The astonishing thing for me is that a bunch of strangers come together, and when they enter the room at BST they turn into friends. What is really not happening, is promotion or selling of one´s own ideas trying to make a point. This does not happen at BST. Everyone is focused on stories. And this makes it unique.
Petra Sammer

There are many ways to organize and curate conferences. And Beyond Storytelling does indeed call itself a conference. But there are a few things that set BST apart from traditional conferences, in which one-to-many interaction often take the best part of the program.

From our point of view – and inspired by our long-time involvement with other conferences, especially the Berlin Change Days – BST is a beautiful hybrid of different formats, with the aim to create a space in which learning from and with each takes center stage.

We invite and host carefully curated content: workshops, key notes and late stages. Content and contributions we selected to reflect the diversity of working with story around the theme of power.

Yet, we also offer open sessions in which participants and contributors can propose spontaneous sessions and invite other to create together, to explore and present interesting themes and topics. We believe that this balance is at the heart of what people describe as a powerful community experience.

And then there is our learning journey. Hosted and facilitated by the BST core team, it is a string of dialoge formats, small interventions and moments of reflection that foster networking, community building and the communal learning space that we are so proud of.

This year, we team up with Meike Ziegler to invite a special element into the learning journey: the power of ritual. Last week, I had the privilege to visit her in her studio in Berlin and talk about her work, creative rituals and her contribution to the BST learning journey. Enjoy!

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How to use dialogue, tension and conflict as a key for creative, collective growth

Creativity, innovation and transformation are phenomenas - we aim for - in each form of organization. In fact, they emerge out of diversity in groups. Just that, quite often, we fear the ‚difference’ rather than feeling attracted by it. Why?

The causal chain behind: the bigger the differences in groups, the higher the intensity of tension. And the more diversity, the bigger the number of tension fields. Finally, intense tension often leads into conflict.

No doubt, conflict is scaring. It is the most difficult part in a relationship. Furthermore, conflict rises emotions, whereas we like to have our feelings ‚under control’ and this especially in an organizational environment.

At this point, it is important to be aware that the avoidance of conflict causes emotional blocks. And as a consequence the emotions find subtle ways into bad moods, anger and/or depression. The more we oppress conflicts, the more we loose joy, creativity and connection. The philosopher Byung Chul Han explains this dynamic in his book ‚Agony of Eros’ describing a contemporary social depression as a result of our continuous search for 'pseudo' harmony by always focussing on commonalities and not giving space for differences.

A healthier and more sustainable attitude is a clear ‚Yes to the conflict’. Each conflict can be a source for creative energy and growth. If we successfully resolve or transform a conflict, it leads into creative energy and a deeper connection. This is the case regarding inner and relationship work in private and organizational life.

How do we deal with tensions and conflicts in organizations?

At the end of the 80ies Arnold Mindell developed the Deep Democracy approach and since then numerous facilitators apply it successfully in conflictual political but also Western organizational settings. Deep Democracy is a theoretical and methodological framework. It gives equally space for linear logic argumentation like for non linear emotional aspects of relationship work.

This means for a leader or facilitator to develop awareness and eldership to be able to

- give space for multiple perspectives

- enable interactions between different positions

- elaborate creative solutions

- deepen relationship

- create community spirit

A concrete Deep Democracy intervention for large groups is the so called Open Forum:

1. It starts with short warm up speeches (appr. 5min) to create a field of diverse opinions

2. In a next step the discussion opens up for the public so that broad range of opinions but also tensions and polarities get visible

3. Important is to include voices that are normally not easily expressed so called ‚ghost roles’

4. The deepening of one or more tension fields leads into a new understanding on both sides

5. The role of the facilitator is not to control but to support the process so that transformation becomes possible

Foto: Open Forum ‚Tutti a Casa’ at Lecce, Italien, Januar 2017

During our conference Beyond Storytelling, the 19th/20th of May in Heidelberg, we will at the end of Day 1 also conduct an Open Forum. The objective of this happening is to reflect the role of Storytelling in the current times of increasing populistic voices.

We want to invite you to cocreate the topic with us. Click the following link to see first topic proposals and to share your ideas:

http://www.beyondstorytelling.com/open-forum

We are looking forward to get your impulses!

B-onfire! Let the stories work!