elements Designing events and gathering

of convening, A well designed event has some core elements which include:

designing, ● A clear welcome and context so that participants are made to feel welcome, invited to
participate and clearly understand the need for being engaged. It is also very important to

hosting and share from the beginning how the knowledge that will be generated together will be used.
This helps to clearly define the boundaries of why they have been invited and why their
participation matters.
harvesting ● A grounding & check in allows participants to arrive at the event, introduce themselves, and
understand who else has been invited. This enables people to become fully present to the

participatory event, prepares them to collaborate and allows for a first level of trust and safety to be
established.
● Content on the topic that you are engaging people in needs to be offered clearly as a way of
events and catalyzing the engagement piece that follows. This can include sharing the challenges or
opportunities that participants are invited to work with, or it might be research that they

meetings need to understand that underpins the issues they will discuss. This should inspire and be
inviting so people can engage together. This should not be didactic or a presentation with
many slides on what the speaker thinks is the solution.
● Engagement is the core element of a participatory event, so it is important that you give
the most time to this part of the process. Using participatory processes, e.g. mind map,
world cafe, etc., will ensure that participants exchange and co-create. You will introduce
why we are engaging on this, what the questions are that they will speak to and how the
collective information that comes from the conversation will be captured, e.g. in person
using post it notes, on a flipchart or a template, (see below in section additional
considerations of online events). You do not need to have anyone facilitating small group
work but you do need to invite the groups to identify a rapporteur or a scribe who will
capture the main themes of the conversations.
● After the conversation, it is important to have a plenary where groups can offer what they
discussed and where together that participants can make sense of what has been surfaced.
This is called harvesting as it is looking out for the ‘fruits’ or ‘golden nuggets’ of the
conversation, as well as the patterns that connect different issues and ideas. This is very
important in moving from simply capturing what groups identified towards the greater
collective intelligence that has emerged. It is important to have one member of the
hosting team, listening out during the plenary so they can help in identifying this.
● As the event draws towards closure, it is important to offer some conclusions from the
conversations and also information on next steps so that it is clear to all participants how
their input will go towards serving the bigger picture.
● Checking out of the event is important for tending to good closure. This can include
inviting people to share how they are leaving the event or what they most learned. This
leaves people with a sense of accomplishment.

77
Resources -
Guide
Core elements
of convening,
designing,
hosting and
harvesting
participatory
events and
meetings
Additional considerations for online events

Online events often take more preparation than in person events so it's important to make sure your
design takes this into account and builds in good breaks, as it can be more intense. It's also less
flexible online so having a good script that maps out timings, questions and who is doing what can
help with the structure.

Visuals are an important tool online, so using a pre prepared slide deck with graphics and photos will
help make the online space less tiring and assists in understanding what is needed from participants
and what is being co-created.

You also might want to consider the balance between plenary sessions and breakout groups. More
meaning and connection is created in breakout spaces online, so you might have more of this and less
plenary sessions

If you are designing for online events then you will need tools that can support your harvesting or
recording of people’s ideas, like Jamboard, where you can have a simple digital wall for participants to
post their post it notes or Miro which is a more sophisticated version of the same thing. Mentimeter
and Sli.do can be used to run polls and check ins for specific questions. Survey Monkey and Poll
everywhere are good for evaluation. All these tools will need to be prepared in advance.

When hosting virtually it is essential to have a tech host who has sole responsibility for supporting
people who have difficulties with their tech. S/he can also prepare all the breakout rooms, make the
digital tools available and screen share to show the visuals such as the slide presentation.

The tech host can also spotlight speakers, share the questions into the breakout rooms, mute and
unmute people, open and close the chat room and deal with any distractions to the event. As you
draw up the script and the design of the online meeting its helpful to have a column which gives clear
tech instructions for each piece to assist the flow of the meeting

78
 Delivery
Resources - Delivering a participatory event requires a team and not just one facilitator. Arriving earlier to check in

Guide as a team, whether online or in person is very important. In person, checking that the room is laid out
properly, that name badges are available and all materials are in place ensures that you have peace of
mind and can focus on your participants when they arrive. Any final adjustments and preparation can
also take place at this time as well as ensuring everyone understands their role and the part they will
Core elements be hosting. Online, it is important to go through the script to ensure that your tech host is aware of all
the necessary breakouts.

of convening, As a host, it is important that you ‘host yourself’, which means that you are aware of your feelings and
thoughts, have taken the time to prepare so that you can put all your attention on the participants
designing, and that, therefore, you are not distracted with yourself. It is important that you strike a balance
between knowing what you will say and also being spontaneous to pick up the atmosphere from the

hosting and group, what you feel is important for the participants. You have to be aware of your own fears and any
need you might have to control others, so that you do not close the participants' opportunity to
participate and explore what is most meaningful to them.
harvesting What is most important is that you are serving the participants and their ability to engage, not
participatory performing for them or over facilitating them. As a hosting team, you need to both be clear on who is
hosting /harvesting which parts of the programme and also keeping an eye on the overall process. It

events and
is good to have at least two people for each part, so that one can introduce and the other to host the
harvest. Also this allows for someone to step in if one person is unable to host. It is important,
however, for everyone to host the overall process, which includes timekeeping, looking out if changes
meetings need to be made, ensuring harvesting is taking place, and that everyone, participants and hosting
team, are well.

