Linda Joy Mitchell

WHAT COULD HAPPEN IN DORSET IF WE MADE TIME FOR MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS AND HUMAN CONNECTIONS?

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The last 4 years have moved at a relentless pace, with crisis upon crisis. The pandemic and the rise in cost of living has stretched us as individuals, organisations and wider systems.

We are stretching to work harder (to pay the bills), faster (through back to back zoom meetings) and stretching to respond to the rise in demand in services. We need to slow down, so we can listen to each other and discuss the future we need to create: A future built on the wisdom of experience, rich in human connections.

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More information and to sign up visit: https://povertytruthbcp.org/art-of-hosting/

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HOW CAN CULTIVATING CULTURES OF COLLABORATION BASED ON PRACTICING DIALOGUE ENABLE US TO NAVIGATE UNCERTAIN FUTURES?

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Many of us are asking fundamental question in these uncertain and complex times. How to enable our organisation to achieve results yet still have time for meaningful relationships? and how do we create a work life balance that ensures our wellbeing, whilst also making a difference? 

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We are seeking solutions to the multi-layered challenges we face, yet we often experience paradoxes daily.  We know that we need to collaborate and share our knowledge to face multiple crises, yet we fear not knowing the way forward. We, therefore, often react by fragmenting and continuing to do what we know, even though it no longer works.  We often lack the capacity to make sense and act wisely in these contexts of uncertainty and complexity. 

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On the other hand, these times also present many opportunities for meaningful change, new organisational practices strengthened connections, and letting go of outdated and even damaging structures and processes.  As we slowly turn the corner of the Pandemic, we seek to reconnect and re-engage with others at work and in our communities. Many of us know that continuing to work with a predominantly linear, hierarchical, and transactional approach will not enable organisations and teams to grow and thrive. 

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It is, therefore, an opportune time to explore the power of participation and collaboration. Dialogue creates the conditions for the exploration and discovery of new potential and solutions. Working with diversity in a positive way shifts the “for or against” mentality which often blocks us from transforming our challenges into innovation. Working in partnerships (even with unlikely partners) enables us to successfully navigate increasing complexity by contributing different knowledge to create new collective intelligence.

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More information and to sign up https://www.openspace-collective.com/art-of-hosting-2022-en

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¿Cómo podemos imaginar, construir y nutrir juntos/as un Ecosistema de Salud que fomente y alimente el bienestar de todas/os?

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Estamos muy ilusionados/as de hacerte llegar esta invitación después  de compartir durante los últimos años diferentes talleres-degustación de Art of Hosting (el arte del liderazgo participativo) y Salud en diferentes comunidades y para diferentes organizaciones e instituciones. Ha llegado el momento del entrenamiento residencial de 4 días, para seguir aprendiendo en profundidad.

Si buscas nuevas miradas creativas en aquello que haces, tienes interés o ya trabajas con grupos de todos los ámbitos, quieres abrir el zoom para mirar la Salud como ecosistema amplio pero también profundo, si quieres incorporar una mirada sistémica y co-creativa a tus proyectos y a tu vida… y a un no sabes muy bien cómo hacerlo realidad, o ya lo haces pero quieres innovar en nuevas herramientas altamente eficaces y colaborativas queremos invitarte.Invitarte a parar, a regalarte unos días de reencuentros, de aprender haciendo, de conversaciones profundas con pares improbables y  de practicar juntos/as herramientas participativas que nos hagan un poquito más sabios/as. 

Te esperamos con muchísima ilusión.

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Toda la información en la página web que hemos creado para la formación: https://artofhostingsalud.weebly.com/

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How do we become more collectively intelligence to face these accelerating turbulent times? 

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Our world is in flux.  Many of our current structures and ways of operating are outdated. In a more complex and interconnected world, command and control is no longer a fit way to lead and manage. Organisations are going horizontal, taking out layers of management. Ordinary people, residents and citizens are stepping up to lead their neighbourhoods, communities, schools, organisations. We are seeing collective intelligence emerging, whether in civil society organisations, governmental institutions or companies as we learn to work in more interconnected ways. 

