64. Hosting connection to help communities recover from trauma
Catastrophic flooding in Germany's Ahr valley in Germany has brought a wave of compassion, connection and recovery - including a series of garden parties.
This week’s Steps To A Humanity Of Organisation tell the remarkable story of the Ahr valley, the trauma suffered by its inhabitants following a natural disaster, and the work of Diana Ivanova in building a festival of garden parties along the river where so much damage was caused. Diana was one of the presenters at the 2024 Host Leadership Gathering in Sofia, Bulgaria. There is so much to appreciate, learn and delight in this tale; I am very pleased that Diana has agreed to let me share it with you.
The Ahr valley floods 2021
The Ahr river is a left-bank tributary of the Rhine in western Germany. Its source is in the region of Rhineland-Pfalz, running 89km into North Rhine-Westphalia. The valley was a picturesque place, popular with hikers and tourists and featuring many vineyards in idyllic settings.
On the night of 14-15 July 2021, all that changed. Unbelievably heavy rain fell, estimated at 100 -150 litres per square metre within a few hours (that’s 4 to 6 inches of rain for those more accustomed to such measures – unprecedented levels). Dramatic flooding occurred, bridges, houses and humanity were swept away, and 135 people lost their lives. The entire landscape was transformed at a stroke.
The financial damage was estimated at more than €40 billion – more than any other natural disaster in Germany’s history. Over 9,000 buildings and over 100 bridges were destroyed or severely damaged, and 17,000 people lost all their belongings. In total, around 10,000 businesses were affected by the flood. Around 165,000 people had no electricity or drinking water in the days that followed. The transport infrastructure was also affected; freeways were closed for several months in some cases and 600 kilometres of railway track were destroyed, according to Deutsche Bahn.
This disaster also took its toll on people. The trauma experienced by the inhabitants of the valley is hard to imagine. Families lost everything, their homes destroyed, their businesses wrecked, their friends and relatives dead or missing. Some have pointed to climate change as part of the cause. Whatever, many of the residents including Diana Ivanova decided to stay and rebuild. You can hear a BBC World Service radio documentary about the events here.
Rebuilding lives and communities
After the floods came what Diana calls the ‘Age of Compassion’. There was a lot of mutual concern, support, helping and sharing. Diana was among those who saw this natural tragedy as a chance to look at life differently. She was not an observer but one of the affected ones – and she decided to take the chance to examine how she herself, and those around her, were affected. She wrote:
I was able to feel, experience and understand for myself how the mind and body switch into a different mode when something ‘inconceivable’ suddenly happens.
As part of this exploration, Diana started a podcast, 89 Schritte (89 Steps). The name is partly a reference to the 89km length of the Ahr river. She talked to people from different parts of the valley about their experiences and what was helping them to cope and recover, as well as the trauma they had suffered. 28 podcasts were recorded between January 2022 and June 2023 and are still available. She says:
There are people like me here who see the flood also as a chance to do things differently.
Hosting Open Garden Parties
Through the interviews and meetings, Diana felt moved to expand her work to help people connect with each other, and with their work in rebuilding their homes and lives. What better place to meet than in gardens – normally a private space, but one which could be opened for neighbours and strangers to meet, connect, relax and talk. Many of the gardens had been destroyed, the owners had spent time and effort rebuilding them and were (of course) keen to share the results of their work. Diana says:
The private garden was the perfect place for conversations - small enough to remain trauma sensitive, but open, natural and inviting.
These garden parties could take many forms. Diana set out the ground rules at the start:
Any garden owner who wanted to participate could contact her through a website and media announcements
Each garden owner decided how many people to invite (max. 25-30) and what to offer - a reading, a concert, homemade cakes, a lecture, a garden tour
We then built the programme together in constant communication
Every garden owner can recommend other gardeners and friends.
This was all done by invitation. Diana told us that she has a simple motto:
There is no ‘must’ – only ‘could’.
What a wonderful way to use the soft (and compelling) power of invitation to encourage people to get involved. In the first year (2023) there were 15 garden parties, with the motto ‘Experience in the Ahr valley in a new way’. Every one of events was fully booked! The garden owners were inspired, the press carried the story enthusiastically, and Diana and two colleagues published a little book ‘Garden Life’ about the events. Diana also edited and published a book, Das Ahrtal des Mitgefühls: 89 Fragmente aus dem Leben nach der Flut (The Ahr Valley of Compassion: 89 Fragments from Life After the Flood) in November 2023.
For 2024 there are 27 parties planned (nearly double), and this time there Diana is encouraging the owners/hosts to focus on one of two topics: the effects of climate change, and the sharing of gardening skills. She also attends every event! What a great host leader.
Host Leadership in action
At the end of her workshop, all the participants gave Diana a ‘positive gossip’ comment about what had impressed them about this wonderful, human initiative. We discussed how Diana had been using the six roles of a host leader, which I defined with Helen Bailey in our book Host: Six new roles of engagement for teams, organisations, communities and movements (Solutions Books, 2014, available in both paperback and Kindle formats).
Initiator: Diana had the initial idea and got the project underway with some clear priorities and an overarching purpose (to help people reconnect and heal themselves in their gardens)
Inviter: She proceeded to engage garden hosts in the project and to help them set up their garden parties. (“There is no ‘must’ – only ‘could’…)
Space Creator: Diana encouraged people to create spaces in their gardens, and also created an overarching space for the project to exist in many places at once under one banner. The choice of gardens is really inspired and inspiring.
Gatekeeper: Diana set out some ‘house rules’ about the number of people, what might happen, that guests should book, and how the events might play out. She wanted to encourage connection and dialogue in a natural way in a natural setting.
Connector: These events helped to connect Diana with the hosts, the hosts with their guests and the guests with each other. Diana was also plugging into ‘wise interconnectedness’; she realised at the outset that there were many potential benefits from these garden parties, from simple mutual recognition to deep-felt healing and renewal.
Co-participator: And Diana went to all the parties! What a great example of helping to host something into existence and then joining in as a guest, not a hero.
I’ll leave the last work to Diana. She closed her presentation with a powerful idea:
Compassion changes perspective: Hospitality is most important: Leadership follows.
Dates and Mates
I will be leading a rare face-to-face workshop on Solutions Focus 2.0 and Host Leadership this weekend at the SySt Institute in Munich, Germany (22-23 June 2024). The workshop will be in English with German translation. Insa Sparrer and Matthias Varga, the founders of the SySt institute, will be joining me for what is always a fascinating and thought-provoking (as well as practical) seminar.
Next week (26 June 2024) is the last in the present series of Steps To A Humanity Of Organisation. I will be having a summer break during July and August. The Substack will return on Wednesday 4th September 2024.