Conversation Circles

CCEU Key:  CC = core competencies / PD = personal development / BD = business development & marketing / OT = other tools & skills

Deepening Our Inquiry, Developing Community

How many times during a conference have you wanted an opportunity to reflect on what you're learning, to extend and deepen the conversation about key questions, or to explore shared interests with other coaches from around the world in a relaxed setting designed to foster more meaningful connection?

This year, Conversation Circles will provide these opportunities and more. Enjoy the hospitality of the Coaching Café while discovering how powerful processes like appreciative inquiry, council, and the World Café make possible the same qualities we value in our coaching – intimate connection, engagement at depth, and ways of speaking and listening that take us to the edge of our knowing and beyond.

In the Conversation Circles – a blend of planned and emergent dialogues taking place throughout the conference – we'll probe critical, cutting-edge topics in the profession and questions that emerge real-time during the conference. Using processes specifically designed to weave the threads of personal insight into the tapestry of collective wisdom, we'll co-create both our shared space and the approaches we use to explore the "big questions" that stretch us all and help you integrate new perspectives from other conference sessions.

You'll meet new people and plant the seeds for enduring community that goes beyond the conference.

Conversation Circles will be co-hosted by Craig Neal of the Heartland Circle and Tom Hurley of the World Cafe Community Foundation, both of whom have decades of experience helping deepen the conversation and develop community in groups and organizations across all sectors.

Tune your ear to what's happening in the Conversation Circles and drop by regularly!

Questions include:

• What does Coaching 2.0 look like?
• What's the soul of coaching – and how do we integrate spirit into our work more deeply?
• What is coaching's place in the world – and how do we deepen our impact?
• How are you integrating insights from the conference?
• What are the conversations you would most like to engage in?  Tell us!

Continuing the Keynote Conversation
Thursday, November 13, 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. / 11:00 - 12:00
CCEU:  1.0 CC /.50 PD

Enter into deeper dialog on questions, themes, and perspectives raised by the Vandana Shiva's keynote address.  Engage new questions, possibilities and perspectives with your colleagues.

What is the Soul of Coaching and How Do We Integrate Spirit More Deeply Into Our Work? 
Thursday, November 13, 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. / 14:00 - 15:30
CCEU:  1.0 CC /.50 PD

This year's conference has been intentional in bringing more exploration of the integration of body, mind, and spirit.  This Conversation Café will give people a chance to explore questions of spirit and coaching in more depth and to share insights, learning, and practice, with peers. The limit of where this conversation may go is only bounded by the courage of those who participate in this session.

Conversation for Insight & Integration
Thursday, November 13, 3:45 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. / 15:45 - 17:15
CCEU:  1.0 CC /.50 PD

This end of day session will give you a chance to reflect what you have learned throughout the conference.  Using conversation methodologies we will absorb, integrate and deepen the learning and share personal insights with your peers.  At the end of the day there is so much richness, how do we harvest the wisdom  and integrate it into our practice? How can we share and grow from the multiple perspectives of peers?  This is a place to do all this and even learn from sessions you did not attend.

Being in Community
Saturday, November 15, 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. / 14:00 - 15:30
CCEU:  1.0 CC /.50 PD

As coaches how do we build stronger, more vibrant community? How do we build our coaching community?  What community do we long for as coaches?  How can we build a more inclusive coaching community? These are just some of the possible questions we may address.  Come be part of the conversation.  We will open with using the Using Wisdom Council Process to engage each other and evolve where the conversation wants to go.

Continuing Community Beyond the Conference 
Saturday, November 15, 3:45 p.m. - 5:15 p.m./ 15:45 - 17:45
CCEU:  1.0 CC /.50 PD

This is an opportunity to take what's begun at conference to the next level and beyond – to move the dialogue forward, to expand and deepen it, and to grow the communities that support and sustain it.  In this final Conversation Circle we will explore any and all facets of how we can extend community and the learning conversation beyond the time and space of the conference.  Possible questions might be:

• What conversations do you want to continue? 
• Who do you want to remain in community with?
• What lessons or themes do you want to take further? 
• How can we extend the learning and community beyond the conference?

There is no need for the community and learning to end with the conference.  This is your opportunity to take the experience forward.