The Story - We Want To Continue Our Good Work
What would it take to get colleagues and stakeholders more engaged in a project?
How could we add to our ability to help each other when we are stuck? What will help us help our constituents at the simple level of meeting planning and facilitation? These were some of the questions being asked by leaders at Energy Trust of Oregon (ETO) that led to inviting and creating an in-house retreat, The Art of Hosting. These were some of the questions that have taken on new meaning after a year of applied practice by those twenty leaders and managers that attended a previous offsite Art of Hosting Training in 2015. Energy Trust of Oregon is answering key questions together, and it is building a culture, adding to its culture already present, at a time of key leadership and industry changes. The ETO culture is one of excellence. It is a culture of responsiveness. It is a culture of creative and innovating thinking both within the organization, among each other, and, working externally with many constituents and connected agencies. |
The Process - Learning Well Together, Strengthening Relationships and Getting Work Done
Forty people gathered over two days. Yes to learn skills — for engaging people, working smarter, and going farther together. The retreat was designed and facilitated by a combined internal team (Amber Cole, Betsy Kauffman, Kim Crossman, and Scott Swearingen) and an external Art of Hosting team (Kevin Heibert, Jessica Riehl, Tenneson Woolf). It was designed to access more of the wisdom and energy that is already present at ETO.
Each of the two days included group engagement, employing inquiry, dialogue, and story-telling and as deliberate group learning strategies. Varied process formats, from large group to individual, from verbal to non-verbal, were used to make sense of responses to questions, stories shared, and the insights that arose from them.
Day 1
Day 2
Each of the two days included group engagement, employing inquiry, dialogue, and story-telling and as deliberate group learning strategies. Varied process formats, from large group to individual, from verbal to non-verbal, were used to make sense of responses to questions, stories shared, and the insights that arose from them.
Day 1
- Saying Hello and Setting the Stage Together
- Re-invoking How We Work Well Together (World Cafe)
- Getting To The Deeper Roots of Conversational Leadership (Why Talk? Why Listen? Why Harvest?)
- Exploring a Framework for Working Better in Complexity (Cynefin)
- Developing Our Skills in Creating and Asking Questions (Powerful Questions)
- Tucking In Learning For the Day (Check-Out)
Day 2
- Resetting the Stage
- Changing The Way We Listen (The Circle Way)
- Self-Organized Working and Exploration Groups (Open Space Technology)
- Learning More Models in Small Groups (Knowledge Camp)
- Giving It Meaning (Reflection and Application)
- Saying Goodbye, Commitments, & Gratitudes
The Results - Practices That Can Grow A Culture, Important Tools
• Check In / Out questions as team builder and ice breaker
• Daring to be simple
• Appreciation
• The Law of Two Feet
• Being present
• Mindful harvesting
• Mind mapping, icons, visual thinking
• Asking more questions
• Giving everyone a chance to speak at meetings
• Slowing down
• Taking care to design the process to match the complexity of the problem
• Patience with myself and others - in my communications and inner thoughts
• Listening without planning what I'm going to say - just listening
• Getting to know YOU
• Circle and Chaordic Stepping Stones
• Listen for complex and sit in a little chaos
• Daring to be simple
• Appreciation
• The Law of Two Feet
• Being present
• Mindful harvesting
• Mind mapping, icons, visual thinking
• Asking more questions
• Giving everyone a chance to speak at meetings
• Slowing down
• Taking care to design the process to match the complexity of the problem
• Patience with myself and others - in my communications and inner thoughts
• Listening without planning what I'm going to say - just listening
• Getting to know YOU
• Circle and Chaordic Stepping Stones
• Listen for complex and sit in a little chaos
Next Steps - Ways to Continue Building
Next steps include several choices, all of which can further ETO’s ability to build a culture that does good work through participative leadership practice. These steps are part of a journey that can help add to a thriving and flourishing culture that serves ETO, and the communities it serves, and that will help key experience and investment not be lost in one-off events.
Some of these choices include:
- An annual 2-3 day Art of Hosting event, on-site or off-site to create next layers of practice and application together
- Three Open Space learning days, one each quarter (when the 2-3 day event is not happening) to create a continuation and accountability of learning, one half day devoted to further training of skills and methods, followed by participative learning together
- Ongoing coaching and consultation to support application and experimentation within ETO
- An openly accessible blog or addition to your existing newsletter that devotes a section to applied Art of Hosting
Some of these choices include:
- An annual 2-3 day Art of Hosting event, on-site or off-site to create next layers of practice and application together
- Three Open Space learning days, one each quarter (when the 2-3 day event is not happening) to create a continuation and accountability of learning, one half day devoted to further training of skills and methods, followed by participative learning together
- Ongoing coaching and consultation to support application and experimentation within ETO
- An openly accessible blog or addition to your existing newsletter that devotes a section to applied Art of Hosting
Workshop Photographs
To view the workshop photographs, visit this link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jessicariehl/albums/72157670439618505