AoHBerlin2011

Art of Hosting Training Berlin 2011 - How do we want to learn and lead in changing cities?

Immersion 2012: A poem for Filiz

A poem read out by Susan in the Community News (Day 1 at the Immersion 2012) for Filiz who is not with us at the Immersion this year:


Sappho's Goddesses

Untainted Graces,

with wrists like roses,

Please come close,

You daughters of Zeus.

Now Dika, weave the

aniseed together, flower and stem

With you soft hands,

crown yourself with a lovely diadem,

Because the blessed Graces

grant gifts to the Garlanded.

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Immersion 2012: Some new Open Space principles?

Today, we had the first Open Space within the Immersion 2012 gathering. From Israel, we have received a possible 6th and 7th principle:
  • Try not to be critical
  • Try not to be cynical
The reason: being critical and cynical creates disconnection from what is needed and separation between the participants.

...and I learned another way of inviting participants who are in a wheelchair to apply The Law of the 2 Feet: Follow your nose 

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Immersion 2012: WHO are WE?

Here is Linda's harvest from our Immersion 2012 opening circle:

WHO are WE ?

We are a delicious welcome and a good meal

An angel cat purring in my lap

Both cook and sous chef enriched by special people


We are satisfied beach dwellers waiting to be disturbed

Anti muchos waiting a diagnosis

A short George living on a thin ceiling, unpinning the past and learning to flow


We are light switchs turning off numb

Sharp edged healing crystals absorbing the energy of the seas

learning masters separating noise from notes, asking for resonance


We are path walkers, finding harmony and bringing it home for others

Little women book worms who don’t listen to their mothers

The space in between, opening up vast landscapes, alchemists, bridges


We are watchers arriving home greeting the souls of kittens and the dolphins

Time travellers, past present and future

We are new and old stars, queens, emperors, horses


We are travellers meeting unexpected mirrors and being ourselves

A sleepy straight to the lord authentic family, noisy, complex and excited

Circle men both sustained and tortured by memories, dolphin watchers and inviters of safe energy


We are flow in her own speed, greeting, witnessing and blending love

Paradise arrivers, adventurers getting inspired

Joyful crazy mad drivers learning to park


We are Dorothy in the tornado, touching the place between passivity and action

Learning to be and choosing wisely

Travellers, still journeying, looking for clarity, immersion, and orange crystals

We have no no no name


We are hullabaloo’s sister, homefull at a homecoming

Holding fire in our hair and grounding energy

Kaleidoscope screamers weaving flexibility and identity, confusion and knowing – feeling the perfections as it is


We are cynical tree huggers, eating authentic meat, building family – but how and where?

We are musical single mothers grateful for the children, anchoring in the land and bringing home souls

We are opening to newness, embracing breakfast, opening a living space offering gifts and embracing another level of life


Can we really embrace all of this?

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Purpose of my Transformation Learning Journey in Greece

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In conversation with Maria, Sarah, and Vanessa from the Living Wholeness Institute who have invited me for the Immersion 2012, I have been reflecting 10 days ago what is calling me to Greece in May/June. Here is a bit of the story (with a picture from my first and last time in Greece in 2008):

On Friday, I am waiting on the train platform at Berlin Friedrichsstrasse for the metro to the main station. In thoughts, I read the advertisement for a show at the famous Friedrichstadtpalast down the road. Turning 180 degrees, I face the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears) that used to be a pedestrian border crossing between East and West Berlin where a lot of tears were spent greeting and leaving loved-ones and family. Gazing at the Palace of Tears, I ask myself the question: what if a similar shift like 1989 in Germany happens in the transformation process in Greece in May/June? And what's the possibility, if I am bearing witness being in Greece during that time?

What's my purpose of coming to Greece?
- recharging myself, being in community of transformation practitioners
- learning about local grounding and transformation practices
- staying longer: apprenticing with the Living Wholeness Institute at Axladitsa and the Social Innovation Space in Athens
- a personal learning journey: connecting micro- (myself) and macro-level (Greece) of systemic transformation

During the train ride from Berlin to Darmstadt last Friday, I read in a German magazine that writes about "Us - people in transformation" about an introductory workshop on the Minuto (an alternative currency) at a Transition Town network meeting in Germany. I remember that a friend from the former Hub Berlin network has offerend me recently to work for them in exchange for the Minuto. I declined and stayed with Euro payment not knowing enough about it and not seeing the connection, yet to my work. After talking to Maria on Friday morning before I left to catch my train, I realized that hosting an alternative currency at Immersion 2012 could be an offer from my side towards the hosting team that could be an exchange for me being there. And the Minuto seems to be a suitable prototype for the Immersion and maybe even for the Innovation Space network in Athens...

