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WelcomeAndy and Linda warmly welcomed everyone to the Phoenix Centre in Windermere, explaining that this was the 4th Art of Hosting training in the Morecambe Bay Area. The aim of this is to build stronger connections between people living and working in the South Lakes. "people such as you who are passionate about improving health and wellbeing and us all living rich lives".
"As well as building relationships and better understanding between us of us, we will also provide you with some tools and skills for having and hosting better conversations. "What kind of area do we want to live in, and what are we each ready to do to make that happen?" . How can we bring people together in new ways where all can participate, where everyone gets heard and we move beyond the Bla Bla Bla and get to a place of collaboration?" Following a mapping of the room to find out where everyone had come from and a line up of who is a talker and who is a listener. Jon invited us all to check in to the 2 days by introducing ourselves and speaking a little about what we most cared about that had brought us here today. |
Checking In: What do you care about that brings you here today?
Giving back to the community Being connected with everything Really making a difference Going against the grain Care for the carers Creativity and imagination Creating space for good mental health Hearing the unheard voices Quality of public health services How to get better, its about your attitude Walk the talk Shoots of growth in Kendal Being more confident in having challenging conversations Voice of the homeless Arts and Health Moving beyond right and wrong Nurturing space spaces Rebuilding community |
I care about what you care about
I might care too much Donuts and goldfish economy and politics that are broken the 366k people who live here another way of seeing things tapping into gut feelings Love nurture caring supporting peoples wellbeing Im here coz i felt it was just right Raising awareness of substance misuse Giving back Overcoming type 2 diabetes Love music nature I care about myself, about belonging good conversations that change things from inside kindness compassion and empathy 
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Learning to listen
The Questions life is asking of us now?
Mike introduced the 4 levels of listening, in a good conversation listening is often more important than speaking but what type of listener are you? How can we move beyond the usual download and debate into dialogue where we really begin to hear each other, and then listen out for the new ideas and perspectives that are starting to come through. Hannah and Sally invited us into practicing listening in 3's ( triads or tripods as they came to be known ) They asked us to each speak about where we were in our lives and work at the moment and to listen out for the questions that life was asking of us. Everyone had a turn at being a speaker, being an active listener and being a more reflective listener . We then harvested our questions together and saw that some related to personal questions, some were about helping others, some about what time it was in the world, others about our ways of living and some related to specific topics of food, holistic health, environment, inequalities, power and systems change. Andy then invited us to sign up for practice and to form small hosting teams to be coached to host the whole day tomorrow
Working with emergence
Following lunch and a chance for more informal conversations and connection, Sue offered a perspective on the diamond of participation - explaining that any time a group of people come together there are three natural stages we go through. Firstly opening up to lots of diverse ideas, then being in a more emergent space of not knowing what to do or where to go ( this is often where innovation and new ideas come from ) and then converging into action and decisions.
She explained that often we don't like the emergent phase as it feels uncomfortable and we try to get out of it by moving to action too quickly. The art of hosting a group is to develop the ability to stay in emergence for long enough, to learn how to hold space and stay present rather than rushing to solve or move things along. We then stood in the place of most and least comfort with each phase and talked about where we had the most to learn and the most to offer.
WORLD CAFE: IF YOU PUT YOUR EAR TO THE GROUND HERE WHAT WOULD YOU HEAR?
After a quick room change Linda and Jose and Ali introduced us to world cafe. A great process for conversation where we need to explore many diverse views, looking for the connections and collective wisdom. We discovered that important pointers for a good cafe is to have a really good question, to know the purpose of the conversation, to harvest it well. There are 2 rounds of conversation on the same question but in between people change tables and carry their conversations to new places and people. The final round is a harvest round where we hear back the themes and patterns that have come through from the small groups. For a great cafe, have really small groups (max 6 per table) and lots of pens and paper to doodle and capture ideas, a few sweets or candles, anything that creates an intimate and welcoming atmosphere also helps.
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WHERE ARE THE OPENINGS FOR CHANGE ?
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WHAT DO WE NEED MORE OF TO SUPPORT THE CHANGES
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