In delivering a participatory event, it is crucial that you create the conditions for participants to be in
meaningful conversations, to give them the space to do this and to encourage the capture of
collective intelligence. Be careful to not try and ‘put people through the process’ like a machine. A
participatory event is a space where citizens can connect, engage, exchange, and discover together.
Key to this is creating a space of emergence and not one of going through the motions.

Capturing and making sense of the results and outcomes

It is important to create artifacts and records that capture what people say in the meeting. It can be
shared with both those who were present to demonstrate the outcome but also to feed into the
overall process of capturing people’ s ideas and views. There are many ways to harvest or capture
what is said.

Organise your data collection along with your design, as the core purpose of any participatory event is
to capture collective intelligence that comes from meaningful conversations. For example, in the mind
map you could work on a large piece of paper on the wall. In the check in and check out you could
simply record what people say as a word cloud. In the World Cafe you could give each group several
post its that are then displayed on the wall or online board and then voted on to give a sense of
priority.

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Resources -
Guide
Core elements
of convening,
designing,
hosting and Pre prepared templates help people in open space feedback the most important points of their

harvesting conversation. Remember to build in time to your design to hear back from people and also time to
reflect and make sense of what it all means. You might wish to use a graphic recorder to help you do

participatory
this by drawing a visual representation of the conversion,

Reporting and reflecting

events and A participatory event requires that the ideas, proposals or conclusions that emerge are reported on.
meetings This includes offering a report to the participants so they can see that what they deem important is
captured, as well as passing this onto the policy makers, decision makers and implementers. If the
results are not passed on, this can create disappointment, disenfranchisement and even people fully
distrusting participation and therefore not returning when invited again. When this happens, you can
hear statements such as “What we said went into a black hole” or “They are playing lip service”, etc.
Additionally, it is very important to communicate to participants which of their ideas or proposals were
taken on board and which were not and why. This enables transparency to be present, which
strengthens trust, even if there is not agreement that certain ideas were not taken on board.

Likewise, the hosting team needs to reflect after an event takes place. This enables them to identify
what worked and was of value, and what could be improved. Reflecting is key to learning and to
integrating that learning so that the capacity to design, facilitate and harvest can evolve to higher
value. The hosting team learning together strengthens their ability to hold greater complexity, and
this enables a participatory process to create more results. A good way to undertake the reflection is
to host a meeting with a method called What, So What, Now What. This offers a methodical way to
reflect on questions like “What worked and What could be improved”, “So What do we now see could
bring higher value/results”, and “Now What do we need to do/change/integrate, etc.”

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Resources - New Solutions are Needed to Work Generatively with Complexity

Article What are the lenses that are needed now to work with complexity?

” Ultimately, these problems must be seen as just different facets of one single crisis, which is largely a
New solutions crisis of perception. It derives from the fact that most people in our modern society, and especially our
large social institutions, subscribe to the concepts of an outdated worldview, a perception of reality

are needed to inadequate for dealing with our overpopulated, globally interconnected world.”

Fritjof Capra
work Europe, like the rest of the world, is seeking new solutions at this crucial time. It is becoming more and
generatively more evident that the challenges we face – energy, the environment, climate crisis, food and financial
insecurity and growing social inequalities – cannot be solved in isolation. This is because challenges

with are interconnected and interdependent (systemic). This makes them complex, and instead of
breaking them into smaller problems, we need to understand the wholeness they create. To do this
requires a radical shift in our perception, in our thinking, and in our values. A fundamental change of
complexity worldview is emerging from sciences, a change of paradigms as radical as the Copernican revolution.

Many organisations whether public, non-profit and private organisations, as well as citizens, are
working hard to discover the way beyond these complex challenges through the creation of policies,
programmes, and partnerships. Engaging and involving diverse stakeholders is understood to be
needed as a way of identifying potential opportunities for the present and future. Yet, before truly
innovative solutions can be discovered, we might need to focus on reviewing and regenerating our
sense of perception of how the world works. Could we be holding an outdated way of perceiving,
which is blinding us from dealing with our current interconnected problems?

In this section, we will explore what a worldview is and how it drives how we think, what we perceive
as important, as well as what we reject. This, in turn, impacts the decisions and actions that we take,
which can often simply produce more of the same, instead of creating the change we desire. We will
go on to explore how our worldview in Europe has changed through a very brief history of Western
science. We will also touch on the new and emerging sciences of the 20 th and 21st centuries, which
offer us a new set of lenses, valuable for the systemic challenges we face today – challenges that call us
to develop new forms of leadership, organising and acting, such as participatory leadership.

Thomas Kuhn, philosopher of science and physicist, in his influential book from 1962 ‘The Structure
of Scientific Revolutions’, introduced the concept of a scientific ‘paradigm’, which he defined as a
constellation of achievements – such as laws, theories and techniques – shared by a scientific
community and recognised by the community as supplying the foundation for its further practice.
Kuhn argued that along with continuous progress of ‘normal science’, there are periods of
interruption by ‘revolutionary science’, in which not only a scientific theory, but also the entire
conceptual framework in which it is embedded, undergoes radical change, sometimes engendering
controversy. During the past decades, the concepts of ‘paradigm’ and ‘paradigm shift’ (synonymous
to worldview and worldview shift) have increasingly been used in social sciences, as social scientists
realised that many characteristics of paradigm shifts can also be observed in the larger social
arena.

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Resources - What is a worldview and why is it important to be aware of it?

