The Art of Hosting is an approach to life that scales up from the personal to the systemic through personal practice, dialogue, facilitation and co-creation to address complex challenges. It is a highly effective way of harnessing the collective wisdom and self-organising capacity of groups of any size. Based on the assumption that people give their energy and resources to what matters to them – in work as in life – the Art of Hosting blends powerful conversational processes (such as Open Space Technology, World Café, Circle) to invite people to step in and engage with the challenges and opportunities facing them.
Beyond the methods, the Art of Hosting is also a practice: it is an art to become skillful at helping ourselves and others work well together. We talk about hosting, because the practice gives attention and care to all aspects of working together, including the conditions that foster creative and fruitful relationships. It includes the whole process: all the preparations before the participants come together, what happens while they are working together, and how the results of their conversation – the ‘harvest’ – support next steps that are coherent for their purpose and context.
Groups and organisations using the Art of Hosting as a working practice report better decision-making, more efficient and effective capacity building, and greater ability to quickly respond to opportunity, challenge and change. People who experience the Art of Hosting typically say that they walk away feeling more empowered and able to help guide the meetings and conversations they are part of to move towards more effective and desirable outcomes.
Resources
The Companion
What began as a review of the workbook – for the ’16 training – transitioned into a new – and extra – guide intended to illuminate the deeper patterns and the distinctive work and contribution of Art of Hosting to the field. It’s beautifully written and put together by Helen Titchen Beeth and Steve Ryman, with gorgeous illustrations from Lara Listens.
As it says in the introduction “ this guide is an attempt to point to the moon whilst humbly acknowledging the inadequacy of putting the rich complexity of our work into words – its an invitation into deeper collective inquiry into the mystery of emergence” – Read online or download: original version (2016) – updated version (2025).
Community Resources
- The Art of Hosting Website – for very general information: http://www.artofhosting.org
- Art of Hosting, Facebook Group (closed) – for practitioners who share stories and questions: https://www.facebook.com/groups/artofhosting/
- Stay connected to other practitioners around the world, email list http://www.artofhosting.org/connect/
- The AoH Ning – online community, resources (many videos!) and more … http://artofhosting.ning.com/
Video Resources
Video links to some of the models and methodologies used within Art of Hosting .
Art of Hosting – introduction: https://vimeo.com/72614471
Four-fold Practice – the core practice of Art of Hosting: https://vimeo.com/69785461
Harvesting – as the sister of Hosting conversations: https://vimeo.com/69785465
Collective Story Harvest: https://vimeo.com/69798732
Chaordic Path: https://vimeo.com/69785462
Chaordic Stepping Stones: https://vimeo.com/69798731
Circle Process: https://vimeo.com/69785464
Open Space Technology: https://vimeo.com/69798729
Pro-Action Cafe: https://vimeo.com/69798730
World Café: https://vimeo.com/69798733
Two Loops of System Change: http://vimeo.com/17907928
Community Conversations for the common good: https://vimeo.com/40679035
Downloads
Compiled by our friends and harvesters of the Art of Participatory Leadership Training in Slovenia, 2014.
The Art of Harvesting.pdf – Download File
The Art of Powerful Questions.pdf – Download File
Collective Harvesting of AoH Practice Stories.pdf – Download File
Description of Designing Wiser Action.pdf – Download File
DFWA Harvest Template.jpg – Download File
From Hero to Host.pdf – Download File
Conversational Leadership.pdf – Download File