Workshop structure
Our main objective in this residential workshop is to create an environment that is explorative, creative, and collaborative. Rather than privileging presentations of already well established techniques, attitudes, concepts, or methods we are wanting to foster an encounter that supports the exploration of what is at the edge of your knowing, rich in fecundity and possibilities even when tentative and subtle.
The atmosphere of deep listening and open support that we will create as a group of diverse professionals generates its own creative energy. We have found that when the program of the workshop is set well ahead of time, this creative energy does not have a chance to bring its fruits, as it remains “squished” into an already set structure and at most can leak out in breaks between presentations.
We intend to give central stage to the excitement and inspiration that takes place at the moment of our actual meeting and that is fully responsive to our living. We have thus created a process-structure that can support a full spectrum of interactions and be responsive to the different needs we may have as individuals in our professional journeys.
We invite you to nurture a sense of a project—something meaningful to you in your work—before coming to Boldern, noticing what in you wants to be shared in the setting we are providing. By not formally sending in a presentation proposal you will be able to be responsive to the transformation that may occur before our meeting, and then sense freshly into the whole as we meet.
Processes
We have identified 4 main processes in relation to a person’s professional growth and need of support/sharing in the workshop setting. Each process is then paired up with one or more process-structure/format. Please read on and this will become clear.
Incubating: in this phase a person or a group wants to work on something, but they are still unclear as to what this something is. We want to set up a process that opens and protects a space of subtle explorations, of careful sensing into impulses and ideas so that slowly out of non-form some kind of form (or process, or content, or structure) will arise. The incubation lets something NEW emerge and find the next steps toward development and materialization. We have found that Focusing partnerships are the best process-structure for this phase of the creative process.
Stimulating: in this phase a person, or a dyad or small group offers a stimulation for further exploration. The “stimulator” acts as an initiator and catalyst, offering a process or an inquiry to a small group of experimenters. A stimulation can be structured into two phases: an offering phase, in which the initiator provides a stimulus to the group, and an explorative phase in which the group takes time to process the stimulation and contribute further exploration. A workshop format is the best process-structure for this phase.
Collaborating: a trio or a group of four to eight people sets out to explore a process or a theme together. The collaboration can start at the incubation phase, or at a more definite stage. A mixture of focusing partnerships and group process is the best process-structure for this phase.
Documenting: in our previous MAE gathering we have found the need to document the arising insights of the processes we are engaging in, so as to be able to share these insights outside of the MAE event, taking them back to our communities. We have found that the process of documenting and journaling together actually creates new insights, giving us the opportunity to slow down and integrate what we are discovering and learning. We will ask for your creative collaboration in finding ways to introduce this mode of processing in our meeting.
Process-structures
We call process-structure a processual framework that helps structure interactions during a meeting, and will allow us to create this event together, as we meet in Boldern. A process-structure directs our attention to ways of generating and processing information: like Focusing itself the emphasis is not on content, but on process.
Focusing partnerships are equalitarian relationships that foster a protective environment responsive to a subtle process of sensing into what is still forming, vulnerable, subtle, and incipient. Through a spacious back and forth between felt sensing and symbolization via sound, images, touch and language, slowly something emerges and is given its own time to grow into form. Focusing partnerships can take place in dyads, trios, or in the presence of a witnessing group.
Stimulating Workshops are a way to create a live experiment that involves the creative feedback of participants. In these explorations we set up particular situations of learning and experiencing (offering phase), and foster the responsiveness of participants to further refine our investigations (explorative phase). Participants agree to be supportive and gentle in their responses.
Collaborative Groups are groups of participants that form to “incubate” together or explore a particular technique, idea, process, attitude, etc. We have a way of supporting the formation of collaborative groups at the beginning of our event. Collaborative groups can also form at any time during the event, in response to workshops or to the enthusiasm of a focusing dyad.
Journaling/Documenting sessions are dedicated to personal and group journaling, taking time to savor and season our experiences. As groups we will document our process for later sharing in the plenary, at times simplifying our findings to their very essence, at times elaborating and discriminating further.
Plenary Sessions are the way in which we will meet as one group, first to create the schedule of the whole event, and then to share in what we have been exploring and are developing.