We believe that we make meaning all the time through our conversations. We create culture, identity and make decisions based on our conversations. They shape our close relationships, our organizations, communities and societies. We need to be cultivating and growing our capacities for hosting and participating in these conversations.
We offer learning spaces that connect people, places, and communities of practice. Come and learn and play with us. Check out our courses and community offerings like the Origin Story series.
Realtime Courses
We design and host learning experiences that enable to you engage with the most experienced practitioners in our field.
Flex Courses
We offer "flex" courses that allow you to learn at your own pace & stay connected to a global community of practice
Origin Stories
Knowing our collective history is core to evolving our practices, so in this series we invite origin stories from our field.
Hosting at the Edge of Our Humanity: AI & Facilitation
Can participatory practice and AI come together in a way that strengthens our human connections and ability to collaborate?
November 12th & 19th, December 3rd & 10th
In four real-time online sessions and pre-recorded video interviews with practitioners and thought leaders well versed in using AI, we will delve into an exploration of how artificial intelligence can both challenge and enhance participatory processes.Â
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Origin & Evolution Stories
As part of a thriving community of practice, we believe that knowing our lineage and history as a field is core to our collective evolution. Join us on the first Tuesday of every month for a new series designed to continue to unpack the origins and evolution of the methods and models that shape and inform our work.
ORIGINSÂ & EVOLUTION STORIES
2 September 2025
with Juanita Brown
With Juanita we will look back at the early days and origins of the World Café and look at how it has evolved.
We explore how the World Café has touched the hearts and given hope to so many as a Method, a Metaphor and as a Movement, showing the potential of activating collective intelligence.
Join this session.
Upcoming Origin & Evolution Stories
The World Café is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and we invite you to join the party with this session, where Juanita will share stories about the origin and early days of The World Café and where it has grown and evolved into now - beyond anything that could have been imagined at the time.
She will explore the ways the World CafĂ© is so much more than a method. As a structure "born for world service". as co-founder Finn Voldtofte put it. World Cafe is also a way of being, a growing movement, and a metaphor for how we create collective meaning.Â
REGISTER FOR THIS SESSION HERE
Heather Plett has been instrumental in creating awareness and insights into the art of holding space - for others, for ourselves and for what is needed in these times.
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We will explore how this started for her and how it has evolved over the years and what Heather is seeing about this practice today.
REGISTER FOR THIS SESSION HERE
The Chaordic space, path, practice, organizations, lenses and chaordic leadership have been the foundation of how many of us understand complexity, living systems and our work in an ever changing world.Â
Tom will share stories from his years working with Dee Hock as the CEO of the Chaordic Alliance, and how the core of chaordic ideas have travelled and evolved over the years.
Circle, Triangle and Square - How may we practise the fractal organizational patterns of nature?
Toke will invite us to understand and be awake to when and how we leverage the circle for enhancing mutual understanding and relationships, the triangle for promoting action and leadership, and the square for establishing enduring structures.
Understanding how and when to use these patterns, that are inherent in nature, allows us to be adaptive and respond much better to the needs of any particular moment and context.
As Co-President of Berkana Institute, Bob was part of the team that developed the Two Loops model as a Theory of Change.
Understanding the lifecycle of living systems and seeing how change happens - how systems are collapsing and new ones are being born has never been needed as much as it is today.
This simple and powerful pattern helps us see what we are doing and what role we might play as we give shape to a new story and a new system.
Subscribe to the whole series and receive a full year's access to not only recordings and resources from all the new Origin and Evolution series, but also the entire archive of Origin Stories from when we began offering them in 2018. You are also most welcome to join us for all the individual real-time sessions scheduled during your subscription.
See below for more details on the individual sessions.
SUBSCRIBE FOR A FULL YEAR'S ACCESS TOÂ THE WHOLE SERIES - PAST, PRESENT & FUTUREÂ
A treasure chest of stories: The Origin Stories Archive
Over the years we have had deeply inspiring and insightful conversations about the stories of origin from many of the elders and pioneers who have gone before us. We have heard stories about core practices, methods and patterns that has shaped the field of dialogic practices that we know today.Â
We continue to offer these conversations on the first Tuesday of every month.Â
Subscribe below for a full year's access to all the recordings from this series - past, present & future - and join us for all the real-time calls you want to attend during the year.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE WHOLE SERIES
Dynamic Flex Courses
Learn at your own pace, in your own time, with some of the most experienced practitioners in the field while being part of a thriving global community of facilitators, hosts and sense makers. Throughout the year we will connect in our live Community Calls to inspire and support you to deepen your practice.
The Art of Questions
We need good questions to guide us in our personal lives, families, organizations and nations. We need questions to seed the conversations that really matter, engaging others to address and explore new and better ways of doing what needs to be done.
“Don’t be afraid of the answers. Be afraid of not asking the questions.” – Jennifer Hudson
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Harvesting and Collective Sense Making
With this course we offer sophisticated theory of strategic harvesting to give direction and meaning to our practice, beginning with a deeper understanding of how we learn, know, and make sense of the world around us – as individuals and in groups.
"We don´t design for a meeting but for a harvest."
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Grounded Response to Online Engagement
Staying grounded while responding to the urgent need of meaningful and effective online collaboration
Many of us find ourselves adapting to the new reality of finding alternative ways to connect, do our work and connect with our loved ones online in this time of physical distancing.
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Chaordic DesignÂ
In this course we explore the constant dance between Chaos and Order. As we are increasingly working with more uncertainty and more demands to design solutions adaptive and relevant in this complexity we need a good framework, which Chaordic design offers us.
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Hosting in Complexity
With Chris Corrigan we deepen our practice of working with complexity informed principles and practices for group facilitation and participatory process. We explore how to host emergence of meaning and self-organization for adaptive action.
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Leaning in to ConflictÂ
How do we build capacity to be with conflict in creative and generative ways, with kindness and courage at the center?
In this course we will explore what are we learning about working in the liminal space between conflict and collaboration?
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Developmental Evaluation
Developmental Evaluation can help us make sense in unpredictable and complex situations. In this course we explore how DE helps us learn and evaluate our progress as we go, informing our next steps
Join us in exploring a practical introduction to Developmental Evaluation!
COMING SOON
Evaluation in complexity
How do we know if what we do makes a difference?
It can be hard to know. We are deepening our understanding adaptive evaluation and why it matters. This course will increase your evaluation literacy and enable you to make better strategic decisions, building in the right kind of evaluation.
COMING SOON
The Art of Invitation
How do we build capacity to be with conflict in creative and generative ways, with kindness and courage at the center?
In this course we will explore what are we learning about working in the liminal space between conflict and collaboration?
COMING SOON
Course Compendiums
Part of our commitment to strengthening the community and our capacity to collaborate is to harvest the learning from our courses and make it available to all. (Compendiums are included in all our flex and real-time programs.) This is our current selection, but there are more on the way, so stay tuned!
"Fantastic event. Loved the content, the process & the technology. Pretty seamless. Thank you very much."
Randi
Participant
"I was very much struck by the phrase “Leave more community than you find”. I think this was really on my mind when I began the job and I hope in some way that is what we did."
EIMEAR MCNALLY
Participant
"Good to know so many interesting people are thinking about these things and willing to spend time sharing knowledge and questions."
Sharon
Participant
"Trust the collective wisdom within groups and allow it to emerge without bias. Thank you to Rowan, Amy, Viola, Chris and others for creating an amazing container for learning!"
Pawan
Participant
Beehive Memberships
Experience how you can strengthen your capacity to host meaningful conversations and processes in these times of chaos and uncertainty.
