As coaches, consultants, facilitators and project supporters, how we show up matters. In addition to what we do and the skills and tools we use, our presence and ability to hold space make a difference. As William Brown famously put it: "the success of any intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener.”
We took this as the central topic of our Working Days, our annual offsite with which we always mark the return to work after summer break. These retreats are always different, as are the topics. This time, we turned them into a kind of Summer School on: ‘Being the Work: The Art and Craft of Holding Space’.
Together, we explored this dimension of our craft by learning from each other as well as from some inspirational guests:
- We worked on our presence with embodied exercises, supported by the wonderful trainers from PresentU.
- We all filled out MyTalentBuilder, the talent test that colleagues Joep and Koen upgraded together with Lannoo and Luk, and explored how our strengths shine through in how each of us shows up (and how they can also be our pitfalls...).
- We shared surprising stories on topics like how we create a warm welcome even before a meeting starts, how we use the power of place or how we tend to endings.
- Seasoned team coach Rene Meijer inspired us to reflect on what we do in ‘moments of discomfort’: what makes us uncomfortable? And how can we find our way to our ‘middle position’, in such moments, so we can hold space for whatever the group needs at that moment (room for playing, designing, holding difficult conversations, emotions...)? #wuwei
At the end, Bart van Rosmalen helped us harvest what we learned on how to stay close to ourselves and to our colleagues, and how to be present with the people we support in the meetings and conversations we host. He held a space for reflection using not only his questions and stories, but also his cello. His music helped us explore beyond words.
Of course, there was also room for fun, games, walks and holiday stories! All in all, we left the days energized and ready for the new work season.