You are warmly invited to this learning space in Athens where we will host you with our strong heritage, history and culture of hospitality.We invite you to bring your questions, ideas and dreams to this experiential training. To meet others who bring similar or radically different inquiries. We will share out exzperonces of what were have learnt over the recent years working with collapse and complexity. 

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More information and to sign up here:

https://aohathina.com/trainings/aopl-training-2020-final

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In these times of polarisation and complexity our usual ways of operating appear inadequate, and our established systems can feel unfit for purpose, under strain, or close to collapse.

In the face of multiple interconnected issues (personal, local, national and global), we need to learn how to navigate the uncertainty and create new futures together. This requires each of us to participate and be in conversation to discover new responses. We need to explore and practise fresh approaches to: being together, listening to one another, and collective sense-making so that we can work with the needs of the present and call in the potential of positive futures.

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How might we cultivate the confidence and capacity we need in ourselves and each other to respond with generative dialogue, curiosity and wise action? 

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More information and to register here:

www.aohashburnham.co.uk 

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En nuestras conversaciones se cuelan muchas veces nuestros prejuicios y reproducimos, sin saberlo, pautas de relación aprendida. Esto sumado a la aceleración en nuestra vida cotidiana merma la calidad de nuestras comunicaciones y frustra nuestra intención de entendimiento. Necesitamos parar, aprender de nuestros patrones y reflexionar sobre el futuro del que queremos ser parte. Y si pudiéramos conversar dejando atrás patrones obsoletos para enfocarnos en la construcción una cultura regenerativa.

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Click here for more information

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¿Cómo colaboramos más y mejor para producir conocimiento e innovación?
Porque para el IAAP ahora es el momento de reconocer y consolidar el trabajo realizado en los últimos anos en proyectos, iniciativas y comunidades colaborativas, lo que ha permitido generar mucho aprendizaje y conocimiento. Lo que ha permitido generar mucho aprendizaje y conocimiento util para la administración andaluza. Por ello ponemos a vuestra disposición una formación que ofrecer. principios y herramientas y practicas que favorecen la colaboraci.n, la innovaci.n, la auto-organizaci.n y el conocimiento colecvo.

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How can we engage everyone to meaningfully participate in and influence the important things that affect their communities, their work and their lives ? 
We are living in time which call for new ways of living and working to foster greater community participation and involvement.  There are no easy answers to this question but principles and practices and tools do exist that help us to have conversations that inspire our work and inspire communities to take action in a more collective and collaborative way
 

More information & to register

This Immersive learning programme is for AoH practitioners who live and work with participatory methodologies, complexity, Art of Hosting and Harvesting Meaningful Conversations and living systems practice and who wish to deepen their capacities to hold more and more complexity in their inner and outer contexts. This programme is aimed at supporting practitioners who want to learn how to host trainings, as well as those who want to translate their learning and training into their own context. 

You have participated in or apprenticed at trainings. You have been practicing, learning, and growing your hosting practice and are asking how do I deepen my learning and sharpen my skills? You are ready to bring your practice to new contexts, more complex projects or life stages and you’re looking for mentorship, new perspectives, experienced friends and juicy conversations. You are needing to be hosted and held in your process by those who have been there, too.
More information & to register

 

How can we meet together in ways that create lasting meaningful change? 

We live in a meeting culture, have schedules packed with meetings, attend countless commuity gatherings and somehow, very little changes. Instead the real conversations often occur in the hallways and spaces between meetings.  People are hungry for more effective ways to come together to explore and drive change.  Groups and communities have enormous power and potential and usually have the solutions and ideas for whats needed now.  The key to unblocking this is learning how to work with collective intelligence through generative dialogue.  This is a custom made 3 day participative training in the Art of Hosting and Harvesting conversations that matter for the Seedbed Network:  

Please contact Sue Hoey for more information: sue.hoey@seedbed.org.uk

 

We know that in Barrow we face some tough health and equality challenges. What if we brought everyone together to talk about what it means to be healthy and well. What if everyone got inspired to get to grips with our challenges and create the future we would love to see.  Join us for the 3rd Art of Hosting training in the Morecambe Bay and Furness Peninsula.  You will learn some practical skills for bringing people togther in ways that help us move from just having conversations about health and wellbeing, to understanding what we might do together and how to build the momentum for the kind of change we would like to see.  You will learn how to create the sorts of meeting spaces where different perspectives and voices can be heard.  The training will be an opporutnity to bring all your questions and explore together the potential for a social movement around health and well being in the area. 

