2024 Day 2

Flow of Day 2

Welcome and framing
Morning meta harvest
Check in - Rope game
Teach: Chaordic Path & Living System worldview
World Cafe
Teach: Breath Pattern
Lunch
Teach: Powerful Question
Open Space Technology
Villages News
Check-out
Prep time/coaching

Gallery

Story of Day 2
by Kristiana Stoyanova

The theme of the day was “Untanglement“. Untanglement would enable us to connect as a tapestry in the days to follow.

The day began with weaving the 4 levels of listening and establishing a listening partner with whom to check in on what level of listening do we go throughout the day.

For me personally this small moment of connection helped me to untangle something inside me. I realised I’ve been hiding behind and that being seen in the eyes of another is scary even if I consider myself as someone with experience in working in/with groups.

Nods
The check-in excersise was linked to the theme of the day. We were invited to step outside to play a game. 3 ropes for 6 people, one corner of the rope for each one of us. The nods that we tangled and entangled together were quite symbolic. In my group we bonded deeply with each other and we had a lot of fun whilst discovering some deeper meanings and connections in what at first seemed as a simple game.

Chaos and order
We were introduced to the concept of chaordic path – chaos / order / control. Between each of them there is a leadership style that suits the context. Between chaos and order – participatory leadership and between order and control management leadership. We need both in different circumstances, its not like one is better than the other.

World cafe
Part of the group hosted for us a World cafe using 3 rounds - each with its question. We were invited to connect with people that we haven’t spoken to. As a summary in my first table we looked into the “why” of meaningful gathering – to overcome a disconnect on many levels. In the second table we look at “Where do we see openings life-affirming possibilities?”. Nature came up as one possibility. Also to connect to flow and to the elements, to play to connect. In round two we answered the question ‘How might we start weaving these possibilities into thriving futures?”. In this round the topic of cross pollination came up. There were also a lot of bees that appeared on our blank paper. “Be(e)coming superbees in service of each others joys”.

Breath pattern

After that we looked into the breath pattern as one of the patterns of life. It starts with divergence and opening and end with convergence. But in between there is emergence – where things that were brought to the surface can perculate, can be chewed. This is also a good place to use the world café as a method if the breath pattern is part of a longer process. One of my biggest takeaways is that we ourselves are our biggest harvest. In the end of all these processes we entangle in ourselves the new knowledge that we gathered from our interactions with people or things. And also: when it comes to convergence of decisions or outcomes of meetings – to be guided by the principle “Will this decision grow corn for the people?”

Powerful questions & Open Space technology

The day went on with a section on powerful questions, which fed into Open Space technology. I noticed its much easier to host a session in an Open Space if we have a good calling question. Also if it is rooted in the now- what is it that I want to explore now? Not in the future or in the past. What is alive in me right now. The principles of doing it are – 1) whoever comes s the right person; 2) whatever happens is the only thing that could’ve happened; 3) whenever it starts, is the right time. And when it’s over, it’s over. It is helpful if we move beyond downloading in terms of the interactions, and my personal insight from both hosting and attending a session is – if we move beyond downloading we have the possibility to have truly transformational conversations where emergence can happen and we leave the conversation as different people than the ones that entered.