The Power of Conversation

May 4, 2009

The closing cafe hosted at Ontario Art of Hosting was around this question: What do you know now about the power of conversation? It was asked of the group, held for three rounds.

The tone of the harvest question was: What are you going to tell Joe or Joeanne about it? Our intention was to surface some of the language in participants as they return to their respective work settings. It was clear to me that though many of these words aren't new, the conviction with which they were spoken was strong. It came from the experience of being in community, which always changes everything.

Below are a few of the postit responses shared by participants and harvested by Christian Lord.

- Listening
- Expectation vs What is

- Notice what different cultures need in order to have a conversation
- Notice what is nourished by questions from the heart. Notice where your questions come from.

- What could possibly happen through conversation?
- Learning how to have meaningful conversations to make the world a better place - speaking from the heart and inviting curiosity.

- We could use the metaphor of planning & preparing a banquet together
* Brings together our individual talents, traditions & richness
* Creating a juicy whole
* Nourishing us at all levels & bringing great joy to all
- It is about weaving a beautiful tapestry from the disparate strands, bringing together many colors, patterns and textures, making us stronger and more vibrant than our individual threads.

- What you know in your Heart matters to the whole
- Respect and gently hold the flow

- How do we call the questions (warrior) that need to be called and how do we create the safe place or sanctuary (mid-wife) to be in the conversations (emergence)?

- Kesher – Dineamaagawik – Appartenance – Enfoldment - Respect
- Fertile question & Appropriate vessel

- Have you ever thought that there is another way to work/live/be which is possible?
- Conversare - “to turn to one another” --- relating