The World Cafe Community

Questions for all World Cafe members

2014-05-17T12:12:58.939Z

The problems that face the people and planet are horrendous and yet we seem unable to frame a practical plan that we could use to address the challenge - a tremendous challenge that needs a worldwide effort.

It is obvious that our current political systems, institutions and corporations have failed us and that we collectively need to take a decidedly different course of action if we hope to stem devastating global collapse of ecosystems and societies. As I see it, the answer has to come through the actions of a small part of society with a long range, all encompassing, 25 year plan.

Presently we try to address a million battles from a million fronts. We need to fight this from a united front. We are simply too fragmented in our efforts to be effective.

I have some ideas on my web site http://civsimundi.net Please feel free to review the ideas there.

The key is in establishing a plan that is acceptable to the people who must bear the consequences of its implantation. With that in mind I propose a number of questions for debate and resolution as follows.

Perhaps these questions could be presented to student bodies or printed in student newspapers world wide. One way or another, they need answers.

Let it be resolved that the people of the planet are willing, or not willing, to act decisively to save the planet and to improve the welfare of all who dwell everywhere on the planet.
Let it be resolved that “we within this generation” are the last generation that can be effective at identifying, prioritizing, promoting and demanding solutions.
Let it be resolved that we indeed have enough knowledge within the database of existing orgs, NGOs and other groups with which to collectively make informed decisions.
Let it be resolved that our political systems and institutions have failed us and that we need to find a decidedly new course of action where all initiative and corrective action comes through the will of the people.
Let it be resolved that the time has passed for writing about it, reading about it and talking about it and time to collectively do something real and tangible.
Let it be resolved that we are presently fragmented and ineffective in resolving today’s appalling problems in a timely manner.
Let it be resolved that we are ineffective at preparing, presenting and garnering wide support for issues.
Let it be resolved that social media in its present form could be, or could not be, effective in gathering public input and opinion, and for presenting petitions for public acceptance.
Let it be resolved that a new worldwide social media site dedicated solely to the issues of resolving social problems and addressing the environmental concerns is possible, practical and essential.
Let it be resolved that we have the worldwide talent and capability of having a site presented and maintained in all necessary languages.
Let it be resolved that all of our worldwide problems and concerns can be categorized and entered into a single manageable format.
Let it be resolved that the following are, or are not, suitable categories — Air Quality, Democracy/Voting, Drugs, Energy, Farming/Forestry, Fishing/Whaling, Food, Genetic Engineering, Health, Human Rights, Land/Soil, Mining, Non-personages, Nuclear Issues, People’s Commons/natural resources, Plastic Dangers, Population, Public Broadcasting/Freedom of speech/Right to Knowledge, Species, Toxins, Trade and Labor, Transportation, Waste/ Recycle, Water Resources, Uncategorized. (See http://stopstopstop.org and http://civismundi.net)
Let it be resolved that issues within each category could be, and should be, prioritized by debate and consensus.
Let it be resolved that every category shall have equal weight within the final plan.
Let it be resolved that each and every category shall present one petition for review and public support in each and every country on the planet at the same time each and every year (at least once).
Let it be resolved that submitting a publically endorsed and signed petition/plebiscite to all legislative bodies worldwide is, or is not, possible or practical.
Let it be resolved that an environmental problem in one country is a problem for all of us worldwide.
Let it be resolved that we need to act with one voice and under one easily recognizable worldwide banner with one worldwide mission and not become further fragmented in this planning process.
Let it be resolved that we need to act now, as time is our unforgiving enemy.

Sincerely,

Matthew Foster world at golden dot net

Long Term Impasse at a Manufacturing Company Resolved With Two Hour World Cafe

2014-04-27T20:43:30.328Z

The wonderful Kathy Jourdain wrote & shared this story with us, about how Alanna Kennedy at Emerson (a manufacturing plant in St Paul, MN) used what she learned at a World Cafe learning program co-hosted by Jerry Nagel and Amy Lenzo (yours truly) to make a big impact within her company.

Exciting stuff! Thank you Alanna, and thank you Kathy!

Long Term Impasse at a Manufacturing Company Resolved With Two Hour World Cafe

"Deconstructed" Virtual World Cafe on Thriving Resilient Communities

2014-04-25T21:45:26.967Z

I have been experimenting over the past six months or so with a "deconstructed" form of virtual World Cafe, in which the rounds take place over a series of separate MaestroConference calls tied together by the use of the online platform "hackpad, which provides a "home base."

