Part 4: Building capacity to host dialogues
From participant to host
By reading the two previous parts you get a fair clear picture of what is needed to start hosting dialogues. You got some idea of what to do. In this part we zoom in a bit more on the journey of learning and on the how. Of course in your real life, when you start to try this out, the what and the how cannot be teased apart. You will focus more on the what and have forgotten that the how of this doing was also important; or the other way round. It’s all experiment and learning; all good!
From participant to co-host
Personally, I had a great example and experience of how to keep the DNA and the quality of a practice in a self-organising network by being a long time practitioner and steward/trainer in the global Art of Hosting network. For a long time I looked to find out what the essence of this trick was, because we didn’t have a central authority, no legal structure, no accreditation, nothing of all that. Still, over many years, many countries, many participants and many training workshops the essence and quality of the practice was – and is – kept alive. My final answer is: it’s by putting the ones who want to start practicing immediately in the role of hosting others into it; with other newbies; in co-creation. Just start trying. Of course with some mentoring where needed, but by giving a lot of trust to the people and trusting the (learning) process. So, this concept and this role of becoming a co-host is a crucial step in the learning journey. It is the path of the journeyman in the traditions of craft building. You were allowed and expected to do certain tasks, while fully knowing that you hadn’t reached a level of mastery. We don’t approve of the bad hierarchical practices that might have been part of these traditions, but there is truth in the saying that practice makes perfect – actually I like the Dutch expression better, which translates as practice gives birth to art.
That’s what I did immediately – when asked at the beginning of the pandemic to host practice sessions online (Phew, would that work??) – asking others to co-host with me, and sense together what question we would offer for the dialogue sessions (even if I didn’t know them!). That’s a practice of capacity building that we still use. (more on constant capacity building later in Part 5) Every dialogue session has a main host and a co-host (and a technical host for online sessions). Co-hosts typically introduce the guiding question when we have breakout rooms. Through this task in a smaller group they can grow their confidence to hold and host. In the frame of a rather informal capacity building we add to the open sessions a 30-minute debrief where anyone interested can join. All kinds of questions and comments about the practice itself are welcomed (and rather not about the content of the inquiry). This has become a major learning time for upcoming hosts. They can bring in as many questions or observations as they have; and more seasoned practitioners share from their own, sometimes divergent, experiences, all adding up to a rich learning environment.