Hosting Conversations about Questions that Matter
Originally posted by Anders Østergaard Hansen - Dec 16, 2006 in the Old Community Space:
Hello Fellow Hosts,
I was encouraged by Amy Lenzo to share this story with you. It is the story of my first experience with taking Art of Hosting, incl. World Café and Open Space into the Real World - And it was quite an experience for me.
I went to The Art of Hosting on October 25th-27th.. I brought with me my exam-assignment from my school, The Kaospilots in Denmark. I co-created the design at the AoH gathering in partnership with some of the hosts down there. Here the story goes:
I worked with 14 leaders and employees in a HR-department at DSB (The national train company) of Denmark to clarify a on , what people in the department we’re thinking about a huge change process that starts on January 1st, they’re about to go through and also to figure out how they can handle it and what they’re future might look like. I had my good friend Rowan with, who also parttook in the AoH gathering. Fantastic to experience the power and calmness that partnering gave me.
Before we started the workshop, I had removed all the tables from the room. 1 hour before launch, the boss of the department came in to the room; looked at semi-circle setup of chairs and said: ”Oh, we are going to sit like that!”.
People arrived and during lunch before the workshop nothing much was said. I worried if I would get these people to open up to each other and work together.... The workshop began and the boss gave his power- point slideshow and invited his employees to ”.... take a shower with him!” – To join him in the uncertainty of not knowing where their forth-coming change-process would take them. He invited them all to participate in figuring out how they together could form their future in their department. It was very evident that, this was an invitation, that they had not received before working in a company with a very conservative leading-style. Most of the people has worked in DSB over 20 years.
I went through the purpose, results, method etc. And went on to Rules of the workshop. I gave them 4 of my rules and put them into two groups to form their own. It went a bit slow, but we got through and put them up there. Apperently their were not used to working this way....
Finally we got to the point of expectations for me: The check-in with the question: ”What are you hopes for the next two days?”.... And voila. Here it went. All of them came forward with their hopes and dreams. Honest and direct as I experienced them in the interviews, I did prior to the workshop. Great to experience and the energy rose... Ahhh
I sendt them out on a ”Gå og tal” or ”Walk and talk” with a question and a partner, that they had gotten eye-contact with in the circle. A bit reluctant and sceptical, they took the task and went out the door..... And came back fresh, happy and joking.
They sat down to do a huge collective mindmap on the wall, trying to illustrate all the question, themes, frustrations etc. they had on their minds. I explained them the rules: Only 1 person talking at a time and that the person is entitled to put whatever he/ she wants up on the map. This was very hard for them to handle and discussions popped up now and again, when they tried to rules each others postings. Very interesting to see, how challenging it was for them to accept each others points of views. The discussions and the excercise, seemed to frustrate them very much and the air in the room, was heavy and 30 degrees.. ArrGGhhh... CoFFee Break!
We finished the map and it was satisfying for me to see, that all the areas, they all had mentioned in the interviews as being Tabu was ”up there”. It seemed like it had been surprising for them to see all these subjects up there. I gave them 6 small stickers each for them to located the 6 sub-themes, they thought was most important to talk about. When they went the room to take a short break, I looked up there and saw, that 4 questions was covered in red (Before this I had had a hard time phrasing a question to use in the World Café, but then they had formed 4 fantastic questions on the mindmap and they had opened a path for themselves to walk down. Fantastic to see)... We set up a World Café with the 4 Q’s and invited them back in. At this point, they were very tired with distant looks on their faces!
After giving instructions I sat down and they slowly started to talk and investigate. The next 1 and half hour, the magic happened. The atmosphere got loud and excited; them laughing, yelling and discussing... A major turning point, from down down down on very low energy-level to exstatic in 20 min. Wow, what a turning point....
We joined in the circle again to check-out. A lady, who in the morning had said: ”I really have a hard time seeing what I can contribute with here together with you”, checked out by telling: ”I have been surprised with my own abilities to contribute and come with ideas. It has been a great experience for me”...
In the evening I opened a couple of windows to get some fresh air into the room. When I came back in morning, the storm had blown both windows open. The rain had poured in a destroyed my computer speaker and my papers was spread all over the room.... And then the temperature in the room was a lovely 8 degrees... Not exactly motivating for the participants, most of them with a proper headache from the night before.
They looked close to very pethatic, complaining about the polar- conditions in the room and the fact, that I started the second day at 8.15 AM. Normally that is when they eat breakfast, when they attend seminars....
I didn’t see them very much on the second day. Sent them out to do an Open Space with the questions they needed to explore... They came back and told about their results. Small discussions popped up about how they should continue, after the workshop and how what they should tell their colleagues back home... I broke the discussion up and challenged them to take a collective decision. After some time they decided how to continue and the persons to be in the project-group; the driving force for the next couple of years in the change- process.... Yeah.. They all clapped and smiled and we checked-out… Here are some of the words:
“We reached further, that I could have dared to hope for”
“I was extremely nervous before this and no idea, what would happen. We have reached very far and also took a decision. It a easy being the boss on a day like today”
“I actually feel like a part of our department now and feel like I know you people now”
“Fuck, so much money we spend on some of the suit-boys we’ve had here. Ridiculous!”
“I experience, that we have a very strong group. I can throw any ball into the air and I know one of you will catch it”
That was my story... A wonderful experience and an encouragement to start my exploration into the magic that happens between people...