Article
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
New solutions Albert Einstein
are needed to
work You think

generatively You are thinking your thoughts

with You are not;

complexity
You are thinking the culture’s thoughts

Jiddu Kristnamurti

A key factor to discovering new solutions is becoming aware of how we view the world, as well as the
basic assumptions we hold about what is true or right, or what works in a given situation. This is
known as a worldview, or paradigm. Fritjof Capra (‘The Web of Life’, 1996), inspired by Thomas Kuhn’s
scientific paradigm, defines a worldview as: “A constellation of concepts, values, perceptions and
practices shared by a community, which forms a particular vision of reality that is the basis of the way
the community organises itself.” We are often not aware of our worldview, and therefore not aware of
the way we think, the language we use and what ‘moves’ the decisions and actions that we take. The
words or phrases that are used in a particular context are a good indicator of the worldview held. For
example, many of our organisations use terms such as ‘driving change’, ‘finding efficiency cuts’,
‘breaking down silos’, which all indicate a mechanistic worldview (see section below).

A worldview acts as a filter for what we perceive as important, and therefore guides what we pay
attention to and what we reject. As we communicate or work together, we do not always operate from
the same ‘worldview’ or the same assumptions. This usually results in a lack of mutual understanding,
minimizing the potential that is available and, ultimately, limiting the possibilities we see
together. Therefore, paying attention and becoming aware of the way we are perceiving the world is
key to ensuring that our worldview does not limit our ability to access new potential. It is also
important, to align our worldview with the context we are working in (see Cynefin Framework later in
this chapter), especially if our worldview is different and we are inviting others to perceive a situation
differently. Paradoxically, it might be necessary to use language from the context’s dominant
worldview, even though speaking from another one, in order for it to be understood and accepted. As
we will discuss later on, context is paramount and needs to always be taken into account.

Worldview shifts are not new to Europe and have occurred during several periods in history, impacting
people’s vision of reality and therefore their actions and ways of living. These paradigm shifts have
moved us from viewing life in a holistic way, to a more mechanistic way since the 1500s, to, more
recently, viewing the universe as a living system.

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Resources - A short history of worldview changes in Europe

Article An organic worldview

New solutions The Milesian School, the earliest school of Greek philosophy, made no distinction between animate

are needed to and inanimate – later on, Greeks viewed the world as a harmonious and ordered structure ( kosmos).
Greek philosophy and science saw the world as a living organism rather than a mechanical system. It
was Aristotle who organised the entire scientific knowledge of antiquity into a scheme that would
work remain the foundation of western science for some 2,000 years. Aristotle also categorised species into
a hierarchy, placing humans at the top, because of the human ability to contemplate the nature of the
generatively universe, giving humans a godlike intellect.

with
An organic worldview dominated European civilisation up until the 1500s. People lived in small
complexity cohesive communities and had personal relationships with nature. This resulted in interdependent
notions of spiritual and material concerns, with the community’s needs being placed above the
individual’s. A combination of Christian theology and ethics, along with Aristotle’s comprehensive
system of nature, created the established framework of the Middle Ages. Medieval science was based
on both reason and faith, with its main goal being to understand the meaning of things and not to
predict and control them.
This organic worldview corresponds well with
Chinese Taoist and Indian philosophies, as well
as indigenous spiritual traditions, which see the
universe as being in dynamic movement and
The world as a machine believe that the universe and all matter is
imbued with life.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the medieval
worldview radically changed. The organic, living
and spiritual universe was replaced by a view of
the world as a machine. A mechanistic perception of life became the dominant paradigm. This came
about by revolutionary changes in physics and astronomy, most notably through the achievements of
Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton. Unlike Medieval science, 17th-century philosophers like Francis
Bacon and René Descartes introduced a new empirical method of inquiry and an analytic method of
reasoning. Science was about obtaining knowledge that was seen as a way to dominate and control
nature. The ancient concept of the Earth as a nurturing mother completely disappeared due to
Bacon’s writings and was replaced by the metaphor of the world as an ordered machine. This shift,
completed by Descartes and Newton, was very important in the development of Western civilisation.

Cartesian philosophy (named after Descartes), and the worldview derived from it, is based on the
certainty of scientific knowledge. Descartes was a brilliant mathematician and he believed that the
key to the universe was its mathematical structure. Therefore, science was synonymous with
mathematics for Descartes. His analytic method was based on radical doubt, and this led him to one
thing he could not doubt, the existence of himself as a thinker. His analytic method was based on
“Cogito, ergo sum” breaking up thoughts and problems into pieces and arranging them in their logical order. This
(I think, therefore I analytic method of reasoning is his greatest contribution to science, as it has become a key
characteristic of modern science. However, Descartes was not able to fully realise his vision and
am) framework during his lifetime.