 

The flames were blazing after the first AOH gathering in Brazil.  Its ashes left a legacy, the spirit of revolution that calls us together once again to share, converse, dance eat and celebrate.  Increasingly this complex world which we live in presents us with challenges: the democratic expressions of 2016, the tensions, feelings of division and polarisation.  We are living this revolution how can we dance with it?  We are calling on Art of Hosting mates "parceros" practitioners of all nationalties and those who share the practices and principles of "participatory leadership" and all those motivated to contibute as a community to build paths of change and transformation.  The event is in Spanish, Brazillian and English, we will have volunteeers who serve as whisper translators.  
 
More info and sign up here

 

¿COMO ACTIVAR EL SER COLABORATIVO? 

Mientras la incertidumbre crece en este mundo cada vez mas complejo, mucho de nosotros nos sentimos aislados indefensos y luchando por mantener nuestra optimismo, sientendo la llamada de ir mas alla de nuestos temores, nuestros bloqueos, encontrarnos el nuestra diversidad y explorar la sabiduria colectiva. Necesitamos nuevas maneras de estar juntos y nuevos maneras de liderar el cambio para navigar la polaridad y la fragmentacion actual que vemos a nuestro alredador y en nosotos mismos. Necesitamos practicas que nos ayden a colaborar, organizarnos alredador de temas comunes y preguntas significativas, a trabajar de manera mas inteligente invitando al la participacion y la co creacion de las soluciones que necesitamos construir.   Queremos crear un espacio de apprendizaje donde inspirarnos, relajarnos, celebrar, bailar, debatir profundizar y sanar, accediendo asi al propia sabiduria colectiva.  Inscribite YA

 

How do we do more collaborative and meaningful work so that our organisations, projects and communities can thrive?

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There is no time like now.  We are living in an increasingly changing, complex and unpredictable world.  Whilst uncertainty grows, the pressure for immediate results and increasing turnover seems to increase, overwhelming and disconnecting people and compromising the long term sustainability of our collective efforts.  At the same time many of us are feeling the call to do work that makes a difference, work that is meaningful, fulfilling and that we can make a living from.  However stepping into this takes courage and invoves risk.  We have designed this training to offer some new approaches and perspectives on finding and sustaining meaningful work that makes a difference to our communities, our teams our organisations, our country and our planet. Full invitation and registration HERE

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Convening your grantee and networks.tools and techniques for facilitating participatory meetings that foster collaboration.

How often do you bring your grantees together or wish that you could? NGO leaders often comment that funders' convening power and overview of the whole sector are among their strongest assets and that the environmental sector needs more collaboraiotn to be effective.  This one day workshop which is embedded in the Art of Hosting is designed to help funders develop the tools and practices necessary for leading participatory conversations. Meetings that foster collaboration and co creation amongst their grantees, partners and networks. The day will be a combination of teaching, doing and reflecting.  It will be a chance not only to work with the process but to work with your own questions about collaborative funding models.  
More information here
To register contact Florence Miller @ EFN florence@greenfunders.org
 

How do we navigate through confusion, polarity and fragmentation to design communities and eco - systems of potential, diversity and innovation?

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We invite corporate innovators, social entrepreneurs, strategic managers, public sector workers, NGOs, teachers, social workers, community leaders, innovators and activists to come and join us for this three day art of hosting training. This is a response to living in a time when we realise we are increasingly not going in the right direction. We are waking up to the severity of the situation. This is manifesting fears and pain. Many of us are feeling isolated, hopeless and struggling to keep our optimism. We are also being invited to step up and innovate new realities, move beyond fears and to meet in our diversity and collective wisdom. This is a call for us to be fortified to build community, to collaborate and innovate the new.
 

More details and to register ex@democratic.co.il 

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How can we build businesses and communties where everyone can lead, to create a city where everyone feels they matter and belong?

