As a practicing consultant, coach and facilitator I always try to keep developing myself by attending trainings and other events from time to time.  Within the SF world this is not always easy – after 17 years I feel as if I’ve seen quite a lot.  Some of you will know of my recent work on developing the idea of Leader as Host, and part of my research led me to the Art of Hosting group (http://www.artofhosting.org).

Art of Hosting (AoH) is a movement that started – by this name – some five years ago.  It is not a new approach or method of change.  Rather, it is an approach which emphasises the importance of getting people into a good space with good ‘wicked’ questions that they care about – and then getting out of the way as much as possible and allowing useful dialogue to emerge.  This is explicitly a part of the post-modern strand of thinking – change happens in dialogue, dialogue is emergent, people don’t need help so much as a space in which to help themselves.  If this all sounds rather like SF… that’s because the overall philosophies have a good deal in common.  AoH is now being used in some very interesting places., including the European Commission. Continue reading →