A Journey of a Thousand Dojos
My friends and I have started a dojo. What that means and to what ends, we are still imagining. Most are new to the concept, though I have a fair amount of experience hosting, facilitating, and participating in dojos. Leading up to our first meeting, we knew we wanted to have a few consistent themes:
- Facilitation practice (made possible with liberal use of Liberating Structures)
- Topics that relate to our work (agile coaching - in its broadest possible terms)
- Interactive experiences that allow everyone to learn, share, and practice each session
In our first meeting, we hoped to define our intentions better. I had planned to offer the Purpose to Practice (P2P) technique sprinkled with 1, 2, 4, All, with each dojo participant having the opportunity to practice facilitating the group using 1, 2, 4, All for a particular segment of P2P, but I didn’t have a plan for how to begin and I hadn’t shared this weakly structured agenda with anyone. I was winging it, and I’m glad I did.
We spent a great deal of the meeting in organic conversation, experiencing and reflecting on the differences between coaching conversations, networking events, friends hanging out, and an intentionally facilitated dojo. The focus we gained through those conversations was invaluable. It clarified what each of us wanted and needed from the dojos, as well as what we must attend to and protect for ourselves and others if the dojos are to be truly beneficial.
I think we arrived at better understanding of what our dojo could be, even though we ran out of time for everyone to practice facilitating and we still have a few components of P2P to cover. Maybe that’s one of the nice things about dojos and communities: the inherent sense of belonging makes it okay to leave things open-ended and invites enthusiasm in coming back together, in knowing there is something we may yet still achieve and a fulfilling journey for us that stretches around the corner.