a Postcard from Budapest
Hello friend,
I’m on a plane waiting to leave Budapest, sitting in the lethargy of yet another sliver of time that will melt into the cracks opened by union strikes, technical issues and black box logistics. We’ll be on the runway for an hour — reasons unclear — and I suppose I’ll make it home by late afternoon.
Budapest was four intense days of Art of Hosting training and subsequent gatherings with friends, new and old.
AoH is about participatory leadership and complex facilitation, and a bewitching mycelium of a community of practice. I encountered it alongside other practices like Liberating Structures and LEGO Serious Play about seven years ago, when I started to do more innovation and org transformation work. In the years since, I’ve picked up many AoH practices through osmosis, via different collaborators. But it was high time for a deliberate and concentrated learning experience, and that’s what I was greeted with, and more. What a pleasure it is to be in the presence of deep mastery. To be welcomed as part of their own journies, and then set loose, trusting that we shall meet again down the trail.
Here is a classic video about Art of Hosting’s Four-Fold practice.
I remember watching this a long time ago. In fact, I remember the co-working space and the too-low seat that I had there as I skimmed it. I was attracted by the message but in hindsight, lacked the mindspace and maturity to receive it as the gift that it is. I can only hope that I am a little bit wiser now… and wonder, what are the things that I/we are resisting now, which will be integrated in the years to come?
Have a wonderful weekend.
Tomomi
A mountain of dessert crêpes by M's dad that was also breakfast for the next two days.