Conversational processes cultivating change in the academy

Dear World Cafe friends

You may find this cross posting from the AoH listserv of interest and of value for your purposes.

For those not familiar with the Art of Hosting (AoH) a peruse of the website and of this e-book of the University of Minnesota (the product of a large collaborative effort) will likely enhance your perspective of how the World Cafe may be used constructively in concert with other conversational processes.

I wonder if you are also delighted to learn that the World Café as a means to address questions that matter is now integral to cultivating a change of culture in universities?

And if you see that this way of fostering learning through engaging interactively among all members of a university community runs quite counter to the notion of evaluating the quality of higher education by measuring 'outcomes?'

Looking forward

Go well

Alan

Alan Stewart, PhD
Adelaide

On 28 August 2013 12:49, Jodi Sandfort a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected]> wrote:

All - We are so happy to be part of this international community to share our eBook. There is much that A of H can and is adding to higher education at this critical time in its development.

We hope the ebook can help others "make the case" and inspire more of us to harvest our practice stories in public ways with each other!

Jodi Sandfort

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Jodi Sandfort
Associate Professor and Chair
Leadership & Management Area

Humphrey School of Public Affairs
University of Minnesota
301 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55108
(612)625-3536

On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 6:26 PM, Alan Stewart a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected]> wrote:

On 22 August 2013 13:01, Jen Mein a href="mailto:[email protected]" target="_blank">[email protected]> wrote:

Greetings,

On behalf of my colleagues at the University of Minnesota, I would like to announce the publication of Cultivating Change in the Academy: Practicing The Art of Hosting Conversations That Matter Within the University of Minnesota, an eBook and companion web site that highlights the experiences of UMN faculty, staff, and student Art of Hosting practitioners. Over the past six months, 25+ contributed as authors, editors, graphic designers, and technical supporters for this incredible collaborative project. The stories showcase innovation and leadership within and across colleges, schools, departments, and classrooms. They offer insight into how unexpected and significant change unfolds. They inspire us to think about how slowing down at the right time to have focused conversations has the potential to change everything.

The eBook can also be downloaded from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy as a PDF or in native formats for iPad, Nook, Kindle, and other eReaders. http://purl.umn.edu/155523

You can also read, comment and share the stories via the companion website: https://cultivatingchange.wp.d.umn.edu/hostingconversations/

We offer this as a harvest gift to the global AoH community. May it serve and support our collective work in the world.

Best wishes,

Jen Mein

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Jen Mein

Organizational Effectiveness Consultant

Office of Human Resources

University of Minnesota

612-625-8328

Hi Jen and All

What a remarkable record you and your colleagues have composed on how AoH practices are being introduced and used across the broad spectrum of activities at your university.

I congratulate you in doing this and in making your materials available in such a generous and inspiring way.

Your items arrived on the day that I was hosting what I call a Conversing Café – World Café format underpinned by OST principles – on a project in which academics and local government people are engaged collaboratively. This was their first experience of interaction through conversing at small tables. Participants included representatives from all three universities in Adelaide, South Australia.

At the end I invited the academics to consider introducing conversational (from Latin con versare – to turn or to dance together) processes into their diverse activities. (They seemingly quickly grasped the distinction between this and ‘discussion’ with its roots in ‘percussion’!). I indicated that this could happen through my associates and I offering ‘people skills to host meetings and conversations’ for both staff and students.

And so I see that your book and accompanying comments (both comprehensive) will prove invaluable in any follow up. For now that I have your material – have had the book printed – there is a great deal more ‘chapter and verse’ with which to support such an initiative.

Incidentally a social format which I have developed and called Conversare (see Introducing Conversare and Inspirations and Speculations) could be a ‘wholesome’ way to introduce/ remind incoming first year (freshman) students that face-to-face interaction with people they don’t know is the essence of university experience.

And that respectful, nonjudgmental conversation is the sine qua non of the generation of human warmth.

To add: As Bob [Stilger] indicated “I've been using AoH in my grad school teaching for a decade now. Always with predictable results. People come alive. They are energized. They listen and they learn.”

Is this also a statement of ‘Whenever we treat each other well good things happen?’

Looking forward

Go well

Alan

Alan Stewart, PhD
Adelaide

See my new e-booklet Time to converse – at the heart of human warmth available on Amazon