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Why this question? Because we believe everyone is capable of leading change that they and their community needs. We see leadership not as a role, but as a behaviour that can be learnt and developed. Its something we can learn to do ourselves and can only be done with others. We also believe we are living in a time where people are becoming increasingly clear on the change they want to see. In a time of failing leadership models, disenfranchised communities and growing pressure on our resources, its easy to feel sadness or fear and for this to drive what we do. But we believe that humanity is fundamentally wired for creativity, compassion and connection, and that these motivations are more powerful and successful. By sharing skills and knowledge we hope to develop a community and more capacity for positive change, right here. 

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No set of skills, techniques or methods can substitute for the consciousness and presence of the host.  The qualities of authenticity, vulnerability confidence and courage support us to stand in the midst of intense emotion and chaos without rushing to fix anything, to be comfortable with emergence and silence and work in service of a purpose bigger than the personal. We are offering a hosted practice space to connect with ourselves, with each other, with our work and our purpose in the world.  A space to explore how we engage all of our senses beyond our heads, to access our whole bodies intelligence.The day will be hosted and held by Meredith Freeman, Liane Fredricks and Linda Joy Mitchell.  It is being offered on a shared economy basis, pay what you can to cover the costs of the day (between £20 - £60) Please bring something that has meaning for you and helps to centre you, we will co create a collective centrepiece.  Please also bring something for lunch to share (there is a cafe on site). The venue is www.stmargaretshouse.org.uk.  We aim to arrive at 9.30 for a 10.00 am start and finish by 4.30pm.   

What kind of leadership is needed to make our teams and organisational structures more humane and prosperous?

How can we personally build the trust and skills to become the leaders we are waiting for?

How can we put into action the kinds of leadership we envision as necessary to each participator context? 

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Leading at the edge requires a different set of skills and collaboration models that tap into the full potential of individuals and organisations to create better, more sustainable, balanced and prosperous solutions. The concept and practice of shared leadership is becoming more and more central in groups and ortanisations where individuals are urged to actively participate.  This is the real context we invite you to bring forward new solutions to these challenging questions.

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If we are to live and work in a world with community, collaboration and peace at its heart, how can we become more interconnected, better at harnesing diversity and better able to be guided by our deepest inner values? 

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We are all interrelated, with each other and with all life. Every action affects the whole. If we take this as our worldview, how does it impact the way that we live and work? Many believe that it is only when we work from a deep understanding of our ‘interbeing’ that we will be able to evolve beyond the challenges present in the world today.
New ways of working are emerging and growing numbers of people want to move away from competition towards collaboration and peace. New skills and approaches are being cultivated. Skills that tune into and are responsive to ambiguity, diversity and emergent circumstances. Skills that foster generative conversation where diverse perspectives can collide to spark new ways of thinking and acting. Skills that invite participation and engagement in new ways, where we can tap the collective intelligence inherent in any group, system or community. Come and learn and contribute and create some new potential for yourself, your work and your community or organisation.

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How can participation transform today's challenges into trustworthy solutions that make a real difference for our organisations institutions, communities and societies 

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Today's world is increasingly changing. It is becoming more and more complex and in many ways confusing. The confusion occurs because challenges are cross cutting and therefore, the traditional linear problem solving methods no longer have impact. It is obvious that throughout the world a systemic malfunction is currently taking place. Our organisations, institutions, communities and societies are in desperate need of contemporary, innovative ways to get over this malfunction. Through meaningful conversations between diverse stakeholders even those holding conflicting perspectives, collaboration between different sectors and participation of citizens, innovative solutions can be found - solutions our world needs right now. Join us for this fourth training held in Athens.

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When to step in and when to step back.
Building capacity for engagement.  

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In a world where we are often burdened with too much choice: time can feel like a scarce commodity. It can feel as though life is something that happens to us, instead of a series of events we choose. How then do we ensure our agency? In some way or another we all struggle to connect with others and to the future that wants to emerge. How do we harness the power of the collective to move forward together?

What if it was up to us to embody a society where everyone can thrive? 

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These days diversity is an inescapable fact of life in Belgium society, in language politics, ethnicity, culture, in the gaps between professional silos, managers and workers, generations, faith and personal histories. Wherever we look we see canyons to be crossed, bridges to built. How can top down meet bottom up?  How can we engage with all stakeholders, integrate successive waves of refugees, reach out across the boundries of generations, faiths, languages, world views and cultures? How can we invite all these differences into the rich dance of humanity.
What would it be like to embody a society where everyone could thrive, where I can accept and celebrate your culture without having to devalue or sacrifice my own ? 