René Descartes
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Resources - Instead, it was Newton who fulfilled Descartes’ vision and completed the Scientific Revolution. Born in
England in 1642, the year of Galileo’s death, Newton created a synthesis of the works of the great

Article minds who had preceded him: Copernicus, Bacon, Galileo, Kepler and Descartes. Newtonian physics
was the greatest scientific achievement of the 17th century, and it provided a consistent mathematical
theory of the world, which has been the foundation of science well into the twentieth century. A
Newtonian universe, in Newton’s own words, was an “absolute space, of its own nature, without

New solutions reference to anything external, always remains homogeneous and immovable” (Fritjof Capra and Pier
Luigi Luisi, ‘ The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision’, 2014). The elements that moved in this
absolute space and absolute time were material particles - small, solid and indestructible objects out
are needed to of which all matter was made. The motion of the particles was created by gravity and acted at a
distance. This was criticised by his contemporaries, but it was not until the development of the field
work concept by Faraday and Maxwell in the 19th century, and Einstein’s theory of gravity in the 20th century,
that this problem was solved.

generatively Newtonian mechanics was applied with tremendous success. It explained the motion of the planets,
moons, and comets, as well as the flow of tides and various other phenomena. It was even extended to
with understand the continuous motion of fluids and the vibration of elastic bodies. Finally, it was also used
to explain the theory of heat by reducing it to mechanics, explaining that heat was the energy

complexity generated by the ‘jiggling’ motion of atoms and molecules. It became the ‘normal’ theory of reality
and gave the picture of the world as a perfect machine, which, introduced by Descartes, was now
considered a proven fact.

However, the predominance of the Cartesian and Newtonian worldview has also had a negative
impact. Descartes’ separation of mind and matter created a huge fragmentation between humans
and their environment. It encased us inside our individual bodies and has added to creating a
perception of an anthropocentric supremacy. The machine metaphor meant that nature worked
according to mechanical laws and that everything could be controlled and arranged by a movement
of its parts. This had a dramatic impact on people’s attitudes towards the natural environment. It
created alienation, resulting in seeing the world as foreign and fearsome, which in turn created the
need to dominate and control everything.

Most of our systems, whether educational, medical, financial or economic, as well as scientific, have
also been impacted in that they are organised as parts, with expertise being sought in a part and not
the whole. This has also inspired institutions to organise as bureaucracies, concentrating power with
knowledge at the top, creating silos that operate vertically rather than horizontally, in a separate rather
than an interconnected way. We have become so entrenched in this worldview that we have
dehumanised many of our systems, which leads to stress, alienation and trauma.

The web of life and the theory of evolution – reconnecting with the natural world

Alexander Humboldt, a scientist, born in 1769, now almost forgotten outside of academia, played an
important role in creating a new vision of how life works. Through his direct experience of exploring
South America and the Kazakh Steppe at Russia’s Mongolian border, he conceived a new vision of
Earth as one great living organism, where everything is connected. It was Humboldt that spoke of the
web of life, where everything hangs together so that small changes can have large scale impact. He
became the first scientist to talk about the impact humans were having on the environment after he
saw the devasting environmental effects of colonial plantations at Lake Valencia in Venezuela in 1800,
where small changes could have large-scale impact. Although often not explicit, it is Humboldt’s
concept of nature that continues to inspire ecologists, environmentalists and nature writers. Charles
Darwin wrote that “nothing stimulated my zeal so much as reading Humboldt’s Personal Narrative ”,
saying that he would not have boarded the Beagle, nor conceived of the Origin of Species, without
Humboldt (Andrea Wulf, ‘The Invention of Nature’ 2016).

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) proved biological evolution with a mass of evidence, which forced
scientists to abandon the Newtonian image of the world as a machine. This evolutionary theory, based
on adaptation and natural selection, broke with the tradition that all species have been created by
God. He stated that all species are interlinked and come from one ancestor, and that modifications
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 resulted due to environmental pressures and natural selection. Darwin proved that environmental
changes result in changes in species as they adapt. Natural selection is about those individuals within
Resources - a species that adapt more efficiently to changing circumstances and, therefore, are able to survive and
then reproduce. This changed the perspective of the worldview from being to becoming and offered

Article
a holistic and systemic worldview - a vast planetary network of living beings interlinked in space and
time.

Interestingly, Darwin’s natural selection was misinterpreted from that time’s dominant worldview as

New solutions meaning competition between species, with the ‘survival of the fittest’ who ‘won out over the others’.
This ‘win - lose’ perception, based on scarcity, became a foundation that permeated many systems
from how the markets work to education, so that those who are ‘fittest’ survive and win, whilst others
are needed to lose. What was missed and has been picked up by the new sciences (see section below) is that, in fact,
natural selection is more about complementing, so that as many species as possible can survive. An
work example of this is the adaptation of a bird’s beak becoming longer, so that it can access droplets
within a plant when living in an environment where water is scarce. The bird does not compete with

generatively
other species, it adapts, so it may survive.

Contemporary science – living systems

with Since the turn of the 20th century, with the

complexity dawning of contemporary science, different

scientific disciplines have begun to change the
lens with which they view the universe. These
contemporary sciences show that the material
world is a network of inseparable patterns of
relationships and that the entire planet is a living,
self-regulating system. Evolution is no longer
viewed as a competitive struggle for existence,
but rather as a cooperative dance in which
creativity and the constant emergence of novelty
are the driving forces. This new conception of life
creates a new way of thinking – thinking in terms
of relationships, patterns and context. This way of
thinking is a living systems approach (also known
as systemic thinking).