The latest iteration of this process included four live ninety-minute conversations from April 7-April 17, plus an additional period for some final posting online and a harvest/report that was completed on 4/24. The record for the whole conversation can be accessed here, including background information and context, notes from each call, harvests in four categories and the overall harvest/report. There's also a nifty soundtrack!

The conversation, dubbed the "Big Story/Big Money Cafe," was convened on behalf of the core circle of the "Thriving Resilient Communities Collaboratory," as a way of seeding conversation for our upcoming in-person retreat from 4/27-29. It was small by World Cafe standards--thirteen people participated to varying degrees, some joining all four calls, others only one or two. One person participated solely online.

The format allowed us to organize the entire conversation with only about ten days notice and to accommodate diverse schedules. It also provided time for design reflections in between "rounds" (i.e. calls) so that the process could be adapted as we went along. This led to continued refinement of our context setting throughout the process, a reframing of our core questions after the first round, the addition of a brief "Big Story" offering from a selected participant in each of rounds 2, 3 and 4, and the introduction of a "dissent" conversation into rounds 3 and 4.

Overall, I believe this approach offers a way for a group that is truly committed to an outcome to go quite deep, reflecting between rounds and reading through one another's notes. On the other hand, it doesn't provide the super-high-energy experience of either an in-person Cafe or a virtual one that follows the traditional format of three rounds done in immediate succession followed by a harvest. It asks a bit more of the host as well, in terms of maintaining the online space, sending out regular emails to keep people connected, and doing some harvesting/synthesis work on behalf of the group.

This is the third time I've done a "deconstructed" Cafe along these lines. As others have said before, virtual dialogue is not a substitute for in-person. And it has its own rhythms and opportunities. In this case, the weaving together of online and live virtual spaces is a key part of the exploration, and, while I feel that we succeeded in creating a flow between those two realms, I also think that we have barely scratched the surface of what is possible.

It was also the first time I incorporated a music playlist into the process. I compiled a set of YouTube videos and embedded them into an "Inspiration" hackpad. In addition, I offered one of the tunes as a way of opening the space for each online section of the Cafe. This was based on a vision that if we were all listening to the same tunes for the duration of the Cafe, that would create some energetic alignment. I have no idea if that actually happened or not, but I had a lot of fun grooving to the tunes I chose, and imagining others doing the same!

The World Cafe: An Article by Dr Alexander Schieffer, Bo Gyllenpalm and David Issacs

2014-04-11T00:26:21.738Z

From World Business Academy, Transformation publication: Volume 18, Issue 8, July 2004 (download the pdf below).

World Cafe for Vancouver's Startup Community

2014-04-03T17:26:25.068Z

Hello friends,

Sharing this blog post I wrote up on a World Cafe I hosted on Tuesday night. What a delight!

http://amandafenton.com/2014/04/a-world-cafe-for-the-vancouver-startup-community-weareyvr/

Cheers,

Amanda

Using World Café to Open Up the Conversation on Women, Activism, & Leadership

2014-03-28T02:28:41.183Z

Juanita Brown sent in this link to a story about a World Cafe on Women, Activism, & Leadership hosted by Lex Schroeder.

Positive Aging: from Connection to Engagement, from Vision to Action

2014-03-28T01:51:54.351Z

From Moira Allan and Jan Hively:

Title of the World Cafe:
Positive Aging: from Connection to Engagement, from Vision to Action

Hosts:
Jan Hively and Moira Allan

Who was it for?:
7th Positive Aging Conference hosted by the Institute for the Ages in conjunction with the Life Planning Network (LPN)

Where was it held?:
Sarasota, Florida, USA

Purpose:
Conference participants will meet, connect, exchange thoughts, integrate their experience, grow new ideas, and create actions and projects to fast forward Positive Aging.

Attending:
170 people including, to our delight, Juanita Brown and David Isaacs

Outcome:
The participants enthusiastically affirmed their abundant personal strengths and their responsibility to be agents of change, prepared to spread and normalize Positive Aging – lifelong, world wide. Convening World Cafés came out as a top priority.

Need feedback regarding an intentional community faced with significant challenges

2014-03-20T16:30:36.716Z

Hi--I am new to this online community. I sent the following email to Amy yesterday for feedback. She provided very helpful guidance and also suggested I post my questions here.

I appreciate your time and energy in providing insight/suggestions--I value your expertise and it will certainly be utilized.

Edited version of email to Amy:

Hi—I live in Central Virginia (Blue Ridge Mountains) and a lot of my work happens in extremely rural areas or (other end of the spectrum) Richmond area.

