It feels good to fight and argue, but when there’s no pressure to convince others or be convinced, we listen in ways that allow us to improve our communities.

It’s All in the Cards

City making, the weaving of city building and city caring, only happens when we have a social habitat in which we choose to weave these perspectives together.

Community Learning

We only organize together if we are in the push and pull of conversation, wrestling with the action we feel we need to take. If not, we are being organized, passive participants in the status quo doing others’ bidding.

Stepping into Vulnerability

An impromptu check-in invited awe in self, others and a beautiful place.

Change as a Verb

Beth has landed in perimenopause, asking herself the question she asks others everywhere she goes: How do I make my way through this transition with care and compassion? The answer is in thinking not of The Change but of changing. Change as a verb.

The Agony of Conversation

How do you design a public meeting when you believe that everyone has something to share, not just the vocal few?

Transition-Making is Choosing Changing

When we avoid sharing opportunities to make meaning of our experiences and make choices from the meaning we've made, we avoid the challenges and brilliance of community. And the choice, in every moment, rests with each of us. Choosing transition means choosing to participate in our changing.

Transition Bypassing

We want change to happen without changing ourselves, without having to do anything differently. Yet, choosing transition means choosing to participate in our changing.

Community Bypassing

When we avoid sharing opportunities to make meaning of our experiences and make choices from the meaning we’ve made, we avoid the challenges and brilliance of community.

Conversation Bypassing

Assuming that the expertise in the room is in one or a few people disables and minimizes the resilience of a community. In this article: 4 symptoms of conversation bypassing and 5 antidotes.

Art of Hosting, Civic Practice, Social ProximityBeth SandersFebruary 15, 2022Bypassing, Connection, Conversation, Art of HostingComment

Connection Bypassing

Whether online or in-person, how we gather fosters connection between people only when we design in opportunities for people to make contact with each other. When we don’t, we engage in connection bypassing.

Civic Practice, Art of Hosting, Social Proximity, Community BypassingBeth SandersJanuary 21, 2022Bypassing, Connection, Contact, Art of HostingComment

Explicit Agreements

Agreements about how we’ll talk and relate to each other are a commitment to be responsible for the quality of our relationships.

Art of Hosting, Civic PracticeBeth SandersDecember 3, 2021Agreements, Art of Hosting, Conversation, CircleComment

I Said YES to Evolving Professionals

To participate in the evolution of our cities and communities, city planners can no longer work the way they’ve worked for decades.

City Making, Civic Practice, Art of HostingBeth SandersNovember 15, 2021work, planning, planners, urban planning, evolution, Art of HostingComment

Prescribe AND Enable

In my quest to figure out how planners and everyone else in the city can work better together, I’ve learned the magic of finding the minimal critical structure that enables new possibilities.

Art of Hosting, Civic Practice, My WorkBeth SandersMarch 24, 2021Art of Hosting, Facilitation, city makingComment

Start Meetings with Good Listening

Most meetings involve getting to the meeting, having the meeting and then leaving. We pay little attention to how we arrive or how we leave; we zip in and out. This business as usual practice minimizes our attention to the topic and people at the meetings we attend and what we can accomplish.

Civic PracticeBeth SandersDecember 2, 2020check-in, circle, Community, engagement, Art of Hosting, FacilitationComment

Are We Aiming to Fix or Improve?

The energetic pattern of a gathering, both in how we design them ahead of time, or the dynamics during the gathering, need our constant attention. One of the ways I keep an eye on things is to ask: are we aiming to fix or improve?

The Expert Trap

Have you ever landed in the expert trap? I was really stuck a couple years ago: I started talking and talking and talking, not leaving any room for anyone else.

Civic Practice, Art of HostingBeth SandersOctober 21, 2020circle, Art of Hosting, participatory leadership, cities, engagement, communityComment

Meeting for Instructions or Discernment?

My favourite fire chief had a split personality. He recognized and practiced two kinds of meetings with his staff in the fire department: the ones where instruction are issued and the ones where the team sits back to listen to their own wisdom and then act accordingly.

Civic Practice, Art of HostingBeth SandersOctober 20, 2020Art of Hosting, Conversation, circle, EngagementComment

Fighting is Infectious

The choice at hand for each of us: Which infection do I choose to spread? The anger and frustration that comes with fight drama, or the generative possibility that comes with exploring conflict?

What If We Are Not Planning to Survive?

I have lost my desire to be in learning spaces that claim to be about community when they are not. I have a shift to make in my approach, as well as name the shift to the people with whom I am creating the learning habitat. The shift I must make is simple: from "me and community" to "me in community".

Stay in Touch