Living systems thinking emerged during the 20th century through different disciplines:

 It was pioneered by organismic biologists, who sought to understand the coordinating activities
that integrate the functioning of the cell as a whole, and not just its subunits – which cell theory,
embryology and microbiology had successfully established from the mechanistic conception of life. It
was during the early 20th century that biologists such as Ross Harrison (1870-1959), Lawrence
Henderson (1878-1942) and Joseph Woodger (1894-1981) identified some of the major characteristics of
what we now call systems thinking. An important contribution by organismic biologists was that
organisms could be described completely in terms of their chemical elements, ‘plus organising
relations’. This led biologists such as Joseph Woodger, among others, to emphasise that one of the
key characteristics of the organisation of living organisms is its hierarchical nature. These nested
systems of organising show that living systems have a double role of being parts and wholes, with
opposite tendencies to integrate as part of a larger whole, yet also having a tendency to self-organise
to preserve individual autonomy.

 This was further enriched by Gestalt psychology, and specifically by Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-
1932), who characterised a Gestalt by saying “the whole is more than the sum of its parts”. This term
would become key to later systems thinkers.

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Article
New solutions
are needed to
work
generatively
with
complexity
The European project is a perfect
example of complexity, inspired
by its forefathers who vowed that
Europe should never again
experience another war. Member
States coming into more
comprehensive levels of
relationships have created the
new entity of the European Union,
which addresses policy areas such
as mobility, research, innovation
and which shapes the security of
the Single Market, Eurozone, etc.
We have seen the strength of this
in facing the pandemic, with the
collective European power
supporting the emergence of
vaccines, their distribution and
use in the Member States.
 The new science of ecology also made a key contribution to systemic ways of thinking by offering
two new concepts – communities and network. This facilitated the change of focus from organisms to
communities, therefore applying the same kind of concepts to a larger level of a system. In ecology,
there are three kinds of living systems - organisms, parts of organisms and communities of organisms
– all of which are integrated wholes whose essential properties arise from the interactions and
interdependencies of their parts.
 Quantum theory in the 1920s illuminated that as we shift attention from macroscopic objects to
atoms and subatomic particles, nature shows us a very different and even paradoxical picture. Instead
of isolated building blocks, complex webs of relationships between various parts of a whole are at play.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) initiated two revolutionary scientific trends in scientific thought: one was his
theory of relativity and the other was a new way of looking at electromagnetic radiation, which
became characteristic of quantum theory, the theory of atomic phenomena. This transformed
theoretical physics and astronomy and replaced a 200-year-old theory of mechanics primarily created
by Newton. This proved that we do not live in a static universe but an ever-changing one that even
has a 4-dimensional spacetime, and ushered in the nuclear age.
 With the creation of powerful high-speed computers in the 1970s, it became possible for scientists
and mathematicians to develop a new set of concepts and techniques for explaining the enormous
complexity in self-organising living systems. This came to be known as complexity theory, important
branches of this are chaos theory and fractal geometry. The discovery of non-linear dynamics has led
to major breakthroughs in our understanding of biological life. This radically changed scientific belief
that natural phenomena can be described with linear equations. Instead, complexity theory reflects
how nature is “relentlessly nonlinear” (Ian Stewart ‘Does God Play Dice’ 2002) proving that nonlinear
phenomena are an essential aspect of the network patterns of living systems. This shows that new
properties are at play: (1) complex and even chaotic behaviour can give rise to ordered structures, (2)
predictability is difficult or impossible so shifts the emphasis from quantitative analysis to qualitative
observance (see section Shifts from mechanistic to living systems below), and (3) there is a surprising
difference in cause and effect relationships, whereby small changes may have dramatic effects
amplified by self-reinforcing feedback, which are the basis of instabilities, yet sudden emergence of
new forms of order that are characteristic of self-organisation.
 Neuroscience has opened new frontiers in science. One of the most important discoveries in
neuroscience has been that our brains continue to develop and change – or ‘rewire’ – over our lifetime,
which is referred to as brain plasticity. Over the course of evolution, the brain organ has evolved as
species developed. In fact, neuroscience has allowed us to see that our human brain has evolved,
keeping earlier aspects and building new neural capacities. Therefore, we humans have brains that
are the result of three different ‘evolutions’ (Paul MacLean’s triune brain model, 1952) – evolving from
the instinct for survival to developing relationships and connections (see more in Chapter 2). This links
to a systemic view, showing that we humans are intrinsically systemic by the nature of how our brain
works.
Essential characteristics of living systems
Our contemporary sciences now show us a living world where life is inherently complex, as it is made
up of multiple and diverse interconnected networks of relationships. These living systems hold several
essential characteristics that offer an important insight into how life manifests and generates more
life.
Complexity: All living systems are complex adaptive systems, because: “There is an innate striving in all
forms of matter to organise into relationships” (Margaret Wheatly and Myron Kellner Rogers, ‘A
Simpler Way’ 1996). One can ask, why life chooses to organise through complex relationships and
networks. The answer is that greater safety and security emerges when we team up, and,
paradoxically, this also gives us more space for individual experimentation. In nature, an ecosystem
creates a new entity, a greater wholeness, which in turn, creates new capacities and security. This is
also true in the social and economic spheres.
Self-organisation: The natural world’s increasing complexity occurs completely spontaneously without
the need for any imposing external forces. Scientists were amazed to discover that a termite hill, which
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 is an architectural marvel, is built by termites through self-organisation, without any need for
Resources - architects, engineers or foremen. Biologists today are in agreement that it was self-organisation that
brought a gradual and spontaneous increase in molecular complexity which evolved into the first

Article
living cell about 3.5 billion years ago. Self is used to mean endogenous, that is dictated by internal rules
of the system, and not directed externally. When an organised structure is controlled by external and
imposed forces, it is not self-organising.

