Vertical Facilitation
The Practitioner’s Forum
Starts April 10!
As a graduate of the Deep Dive, perhaps this is you:
You're wanting to continue the work (both inner and outer) you were doing in the Deep Dive, but integrate it into your real-world work and life.
You want to get together regularly with colleagues who are at least as committed to continuing the work as you are.
At the same time, you would like to have the benefit of coaching and teaching with Michael.
You have limited time (for reading and homework) and resources.
You need to have some degree of flexibility in your schedule.
If any of these are true for you, you probably want to be in the Vertical Facilitator Practitioner's Forum.
The Practitioner's Forum provides solid coaching and on-going support to help you stay steady in your Stand, and in your confident capacity to bring the power of vertical facilition to your real-world work--and life.
Low cost. No homework. Minimal reading. Just lots of solid coaching and impactful interaction.
The primary aim of the Practitioner’s Forum is to support and inspire you in the face of the challenges that arise as you continue to integrate the distinctions and practices of vertical facilitation into your life and work.
The Structure of the Practitioner’s Forum
To make this real, we’ve crafted a minimal structure that seeks only what is needed to provide a rich shared learning experience, in order to minimize the demands on your time and budget while not compromising the depth of engagement and learning necessary to sustain the integrity of the Forum.
The Basic Structure
It is ongoing and continuous: as long as there is sufficient enrollment (minimum of 4 people), it stays alive
It is emergent and responsive to the challenges and concerns which people bring to the Forum. There is no curriculum and no ‘homework’, except that which participants assign to themselves.
There is an entry point at the beginning of each month during which people may join the cohort.
Once you join, we ask that you commit to a minimum of 4 months. This helps preserve a modicum of continuity, while at the same time keeping things relatively flexible and dynamic.
There are two (zoom) sessions per month. Each session is two hours. One session of each month is dedicated to sharing with, and feedback from one another, and from one of the Forum facilitators (Tilman or Michael). The other session will feature a key piece of teaching, plus live coaching, with Michael. The teaching and the coaching in these sessions will be related to whatever seems to be relevant for people in the cohort at that time.
In addition, there will be occasional ‘extra’ sessions led by Michael (and any of you!) in which we will dive more deeply into topics that are emergently relevant to what is happening for people in the environment.
The idea of The Practitioner’s Forum is really quite simple: a lightweight environment for busy people who don’t have the time and budget to devote to a more rigorous and demanding course, but are still looking for more than an occasional “webinar”.
An environment in which people regularly experiment, reflect, practice, and deepen together with others. An environment of commitment and trust--but also one in which the distinctions and practices you developed in the Deep Dive are all the more deepened and made relevant to your particular situations and circumstances.
Your Commitment
Given the lightweight nature of The Forum, three anchoring forces are key to its success.
First is Integrity, which is the practice of honoring those (relatively) minimal commitments we make as a cohort. In a learning environment such as this, in which the basic tenets of its structure are relatively light-weight, integrity is all-the-more critical. In keeping the demands to a minimum, we must ask that people honor that to which they commit here with integrity and rigor.
The second is Facilitation: that someone is present who holds the space of the container in ways that activate shared learning and insight, and that provide gentle support for the commitments of the cohort.
The third is the anchoring force of relevant Teaching: that new distinctions and ideas are brought forward that serve to stimulate new thinking and insight in relation to specific issues and concerns that arise within the space of the cohort. .
All-too-often, collective gatherings like this fall apart and lose their power for impact, due to insufficient anchoring.
We assert, especially, that when integrity is high, a lot can be done with very little.
For this reason, we ask that each participant commit to the following minimal agreements:
You show up at least once a month to a scheduled session, noting of course that you will gain maximal benefit when you attend all scheduled sessions.
You share at least twice a month in the community space (Mighty Networks) and respond substantively at least two times per month to other peoples sharing.
You will have an accountability and sharing buddy with whom you’ll regularly be in touch (“regularly” means that both of you experience being well supported in the relationship).
You are prepared to declare a Bigger Game. This Bigger Game is a particular area of development and/or learning to which you commit for the duration of your participation in the program.
You complete a single reading (which will be given prior to starting) before the second session.
Once four months have elapsed, a participant can elect to stay on for an additional four months, or leave (with grace and love, of course) the Forum.
Key Take-Aways
The Practitioner’s Forum is designed to support you in translating the insights and developmental shifts you experienced (and continue to experience) in the Deep Dive, into practices and actions that generate real, observable outcomes in the world, while at the same time, continue to deepen and consolidate those insights and shifts.
Here are some of the kinds of take-aways you can expect out of your participation:
You will gain greater confidence in your ability to bring about moments of transformative insight for others.
You notice shifts happening around you that you can confidently attribute to your own flowering as a vertical facilitator.
You will playfully work together within a social container that is powerfully committed to everyone’s learning and development.
You will continue to develop yourself not only in your work, but in your relationships, your creativity, and ultimately your life.
You will have greater clarity as to who you are in relation to your Stand.
You will have ways of working through day-to-day situations and circumstances that challenge you to act in congruence with your Stand.
Your Facilitators
Michael Hamman is dedicated to the possibility that the workplace be a site for personal, professional and social transformation. Trained in the 1980s in coaching and large group facilitation, Michael went on to train in systems thinking and methods, group dynamics and facilitation, professional and executive coaching, and in human and organization development. He is a decades-long student of the nature of human transformation, both in himself and in others.
His book, Evolvagility: Growing an Agile Leadership Culture from the Inside Out integrates this rich and varied background and experience, and provides a blueprint for what it means to be an agile leader in today’s complex world.
Tilman Bergt is a stand for the possibilities that grow through speaking from and to a fundamental crisis. He has been working with IT Teams and Organizations as Agile Coach, Scrum Master, OKR Coach, Projekt Manager and Coaching Leaders on a invidual basis.
His approach to working with teams and individuals is deeply rooted in three realms: vertical facilitation, shadow work and zen.
Tilman is part of The Bold Setup, an Agile Coach collective in Munich, Germany.
Pricing
The normal cost of the Practitioners Forum is $550 for four months, payable up-front or in two installments.
However, for the month of April and May we offering two months for free.
For those who pay the full four months, your payment will apply to six months.
Cancellations
When people drop out of something like this, it creates great disruptions. This is part of the reason why we keep the level of commitment, in terms of time, relatively easy-going--we want you to stay once you commit. As such, though we will work with someone if they absolutely need to drop out before completion of their 4 months, we will have a high bar for offering full or partial refunds.
Upcoming Dates for The Practitioner’s Forum
The Practitioner’s Forum is an ongoing, emergent learning ecosystem that meets roughly twice per month. Currently there is no end-date. People can join at any time, at the beginning of a given month. Once they join, they agree to commit to a minimum of four months.
The scheduled dates for the first four months are given below.
Currently all sessions fall on Thursdays. We are scheduled to start on April 10. Here’s the schedule for the first three months.
Thursday April 10, 9am - 11am US ET / 15 - 17 CET
Thursday April 24, 9am - 11am US ET / 15 - 17 CET
Thursday May 8, 9am - 11am US ET / 15 - 17 CET
Thursday May 22, 9am - 11am US ET / 15 - 17 CET
Thursday June 5, 9am - 11am US ET / 15 - 17 CET
Thursday June 19, 9am - 11am US ET / 15 - 17 CET
Register for the Practitioner’s Forum
Get on the Wating List for the Next Practitioner’s Forum
Once you sign up, you will receive an email with guidance on how to get started. We will also contact you to set up a brief 20-minute orientation call with either Michael or Tilman