Art Of Hosting
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

“The Art of Hosting” is a method of participatory leadership for facilitating group processes, as used by a loose-knit community of practitioners. In their method, people are invited into structured
conversation Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focus ...
about matters they are concerned about while facilitators act as hosts. This community group understands “hosting” as a certain way of facilitation that is supposed to have the capacity of making emerge the
collective intelligence Collective intelligence (CI) is shared or group intelligence (GI) that Emergence, emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making. The term appears in sociobiolog ...
that people possess. As an approach to facilitation, The Art of Hosting is focused on “improved, conscious, and kind ways of growing a capacity to support a deliberate wisdom, unique to being together,” and also relies on a specific attitude to process organization. The practitioners see this methodology of engagement as a way to bring people in complex, social systems into convergence on collective actions, with the participants discovering and proposing their own solutions.


Approach

The Art of Hosting is a specific approach and methodology for group facilitation and systems change, developed and curated according to a
commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...
or
open-source model Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
by an international community of facilitation practitioners. Starting around the late 1990s, or early 2000s, the community shares methods, tools, and terminology to improve how people can understand and mobilize to respond to complex social, political, and economic change in a
participatory Citizen participation or public participation in social science refers to different mechanisms for the public to express opinions—and ideally exert influence—regarding political, economic, management or other social decisions. Participato ...
manner. It applies
dialogic Dialogic refers to the use of conversation or shared dialogue to explore the meaning of something. (This is as opposed to monologic which refers to one entity with all the information simply giving it to others without exploration and clarificatio ...
techniques and
complex system A complex system is a system composed of many components that may interact with one another. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication sy ...
s analysis (e.g. the Cynefin framework and Chaordic organization), and is partly informed by social theories, including
structuration The theory of structuration is a social theory of the creation and reproduction of social systems that is based on the analysis of both ''structure'' and '' agents'' (see structure and agency), without giving primacy to either. Furthermore, in s ...
, actor-network theory, and
situated knowledges Knowledge is an awareness of facts, a familiarity with individuals and situations, or a practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often characterized as true belief that is distinct from opinion or gue ...
. People in this community typically use a certain set of theories and metaphors to make group processes understandable, such as Theory U, to draw insight into human interactions. They draw upon a bundle of facilitation methods such as
Open Space Technology Open space technology (OST) is a method for organizing and running a meeting or multi-day conference where participants are invited to focus on a specific, important task or purpose. The agenda and schedule of presentations are partly or mostly un ...
, World café (conversation) and Circle process/practice. They apply techniques of
Appreciative inquiry Appreciative inquiry (AI) is a model that seeks to engage stakeholders in self-determined change. According to Gervase Bushe, professor of leadership and organization development at the Beedie School of Business and a researcher on the topic, "A ...
and Fishbowl in a customized way depending upon the purpose of the engagement. The approach is rooted in a practice framework that help facilitators attend to "conversations that matter," referred to as The Four-Fold Practice. Furthermore, the framework of Art of Hosting gives attention to posing significant questions for group consideration, and documenting results from the dialogue sessions, termed ‘harvesting.’ As in their experience creating fruitful group processes only comes through practice and refinement, the community terms its overall approach an “art”. In their work, those who initiate group conversation are often termed ‘callers,’ as they call or invite people to engage around a specific shared challenge. One focus is on the practice of constructing and holding dialogic “containers”, meetings or processes bounded in space and time, which support constructive group processes and enable new insights and decisions to emerge. Practitioners claim that well-hosted events and projects increase the
adaptive capacity Adaptive capacity relates to the capacity of systems, institutions, humans and other organisms to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences. In the context of ecosystems, adaptive capacity is deter ...
of the group. These metaphors and methods are developed and applied by a self-organising learning community. There is no central institution deciding what belongs to the canon – it emerges from what the community uses and evolves through a process of informal
peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...
that focuses upon application. The community's media of exchange and documentation are practice-oriented webpages, and
grey literature Grey literature (or gray literature) is material and research produced by organizations outside of the traditional publishing, commercial or academic publishing and distribution channels. Common grey literature publication types include reports (a ...
.


Examples of application

The approach is used in diverse settings, including
health care reform Health care reform is for the most part governmental policy that affects health care delivery in a given place. Health care reform typically attempts to: * Broaden the population that receives health care coverage through either public sector ins ...
, the
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
,
higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...
,
sustainable development Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...
, as well as a methodology for
evaluation In common usage, evaluation is a systematic determination and assessment of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of Standardization, standards. It can assist an organization, program, design, project or any o ...
participatory action research Participatory action research (PAR) is an approach to action research emphasizing participation and action by members of communities affected by that research. It seeks to understand the world by trying to change it, collaboratively and followi ...
and community-based
leadership Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...
development. Overall, the approach is intended as a methodology for nurturing innovation and building experiences in democratic decision-making in the context of
civic engagement Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to ...
.


See also

*
Organization development Organization development (OD) is the study and implementation of practices, systems, and techniques that affect organizational change. The goal of which is to modify a group's/organization's performance and/or culture. The organizational chang ...
* Participative decision-making in organizations


References

{{reflist Change management Group decision-making Leadership Meetings