New solutions Emergence: When ‘novel’ properties arise in an organised structure, this is emergence. By ‘novel’ we
mean properties that were not present in the parts or components. These novel properties emerge
from the specific relationships and interactions between the parts. The term noted earlier - “the whole
are needed to is more than the sum of its parts” - is a term that is used to describe emergence. An example of
emergence at a social level is a beehive. Each bee appears to behave as an independent element,

work seemingly acting on its own account. However, the whole population of the bees creates a highly
sophisticated structure emerging from their collective activities.

generatively Autopoiesis: The biologists Humberto Maturna and Francisco Varela believe that what distinguishes
the living from the dead is the capacity of the self to create itself. They name this process autopoiesis,
with which means self-producing (from the Greek poiesis, which means poetry). All living systems have this
ability to create themselves as a continuous process.

complexity Interaction with the environment and interdependence: Paradoxically, any living organism operates as
a closed system, meaning that there is no need for any information from its environment for it to exist.
However, all living organisms are dependent on outside materials to survive. This, therefore, makes it
also an open system in that there is a need for nutrients and energy from the outside, so that it can be
integrated as part of itself. This becomes an interdependent relationship. As Maturana and Varela
state (1980, 1998), an organism interacts with its environment, yet also creates its own environment
and this allows the existence of the organism.

Shifting from a mechanistic to a living systems worldview

A living systems worldview invites us to radically change how we view life and therefore how we work.
The following aspects make explicit the differences between the living systems worldview and our
current dominant mechanistic worldview, which most of our current work structures and cultures are
founded on. It is important to note that one is not better than the other, however one works with
complexity as a natural phenomenon, whilst the other is based on controlling or reducing problems to
certain, stable and recurring outcomes. In an increasingly connected world, where we are searching
for new ways for relating to interrelated challenges, one has to ask oneself if it is not time to learn to
work positively with complexity, to lean into it, and to build both individual and collective capacities
(see Chapter 2).

From parts to whole

Living systems are integrated wholes, with ‘systemic properties’ that none of the parts have. The
properties of the parts can only be understood from the organisation and context of the whole, thus
reversing the order of parts to wholes. Systemic properties are destroyed when a system is dissected.
This is the opposite of analytic thinking, which takes something apart to understand it.

From expert to inherently multidisciplinary

A living system can be a part of an organism (leaves or cells), an organism (an animal, plant, micro-
organism, or a human), or a community of organisms (a family, institution, natural ecosystem). All
these levels of living systems, although different, also share a set of common properties and principles
of organisation, which makes them inherently multidisciplinary. This means instead of fragmenting, a
systems perspective unifies and can be applied to a wide range of contexts to gain a more holistic and
systemic perspective on an issue or discovering similarities between different phenomena over a
broad range of living systems, be that in integrating academic disciplines or, in our own context,
working together across DGs and with stakeholders.

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Article
New solutions
are needed to
work
generatively
with
complexity
Cynefin is a Welsh word that
means ‘habitat or place’ - or
more explicitly ‘place of
multiple belongings’ – an
appropriate name, as it
depicts the multiple
influences that create any
given system, which is
complexity itself.
From objects to relationships
Throughout the living world, we find systems nesting within larger systems. For example, cells
combine to form tissues, tissues to form organs, and organs to form organisms. At each level, the living
system is an integrated whole with smaller components, while at the same time being part of a larger
whole. However, as quantum physics has shown, there are no parts at all. Instead, there are patterns of
an inseparable web of relationships. From a mechanistic perspective, the objects come first and
relationships are secondary. In living systems, relationships are paramount, because objects
themselves are a network of relationships embedded in larger networks.
From measuring to mapping
This shift from objects to relationships does not come easily, because it goes against traditional
scientific thinking in our Western culture. We have been educated to believe that science measures
and weighs things objectively. However, relationships cannot be measured – they can only be
mapped. Therefore, with the perceptual shift from objects to relationships, comes a change in
methodology from measuring to mapping. Seeing recurring configurations is what is known as
seeing ‘patterns’. Networks, cycles and boundaries are examples of patterns of organisations that are
characteristic of living systems and are the centre of attention in systems science.
From quantities to qualities
Mapping relationships and studying patterns cannot be quantified, instead a qualitative approach is
needed. Therefore, systems thinking implies a shift from quantities to qualities. This has been
particularly striking in complexity theory, as the new mathematics of complexity is one of visual
patterns. The analysis of these patterns is known as qualitative analysis.
From structures to processes
In Cartesian science, there are fundamental structures, which interact with forces and mechanisms,
giving rise to processes. In living systems thinking, every structure is seen as a manifestation of an
underlying process. Since the earliest days of biology, scientists and philosophers have recognised
that living form is more than shape, more than a static configuration of components in a whole. A
living system has a continual flow of matter and development, its living structure is made up of
metabolic and developmental processes. Therefore, process results in structures, and not vice versa.
From objective to epistemic science
The systemic conception of reality as an inseparable network of relationships has major implications
for our understanding of scientific knowledge. Unlike Cartesian science, where scientific descriptions
were viewed as objective, i.e., independent of the human observer and the process of knowing, living
systems science implies that epistemology – the understanding of the process of knowing – has to be
included explicitly in the description of natural phenomena. It was the theoretical physicist and a
pioneer of quantum mechanics Werner Heisenberg who saw physical reality as a web of relationships,
concluding: “what we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning”.
Furthermore, in Physics, it was discovered that the act of observation actually influences – or ‘disturbs’
– a system. This is known as the ‘observer effect’. This does not mean we give up scientific rigour,
which is core to objective science. Instead, epistemic science asks that we become aware of the
‘method of questioning’, and that the body of knowledge is shaped, constrained and regulated by the
collective scientific enterprise, which is an intersubjective validation of science.
From Cartesian certainty to approximate knowledge
You may be wondering; how can we ever hope to understand anything? This is an important question
that arises from epistemic science, given that everything is an interconnected web of relationships. In
order to understand any natural phenomenon, we would need to understand it all, which is not
possible. However, what is possible is approximate knowledge. In Cartesian science, everything is
considered ‘certain’ scientific knowledge, whereas in the living systems paradigm, it is recognised that
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all scientific concepts and theories are limited and approximate. Therefore, science cannot offer any
definitive and complete understanding. This may sound discouraging, but it has become the norm in
science over the past century. The fact that we can formulate approximate - but effective - models and

