By Finn Voldtofte, 2005

(Nine) Practices to Engage the Magic in the Middle
It is essential to understand that the magic in the middle is more than an idea. It is a reality that can be experienced, and which I may have a poorer or a better ability to recognise, participate in and possibly to take leadership of engaging in my organisation. As such it is very appropriate to ask: Which practices can help me and my people to engage the magic in the middle?

With a practice I think of something that has been established through a mixture of attitude, behaviour and experienced ability to act. It is more than just a good idea that I might take up some time; more concrete than an ideal or a behavioural norm. I point to nine practices that each contribute to engaging the magic in the middle:

2. Inquiry
To be able to go to the edge of ones knowledge and to stand being in a field of not-knowing.

To be able to leave one’s field of “already- knowing”, including opting out on making everything fit or not fit with mental models that I carry with me.

To let go of the need to pass the judgement “right” or “wrong”.

To be able to wait and see what happens, rather than making “what is this useful for?” a criteria for evaluation.

It is easy enough to say, “to be inquiring”, it is harder to do – it takes experience, self-insight, social skills and more to master inquiry as a practice.

2. Stretch
To take steps that reach further.

To go beyond what I already know or dare.

To stretch takes courage, because there is always a risk of not being met, under- stood, wanted, or of not succeeding.

Each “now”, each situation I am in, contains a possibility for stretching. I need not wait for a particularly good opportunity to practice stretch.

3. Reflection on Process
To be able to, and to dare reflect on, what is between us right now.

When you do that, you risk feeding on yourselves – conversation about conversation about conversation… But there is also a possibility for uplifting the meeting.

4. Listening to What is Emerging
Collective wisdom is an emerging entity. The more we have the ability to listen to what is emerging, the more we can help it surge with our attention.

5. Ego Understanding
The ego feels threatened, when I step into a field with magic. To be able to recognize and understand ego reactions is helpful in choosing to let go of them.

6. Experience with the Difference between Individual and Collective
What arises in the field, we might lose when we leave the field again. Knowledge is structured in consciousness. Knowledge that has arisen in a collective consciousness, cannot be contained fully by individual consciousness.

The more we understand the phenomenon, the better we can contain that there is a difference between what we can know together, and what we can know individually.

7. Warm Up
What can I do in advance in order to improve my ability to be completely present in a meeting?

How can I prepare myself, so that I can contribute to the inquiry?

8. Commitment
The decision to close the “backdoors”, and thus make myself completely available for being in the field.

9. Magic-Meter
To have ability and experience with measuring the magic in the meeting in order to learn from the variations. The ability can become a reliable evaluation in unison, of the level of magic.

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This is the fifth of six weekly posts taken from an Introduction to Magic in the Middle written by the late Finn Voldtofte in March of 2005 (click the following links to go directly to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, or Part 6).

Finn was one of the original co-founders of the World Café. He worked tirelessly with Juanita Brown to distill and articulate the World Café Design Principles that underlie all World Café practice. Finn was an amazing human being who inspired and touched many, many people on a profound level. His articulation of the “Magic in the Middle” is still one of the most evocative descriptions of what makes World Café “work” and we are honored to publish his words here in this crucial time, when they ring as truly & eloquently as ever.