[AoH] being a midwife........

[Tenneson Woolf]

Thank you Toke. Hello all.

 

I just returned from hosting in Indianapolis where there were these wicked
questions present and nibbling at the edges: What is the most meaningful
harvest we can imagine from a large scale café? What core purpose does it
serve? 

 

I loved what one of the participants named and received it as a gift – “we
are not looking for an answer. We are looking for a journey.”

 

This speaks to me another form of your question below about everybody
learning. What if learning is what we do – sometimes applied to particular
projects etc. But the core is supporting the capacity and ongoing process to
learn. What if this learning is just the flow of life, in us, through us,
around us that enables imagining and manifesting the next level of system
that serves?

 

Thank you for the stirrings.


Tenneson

 

 

Tenneson Woolf

Lindon, Utah USA

 <mailto:tenneson at berkana.org> tenneson at berkana.org

801 785 2276

801 376 2213 Cell

 

 <http://www.tennesonwoolf.com> www.tennesonwoolf.com

 <http://www.berkana.org> www.berkana.org

 <http://www.artofhosting.org> www.artofhosting.org

 

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could
not hear the music.

Nietzsche

  _____  

From: Toke Paludan Møller [mailto:toke at interchange.dk] 
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 6:52 AM
To: AoH List; World Cafe network; OpenSpaceList list
Subject: [AoH] being a midwife........

 

Hi practitioner friends of all kinds

 

i just found this wisdom by John Heider and the Tao

 about Being a midwife again after many year hiding in my MacBook file
somewhere since early 90ties

 

Being a Midwife

 

The wise leader does not intervene unnecessarily. 

The leader’s presence is felt, but often the group runs itself.

 

Lesser leaders do a lot, say a lot, have followers, and form cults.

Even worse ones use fear to energize the group and force to overcome
resistance.

 

Only the most dreadful leaders have bad reputations.

 

Remember that you are facilitating anothers person’s process. It is not your
process. 

Do not intrude. Do not control. Do not force your own needs and insights
into the foreground.

 

If you do not trust a person’s proces, that person will not trust you.

 

Imagine that you are a midwife; you are assisting at someone else’s birth. 

Do good without show or fuss. 

Facilitate what is happening rather than what you think ought to be
happening. 

If you must take the lead, lead so that the mother is helped, yet still free
and in charge.

 

When the baby is born, the mother will rightly say: ”We did it ourselves!”

 

- John Heider, The Tao of leadership

 

This and the question

 

What if hosting conversations that matter is the kind of leadership that
allows everybody to learn ?

 

were for me both very helpful in becoming pregnant and part of 

giving birth to the  art of hosting practice  in the end of the 90ties

 

in the spirit of gratitude for life, friends and learning 

- and sharing this memory this bright spring morning in Columbus on our way
to Denmark....

 

Toke

Words from the heart

http://web.me.com/tokemoller/Toke.wordsfromtheheart/Coming_alive.html

 

 

 

 


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