Article theories to describe an endless web of interconnected phenomena, and that this can be improved
over time, has become a source of confidence and strength in the scientific community.

Cynefin Framework
New solutions Beginning to link a living system worldview more

are needed to closely to how we work from it requires us to discover

new approaches that guide us and our organisations
to cross over from seeking predominantly an ordered,
work and even controlled, outcome to being flexible to
work with all kinds of situations. The Cynefin

generatively Framework, developed by Dave Snowden, offers such

a guide as to how to navigate in a world that never
stops changing, which is an inherent aspect of
with working in a living system. Specifically, the Cynefin
Framework helps us to recognise and operate in

complexity different domains and systems, enabling ourselves

and our organisations to distinguish between
particular situations, so that we may understand
them, make relevant decisions, and act accordingly.

The Cynefin Framework is a sense-making framework

that provides you a context to think through the
details of a situation, classify it, and understand the appropriate response to make the most of the
situation.

To orient ourselves, the framework offers five systems that rest in three domains. The domains are:

Ordered domains (on the right), which are knowable, predictable and can be solved easily. These are
broken into two systems of simple and complicated

Unordered domains (on the left), which are unknowable and unpredictable. These are broken into two
systems of complex and chaotic

The domain of disorder is the place of confusion - of not knowing in which of the domains we are . This
is where we often are and we then interpret the situation according to our personal preference for
action.

In orienting ourselves in how to use the framework, it is also important to understand how constraints
work in each system. The constraints are included below in the description of each of the systems.

Simple or obvious systems

These are situations where the relationship between cause and effect is obvious and predictable,
where results can be determined in advance. This is self-evident to any able person: if you do A, you
get B; you repeat A, and you get B again.

The decision model in this ordered system is therefore, to sense – categorise – respond. You observe
what is happening, you put the situation in the right category, and the response is easy and known.
Consequently, in simple systems, best practice can be applied, since there is only one way to do
something right.

Simple systems have fixed constraints that can break catastrophically and can only be repaired with
considerable difficulty.

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 Example: McDonalds, have a standard way for making a Big Mac, based on years of studying the most
Resources - efficient way of assembling it, so it takes the same amount of time and portion control to create one
Big Mac. Regardless where the McDonalds is based, a Big Mac is the same.

Article Complicated systems

Situations are complicated when there is no simple relationship between cause and effect. One cause

New solutions can have multiple effects, requiring analysis or some other form of investigation and/or the application
of expert knowledge.

are needed to The approach is to sense – analyse – respond.

work You observe what is happening, then you need some analysis to figure it out (because it is
complicated), after which you can respond with a few options, any of which produce the desired effect.

generatively Thus, in complicated systems, we can apply good practices, as there are a few options that work well.
They can all be legitimate. Consequently, since there are options, forcing people to only do one thing
can backfire. As this is a mechanical system in which the actors are merely cogs in a machine, this is
with the area of experts, who know better than the actors how the system's relationships actually fit best
together. The experts design the path to follow and managers implement their advice. In complicated

complexity systems, although there are linear cause and effect relationships, they are so many and so obscure
that some expert insight is necessary to find a good way through.

Complicated systems allow for a little more latitude in practice and so have governing constraints,
such as laws and procedures.

For example, a modern aircraft is so complicated that a team of experts are needed to understand the
whole, no one expert can do this on their own.

Complex systems

These are situations where the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in
retrospect, but never in advance!

The approach is to probe – sense – respond. Try small, different things, learn quickly what their effect
is, and then apply your learning. In complex systems, we need emergent practice. This is the realm
where hosting practices are relevant. Here the actors are more than cogs - they are active participants
in a living system. They have agency and their actions mutually influence the system’s relationships
and behaviours. Thus, it is impossible to discern causal relationships in advance, and experts will fail to
do so as much as anyone else. Leading in complexity is a game of trial and learning. The perspective
and experiences of each participant in this system provide important information for the system to be
able to see the mutual relationships. The art is to launch a number of different possible actions
together and see which works better. Those are then amplified, while the less effective approaches are
dampened, stopped or revised. There is no best or good practice, only emergence or emergent
practices, because there is no clear and visible linear causality, only an intricate web of entangled
factors and relationships. Before experimenting, it is wise to have devised a strategy to amplify - or
dampen - as results emerge.