Take care,
Anders Østergaard, Denmark
Hello Fellow Hosts,
I was encouraged by Amy Lenzo to share this story with you. It is the story of my first experience with taking Art of Hosting, incl. World Café and Open Space into the Real World - And it was quite an experience for me.
I went to The Art of Hosting on October 25th-27th.. I brought with me my exam-assignment from my school, The Kaospilots in Denmark. I co-created the design at the AoH gathering in partnership with some of the hosts down there. Here the story goes:
I worked with 14 leaders and employees in a HR-department at DSB (The national train company) of Denmark to clarify a on , what people in the department we’re thinking about a huge change process that starts on January 1st, they’re about to go through and also to figure out how they can handle it and what they’re future might look like. I had my good friend Rowan with, who also parttook in the AoH gathering. Fantastic to experience the power and calmness that partnering gave me.
Before we started the workshop, I had removed all the tables from the room. 1 hour before launch, the boss of the department came in to the room; looked at semi-circle setup of chairs and said: ”Oh, we are going to sit like that!”.
People arrived and during lunch before the workshop nothing much was said. I worried if I would get these people to open up to each other and work together.... The workshop began and the boss gave his power- point slideshow and invited his employees to ”.... take a shower with him!” – To join him in the uncertainty of not knowing where their forth-coming change-process would take them. He invited them all to participate in figuring out how they together could form their future in their department. It was very evident that, this was an invitation, that they had not received before working in a company with a very conservative leading-style. Most of the people has worked in DSB over 20 years.
I went through the purpose, results, method etc. And went on to Rules of the workshop. I gave them 4 of my rules and put them into two groups to form their own. It went a bit slow, but we got through and put them up there. Apperently their were not used to working this way....
Finally we got to the point of expectations for me: The check-in with the question: ”What are you hopes for the next two days?”.... And voila. Here it went. All of them came forward with their hopes and dreams. Honest and direct as I experienced them in the interviews, I did prior to the workshop. Great to experience and the energy rose... Ahhh
I sendt them out on a ”Gå og tal” or ”Walk and talk” with a question and a partner, that they had gotten eye-contact with in the circle. A bit reluctant and sceptical, they took the task and went out the door..... And came back fresh, happy and joking.
They sat down to do a huge collective mindmap on the wall, trying to illustrate all the question, themes, frustrations etc. they had on their minds. I explained them the rules: Only 1 person talking at a time and that the person is entitled to put whatever he/ she wants up on the map. This was very hard for them to handle and discussions popped up now and again, when they tried to rules each others postings. Very interesting to see, how challenging it was for them to accept each others points of views. The discussions and the excercise, seemed to frustrate them very much and the air in the room, was heavy and 30 degrees.. ArrGGhhh... CoFFee Break!
We finished the map and it was satisfying for me to see, that all the areas, they all had mentioned in the interviews as being Tabu was ”up there”. It seemed like it had been surprising for them to see all these subjects up there. I gave them 6 small stickers each for them to located the 6 sub-themes, they thought was most important to talk about. When they went the room to take a short break, I looked up there and saw, that 4 questions was covered in red (Before this I had had a hard time phrasing a question to use in the World Café, but then they had formed 4 fantastic questions on the mindmap and they had opened a path for themselves to walk down. Fantastic to see)... We set up a World Café with the 4 Q’s and invited them back in. At this point, they were very tired with distant looks on their faces!
After giving instructions I sat down and they slowly started to talk and investigate. The next 1 and half hour, the magic happened. The atmosphere got loud and excited; them laughing, yelling and discussing... A major turning point, from down down down on very low energy-level to exstatic in 20 min. Wow, what a turning point....
We joined in the circle again to check-out. A lady, who in the morning had said: ”I really have a hard time seeing what I can contribute with here together with you”, checked out by telling: ”I have been surprised with my own abilities to contribute and come with ideas. It has been a great experience for me”...
In the evening I opened a couple of windows to get some fresh air into the room. When I came back in morning, the storm had blown both windows open. The rain had poured in a destroyed my computer speaker and my papers was spread all over the room.... And then the temperature in the room was a lovely 8 degrees... Not exactly motivating for the participants, most of them with a proper headache from the night before.
They looked close to very pethatic, complaining about the polar- conditions in the room and the fact, that I started the second day at 8.15 AM. Normally that is when they eat breakfast, when they attend seminars....
I didn’t see them very much on the second day. Sent them out to do an Open Space with the questions they needed to explore... They came back and told about their results. Small discussions popped up about how they should continue, after the workshop and how what they should tell their colleagues back home... I broke the discussion up and challenged them to take a collective decision. After some time they decided how to continue and the persons to be in the project-group; the driving force for the next couple of years in the change- process.... Yeah.. They all clapped and smiled and we checked-out… Here are some of the words:
“We reached further, that I could have dared to hope for”
“I was extremely nervous before this and no idea, what would happen. We have reached very far and also took a decision. It a easy being the boss on a day like today”
“I actually feel like a part of our department now and feel like I know you people now”
“Fuck, so much money we spend on some of the suit-boys we’ve had here. Ridiculous!”
“I experience, that we have a very strong group. I can throw any ball into the air and I know one of you will catch it”
That was my story... A wonderful experience and an encouragement to start my exploration into the magic that happens between people...
Take care,
Anders Østergaard, Denmark
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