The 8 Breaths of Process Architecture: First Breath: THE CALL

The 8 Breaths of Process
Architecture
Over the years many hosts have seen their work with different (larger scale) initiatives as a
sequence of different ‘breaths’, different phases of divergence and convergence. This
iterative flow has become known among practitioners as the ‘Eight Breaths’. As we learn
through reflecting on our work, this pattern will no doubt become clearer.
First Breath: THE CALL

Name the issue: surfacing the core question - birth of the callers
We have notice that there is always ‘a caller’, a person who deeply holds a question, sees a
problem or an opportunity, feels a challenge. Sometimes there are several callers. The
callers are the ones who invite the host(s) to help them.
Wise action: Focus the chaos of holding the collective uncertainty and fear - step into the
centre of the disturbance. Don’t move too fast.
Question: What is really at stake here? What if some of us worked together to surface the
real question and need that matters to the community?
When the caller has committed to call the process, we can go to the next phase/breath.
Second Breath: CLARIFY

Creating the ground: The callers and hosts work to create collective clarity of purpose and
the first articulation of principles
Wise action: engagement
Don’t make assumptions
Question: How to get from need to purpose? What is our purpose? How to see and feed the
group value?
This phase is over once the core of clarity has emerged.
Third Breath: INVITE
Giving form and structure: design and invitation process
Wise action: keep checking to be sure your design and invitation serve the purpose. Don’t make
your design too complex (match it to the purpose)
Question: How do we invite people to participate in a way that moves them to show up? How do
we let go of our expectations that certain people need to be there?
The meeting has been designed, a larger group of stakeholders has been invited, a good meeting
space has been found: it’s time to meet!
Fourth Breath: MEET …

Meeting: Conversation
Wise Action: our role is to host the group, the purpose, and the questions. Don’t go alone.
Question: How can I best serve as the instrument/container to allow the collective wisdom to
emerge?
…and make meaning together
When the meeting is done, the group of stakeholders find collective meaning and start to co-
create. This is where the harvest is important—to capture key messages and insights and make
sense of them
Fifth Breath: HARVEST – MAKE SENSE AND MEANING

Callers & Core / Harvesting team - harvest the harvest of the assembly and make the needed wise
decisions for the wiser way forward in all directions
Sixth Breath: ACT

Practice: Perform the wise actions decided on during the conversation and harvest. Follow-up—
continued learning and leading from the field
Wise Action: Always come back to purpose Don’t lose sight of the purpose or it won’t be
embodied
Question: How do we sustain the self-organisation?
Here the seed of community gets born, and the results are a connectedness between the
stakeholders and wiser actions.
Seventh Breath: REFLECT AND LEARN

Reflection in the core team and with key stakeholders. What have we learned? Have we gained
results in alignment with need and purpose? What are the next long term steps? Helpful reflection
questions might also be: What? So what? Now what? (More exercises on collective reflection here:
www.nationalserviceresources.org/filemanager/.../615/nwtoolkit.pdf)
From here the next calling question arises…
Eighth Breath: THE BREATH THAT HOLDS THE WHOLE

The eagle practitioners & perspective - hosting and sensing the whole – being aware of all the 7
breaths, tending to the long-term intent and the wisdom of the actions & practices of this
community of practitioners and the well being of everyone in this systems.
Although the above is a step by step description, the process is not linear but rather cyclical, and
making sense (harvesting), reflecting on alignment to purpose and next wise steps happens
throughout the process.
(version June 2012 by Monica Nissen and Simone Tiesinga-Poutnik)

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The 8 Breaths of Process

First Breath: THE CALL

Second Breath: CLARIFY

Fourth Breath: MEET …

Fifth Breath: HARVEST – MAKE SENSE AND MEANING

Sixth Breath: ACT

Seventh Breath: REFLECT AND LEARN

Eighth Breath: THE BREATH THAT HOLDS THE WHOLE

(version June 2012 by Monica Nissen and Simone Tiesinga-Poutnik)

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