What's the new relationship needed now between Citizens and Local Government? 

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We are living in difficult times of austerity and drastic cuts in services. Many are wanting to re-imagine what their towns and cities could be like as places where local people and communities have a stake and real impact on in its future; where local businesses are supported, local artistic endeavours are celebrated, alternative methods of exchanging goods and services thrive, people are valued for more than their job roles and everyone’s contribution to their community, city or town is valid and valued?  This trainings is about learning some new ways of working together.  Cultivating our personal perseverance and resilience and finding ways to meet the challenges of complexity and rapid change.  It is also an enquiry into how we work with and still challenge those who are in positions of "structural power"

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What if we could shift to a higher quality of meaningful collaborative dialogue that could really make a difference? 
How can we do this in a meaningful way with real mutual benefit, without legitimizing austerity? 
How do we converse and engage with people and systems from very different worldviews, visions and ideas?

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How can we engage all voices to shape the Scotland that is emerging? 

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We are in the midst of significant change. Scotland's citizens have found their voice and have claimed their right to use it.  Today we are calling for a better nation, grounded in a culture of meaningful participation.  Simultaneously there is a deep complexity and challenge, as global crises of people, economy and planet play out in our services, institutions and neighbourhoods.  As Citizens, communities, organisations if we are to unlock the potential of our people, if we are to navigate  the deepening complexity and if we are to move from crisis to opportunity then we need new ways of working together , more effective engagement processes, new forms of leadership and the ability to transform conversation into wiser action - Join Us?

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How do we promote the transformative power of individuals, teams and organisations to build together another world based on collaboration and participation?  

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This is a crucial moment to bring about this training in Spain. Right now we are in the middle of much change, growing social consciousness and a growing desire for real meaningful participation. At the same time to new emerging paradigm of organisational models and methods of communication means we are looking for flexible, decentralised innovative communication and working practices. The invitation is for those of us feeling the desire to strengthen our positive social transformation work in the world, in our communities projects or organisations. The art of participative leadership is a practice to learn and discover new ways of collaborating and creating innovative solutions that really respond to the times we are living in. More info and register

http://liderazgoparticipativo.somosmas.org/spain/

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How will we collaborate to create safe spaces for healthy conversations amongst communities in Kenya and beyond?
How will we engage all people in shaping the needs of our country?
How will we nourish the culture of citizen engagement and effectively participate in our devolved government?   

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As people who care for the future of Kenya we have a unique opportunity to learn how to host and harvest meaningful conversations as well as learn and practice the art of participatory leadership for the common good of all our communities. In the last few years Kenya has gone though a roller coaster of emotions and changes, which has left us with a need to have difficult conversations.  During this time of uncertainty communities have come together to co create protected spaces where they can revive trust and encourage everyone to listen with an open curious heart.  Art of Hosting provides a unique opportunity to further enhance these existing efforts through creativity and comradeship… Join us? 

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How can we sustain depth with the increasing scale, breadth and complexity of our work?
How can shifting our power redefine how we engage in change?
How can we practice friendship as a critical strategic pillar for societal transformation?    

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A three day retreat for seasoned leaders and audacious change makers.  The scope, complexity and scale of work we are being asked to engage with continues to grow.  Now is the time to gather, take a breath and learn together.  We will be learning advanced process design, hearing stories of long term iterative strategic intervention, engaging our own limits as leaders and exploring cutting edge change theory.  Bring all you have got, don't hold back and don't be attached. Come with your ongoing projects,insights from your work and places you can practically apply what we learn together.

What are the seeds of change in Nottingham and how might our collective energies come together in a common direction?  
What is the new economy of social change?
How can we bring out the best in our organisation and communities and bring more meaning into our work?  

The purpose of this training is to explore and learn ways of hosting participative conversations and meeting spaces, so we can understand what is needed and how to move into action.  Meetings that truly bring people together and build relationship across the city so our work has more impact.  We would like to explore how to break down the barriers between different sectors and find new perspectives to the current 'ideology' of contracting and commission and being more business-like' about community development and change.