Complex systems are characterised by enabling constraints which give rise to all manner of creativity,
emergence and self-organisation, but which can also be immutable.

For example, leaders who do not recognise that they are in a complex domain that requires
experimentation often become impatient, as they do not see the achievement of the results they want
and become intolerant of failure. Instead, leadership here requires stepping back, allowing
experimentation for new patterns to emerge to discern which one is most appropriate to amplify.

Chaotic systems

When any pattern of relationship between cause and effect at a systems level is beyond the human

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 capacity to discern (think of a tsunami), Snowden calls it chaotic.

Resources - The approach is to act – sense – respond. Just do something (there is no time left for experimentation),
and see what the effect is. After some time, the chaos stabilises into 'normal' complexity where further

Article actions can be tested. In chaotic systems, we can only discover novel practices. Leading in chaos is
stressful – as the whole system is in stress mode. Chaotic systems tend to be unstable and subject to
catastrophic collapse. As the simplification brought into the system tends to be excessive, suppressing
the system's inherent complexity, the system is liable to revert to chaos again.

New solutions In chaos the absence of constraints means that nothing makes much sense, and all you can do is

are needed to
choose a place to act, apply constraints and quickly sense what comes next. This is what first
responders do

work For example, 9/11 was an extreme chaotic situation, as this scale of terrorism had not taken place
before, was beyond our human capacity to discern. The need to act was paramount, as emergency

generatively units immediately responded, which, tragically, for many led to their deaths as the Twin Towers
collapsed

with Disorder or confusion

complexity The fifth domain is disorder, or now also known as confusion, which is the state of not knowing what
type of causality exists. That is why confusion results. Often, when confused, an initial response is to
turn to one’s own comfort zone when making a decision. However, this is a clear sign that confusion is
present and instead it is best to leave things to rest until insight emerges.

For example, in the early days of COVID-19, when the pandemic was declared, there was clear
confusion as to what this virus was, how it was transmitted and what to do to constrain its spread.

The Cynefin Framework shows us that leading in complexity is actually simple – although not easy! It
suffices to keep breathing: inhale (divergence), suspend (emergence), exhale (convergence) (see
Chapter 4, section on the ‘Diamond of Participation’), as we constantly test new or improved ways of
acting to respond to constantly fresh constellations, in a world where all actors have a large degree of
freedom, lightly constrained by the boundaries and rules of the system.

Therefore, one of the main functions of the Cynefin Framework is to allow people to assess which
system is at play and then employ the necessary operating or decision-making strategy. For example,
it is complex, so we initially probe, or it is complicated, so we choose which experts we should bring
together to find the way forward. If we work in a mainly bureaucratic system, which predominantly
works in a complicated manner, we may be bringing in experts instead of probing with experiments
to identify a way forward. This can mean that we are doing what we have always known through the
expert knowledge, but not actually having an impact on a complex challenge. Another important
aspect of the Cynefin Framework is the boundary between simple and chaotic systems. If you
predominantly work in a simple ordered way, you can come to believe that past successes make you
invulnerable to future failures, or that you simply do not need to change. You become complacent and
in a crisis you fall over the edge into chaos, and recovery becomes difficult and very expensive.
Therefore, it is important to manage between simple, complicated and complex situations.

Finally, the Cynefin Framework is a decision-making framework - an analytic framework that has been
used for decision theory, knowledge management, IT design, and project management. This is
because it recognises causal differences that exist between different types of systems and gives a
quick way for people to switch between them, so they can use the appropriate approach for the
appropriate domain.

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Further Books and articles

 Fritjof Capra, ‘The Web of Life’, 1996 (Cambridge University Press)

reading and  Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luisi, ‘A Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision’, 2014 (Cambridge
University Press)

watching on
 Nora Bateson, ‘Small Arcs of Larger Circles: framing through other patterns’, 2016 (Triarchy Press)
 Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner Rogers, ‘A Simpler Way’, 1996, (Berrett-Koehler Publishers)
 Ian Steward, ‘Does God Play Dice’, 2002 (Wiley-Blackwell)

Living  Andrea Wolf, The Invention of Nature, 2016 (Vintage)

 Dave Snowden & Friends, ‘CYNEFIN weaving Sense-making into the fabric of our world’, 2020
(Cognitive Edge – The Cynefin Company)
Systems  Greg Broughan, ‘The Cynefin Mini-book A Introduction to Complexity and the Cynefin Framework’,
2015 (Lulu.com)

Videos

 George Monbiot on ‘How wolves change rivers’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W88Sact1kws

 George Monbiot on ‘How whales change climate’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKiqHQT48-I
 George Monbiot on ‘How beavers engineer the land’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy_WE9NAzY4
 Liam Bartlet on ‘How devils heal forests’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NgxR190MiA
 Harvey Tweats on ‘How Amphibians restore balance to the land’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7jru5DeoGQ&list=PLNQu1KTGTGIFl6HJNjj5nn2Yn9reV8iUj&in
dex=4
 Suzanne Simard on ‘How trees talk’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pmonhlbxjg
 Carl Safina on ‘What do animals think and feel’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N-
uaAtHrSI&t=8s
 ‘The goal of life is not to survive it’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyWgxuRo0Ws
 Dave Snowden on the Cynefin Framework: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7oz366X0-8

Illustrations by Al Nik for Open Space Collective