For More Information: The World Café, www.theworldcafe.com
Purpose:
To foster the conditions for the emergence of collective intelligence by engaging people in dynamic strategic conversations around questions that matter to their lives and work.
Outcomes:
• Surfaces unquestioned assumptions
• Redefines the relationship between talk and action and reveals conversation as core process for creating business/social value
• Clarifies the relationship of strategic questions, catalytic conversations, and networks of relationships in change efforts
• Fosters “coherence without control” among diverse stakeholders, even in very large groups
When to Use:
• Generate input, share knowledge, stimulate innovative thinking, and explore action possibilities around real-life issues and questions
• Engage people who are meeting for the first time in authentic conversation
• Conduct an in-depth exploration of key strategic challenges and opportunities
• Deepen relationships and mutual ownership of outcomes in an existing group
• Create meaningful interaction between a speaker and the audience
• Invite all voices into the conversation
When Not to Use:
• Driving toward an already determined outcome, solution, or answer
• To convey only one-way information or to do implementation plans
• Have less than 90 minutes or fewer than 12 people
Number of Participants:
• 12–1,000s with no upper limit in theory
Types of Participants:
• Diverse voices and perspectives on key issues
Typical Duration:
• Preparation: Less than 1 day to several months
• Process: 2 hours to several days. Regular ongoing Cafés may unfold over months or years
• Follow-up: As determined by designers, host, and participants
Brief Example:
When faced with a budget shortfall, the Museum of Science and Industry used café dialogues to discover innovative revenue-producing programs enabling them to end fiscal year 2003 with a $267,000 surplus.
Historical Context:
Discovered in 1995 by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs with colleagues. Grounded in patterns of community organizing and the spread of social movements. Underpinnings include research by David Bohm, Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, Christopher Alexanderl, Fritjof Capra, Meg Wheatley, and other approaches to dialogue and collective consciousness. Deep commitment to democratic ideals.
 The World Cafe
|