I am going to attempt to be detailed enough to receive helpful feedback but not so detailed as I might unintentionally identify the community. The community I am working with is an intentional community with close to 80 residents. They are from varying ethnic and racial backgrounds. Residents (excluding children) range from 19 years old to 90 years old—mostly low economic status. They have a shared common space, indoor and outdoor. The community has recently experienced multiple incidents where the police have become involved (everything from youth throwing rocks at windows to more severe criminal activities). The community is certainly naming many factors as "the problem" in addition to other community challenges (conflict amongst children and parent's inappropriate interventions, concerns for safety, not enough parking, restricted access to shared space). However, as an outsider, and what has come up the last two community events is that people don't know each other and therefore don't feel comfortable to approach people directly. There is a major fear of retaliation (somewhat legitimized by a few incidences). The extremely fascinating thing is that depending on which part of the community you live—you have a completely different perspective. I have found numerous residents "feel blessed" to live where they live. They really like their neighbors and feel supported.

I have been able to tap into those folks and they have developed action steps and left the first meeting feeling pretty excited. The next meeting included a completely different batch of residents (with only a few from the original meeting). We ate up a lot of time just orienting the new folks to the previous discussion and work done. People were exhausted by the time we broke (2 1/2 hours later) but some were happy to have "action steps."

I am going to meet with the community this week to follow-up/check-in. This has been a unique experience because other communities I have worked with have experienced significant trauma throughout all of the residents which actually made facilitating a shared vision easier (I hope that makes sense). There are just pockets in this community so the typical team decision making meeting style (identify challenge, what works well, and then develop a plan) does not appear to be addressing everyone's interest and therefore does not capitalize on their energy.

Some really great discussion came out of the last meeting. The group identified that before the community could start working on approaching particular challenges (like conflict) they had to decide on "what are our community values." They were able to say that after they decide that "respect" is a value then they could develop a plan around how they maintain respect. They also stated that before they could develop a conflict resolution plan they needed to "get to know each other" (which means something different for each resident). At the last meeting they developed a conflict agreement (they agreed to allow for a cooling off period and then address the person directly). This was not followed at all and folks are feeling a little more deflated about that action step. I see it as the foundation has not been set but it was a step they wanted included last time.

I am trying to formulate a plan for this week that reignites some energy for community action, follows up on the action plan in a way that feels supportive for the folks that didn't accomplish their steps, and explore next steps with the community. We are meeting over dinner and am looking forward to reconnecting.

To give you some background—this community has met regularly for about a year before I became involved. The previous meetings have been described as just "venting sessions" with no action or forward thinking. They were pretty excited when I became involved and after the first meeting.

I am working with a fairly (self-described:) raw and urban group. Several of them do not just want to come together to "talk and make friends" but want to "resolve issues". Certainly, I see how World Café would do both but I would like to be able to explain it in a way that varying cognitive levels would understand and varying interests ("doers" and "sharers") would be excited to participate. I guess it goes back to formulating an invitation—which I clearly would appreciate any suggestions on approach.

Specific to World Café: I understand the mechanics but I really am challenged with how to develop the question(s) that will get at the heart of this community's interest and struggle. I am also struggling with how to link concepts after the conversations so folks would see their conversations in the broader context and encourages next steps. As a facilitator, I understand synthesizing information but would love feedback from you all, the experts, on how to do this within this scenario.

I appreciate your support in helping this community move to a place of healthy change!!!

'birds of a feather flock together' and 'finding a new table'

2014-03-15T10:56:14.819Z

An old saying goes: birds of a feather flock together.
Sometimes people like sitting together with persons who have the same preference in the world cafe, which will lead to the result that people will be almost the same in a small team.
The process of 'finding a new table' may becomes 'finding the same person', so the process of 'finding a new table' can not work.
Of course, this is not necessarily to happen, but it is really happening in many organizations and agencies such as within the same company group, the same living community, and so on.
How can we deal with this problem and is there some specific skill?

A special welcome to our newest members!

2014-03-02T02:15:47.699Z

We've had a number of new members join us here in the World Cafe online community in the last few weeks - and I have been away on a road trip and not able to really welcome everyone personally like I would normally...

So if you are one of the 33 people who have joined us since February 8th - welcome!! I'll be greeting each of you individually over the next few weeks and sending you a "friend" request, and in the meantime please explore this space (the Orientation and Resources tabs have some useful information to help you) and ask me (or anyone here) any questions that you have.

And if you are one of the 4,499 members who are already here - even if you feel like you are new yourself - please reach out to our newest members (or even some of the older ones! :-) with a warm welcome, and maybe even start a conversation or two when you find people who share your interests or make you curious...

Thanks!

Warm Wishes to all,

Amy