Offerings of the Minuto (more info can be found here):
- people take self-responsbility for the money: everyone can issue their own Minuto vouchers co-signed by 2 witnesses/sureties (one male/one female)
- the Minuto is regional money that can go translocal (suitable for instance for the global Art of Hosting Network or Berkana Learning Network)
- Margrit Kennedy thought leader on alternative currencies in Europe and within the European Ecovilage Network has introduced the Minuto in her ecovillage in Nothern Germany (http://www.lebensgarten-steyerberg.de/), John Croft (Dragon Dreaming Steward: ) who has introduced many forms of alternative currencies in Australia has taken the Minuto to Australia
  - the Minuto is based on permaculture principles, introduced by a permaculture practitioner, implemented in some German Transition Town Initiatives
- there is a game format to introduce the Minuto at the Immersion and in the social innovation network in Athens

In regards to the Minuto, I could offer hosting it for the Immersion and experimentation in the Social Innovation Zone in Athens.

I will be in Greece May 10  to June 18, 2012. If you want to get in touch to suggest learning opportunities, please send an SMS to +49 176 50 47 88 06

Pictures from the learning center Axladitsa-Avatakia in Greece...

Axladitsa-Avatakia is a home place, an olive farm and a place of collective inquiry, learning and retreat - a place for living wholeness.

Some of the practices at Axladitsa: the Art of Hosting, Powers of Place, Conscious Kitchen, Art of Protection...I will be participating in the Immersion 2012 and will be learning from the Social Innovation Zone in Athens from May 10 to June 18, 2012.

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Storytelling in a hotel restroom

Last Saturday, I was hosting a BarCamp format with the europtopics network at the hotel nh Alexanderplatz

In the restrooms, the attached signs were hanging on the doors (which reminded me a lot of The Hub loo conversation walls!):

nh staff members were invited to describe their favorite room in this hotel, guests were encouraged to share a special story of their stay in the hotel, and a bee hive on the roof of the hotel tells the story of urban gardening in Berlin.

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Otterndorf 2020: A learning reflection with a client

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In February, I have co-hosted an event with World Café, Open Space, and Graphic Recording in a small town in Northern Germany. After the first half-day and after the event, I used the following debriefing questions with the hosting team and the clients from the local City Council (participants were invited as well but did not show up):
  • Describe your experience / impression of the event (pop-corn adjectives)?
  • What went well?
  • How did today support in reaching our event goal(s)?
  • What can we improve tomorrow?
  • What needs to happen tomorrow in order to reach the goal(s) of the event?
  • Give a mark (pop-corn: 1-6 German school system)
  • Quick overview of agenda and meeting time the next day; after the event: Clarify expectations for harvesting
These questions are inspired by the reflection sessions we apply in Berlin after each community organizing action with participating citizens. In Otterndorf, we kept the reflection time to strictly 30 minutes right after the event in order to leave enough room for preparations for the next day and clean-up.

A harvest from ALIA Europe 2012: What has brought life to this gathering?

Yesterday, when I returned from ALIA Europe 2012, I found the Group Works card deck in my apartment that had been delivered to me during the week while I was at ALIA near Utrecht.

This morning, I used the cards in reflecting on my overall conference experience by asking myself the question:

What has brought life to this gathering?

I looked at the 91 group process patterns and first picked the 20 most important patterns that I had witnessed at ALIA Europe 2012. Then I numbered them down to 10 and finally ended up with these 4 patterns from the pattern categories (the 9 pattern categories can be used for instance for designing an event): intention, relationship, perspective, inquiry & synthesis. Connected to these pattern catagories are the following patterns: 

I have been invited personally by Christopher from the core organizing group to apply for a scholarship at this conference. The power of personal invitation, I have experienced many times in inviting people and being invited to Art of Hosting gatherings or Pioneers of Change conversations. In the Art of Hosting, we are also talking about the Art of Invitation as a practice to gather people around a purpose.
Another powerful invitation in the ALIA Europe 2012 context was my invitation for crowdfunding to local women in Berlin to share my experience from the Female Leadership in Action track in a workshop with them after the conference.

The conference design for ALIA Europe 2012 included relationship-building to nurture a long haul community of learning leaders. A precondition for quality connections is being authentic. Throughout the whole week hosted and informal conversations were happening for relationship-building. I have seen this pattern most clearly and strongly coming to life on the last day of the conference in the Pro Action Café - when the table hosts shared one gift they have received during the Pro Action Café with approximately 100 community members (see attached mindmap).

Working with the ALIA faculty this week, we practiced listening with Jerry Granelli. And just one little statement of Jerry in a listening exercise "You turn your head and you see a different world" was a powerful insight in the Female Leadership in Action track a few hours later when putting a leadership model into a learning experience.
The forest and trees surrounding the De Baak conference center played a vital role during this week: We had 2 silent nature walks in the forest. During the first one, I was reminded about the yoga practice my friend Vanessa had introduced to some Art of Hosting practitioners after a gathering in May 2011.
It is time to pick up some of them again and to include nature walks around Berlin Pankow (where I live) into my weekly practice.

During the conference, my main harvesting tool was mindmapping (see pictures with mindmaps attached). We also used a map of Ages & Stages (see picture attached) of a woman's lifecycle that was holding some deeper food for thought for me in the Female Leadership in Action track.

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