The World Cafe Community

Strategic Planning and World Café

2012-11-13T17:28:29.316Z

Hi colleagues!

I´ve hosted many World Cafés this last two years in communities and organizations, but a client in Venezuela wants to use TWC to support his Strategic Planning Process and this is new for me.

Has anybody hosted a World Café like this? or has references of this kind of use of TWC?

How can TWC support de Strategic Planning Process in an organization?

Best regards,

Luisa Elena Sucre

Bogotá-Caracas

[email protected]

Skype: luisa.sucre

large group world cafe video recording

2012-11-13T11:55:17.844Z

Dear Friends,

UNDP is hosting a conference on improving social accountability in the Arab Region in Cairo in two weeks time and they are considering to host a world cafe session. The conference organiser is thrilled by the idea but reluctant to give it a go ahead as she is afraid of an "unmanageble chaos" especially when moving 200 people to new tables between sessions. My questions:

1. Does anyone have a (link to) a video of a large group world cafe session (100 people or more)?

2. Any ideas how we can streamline the flow of people between the sessions moving from one table to another?

Thanks in advance for your feedback,

Paul van Hoof [email protected]

South Africa

A World Cafe at a hospital in Bolivia

2012-09-17T13:47:33.401Z

In June, 2012, A World Café was held at Hospital of Hope in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The event was titled, “Celebration Café” in recognition of the 7^th anniversary of the hospital. The purpose was to have an open dialogue among staff members representing a complete cross-section of Hospitals of Hope. The stated purposes were:

To engage a myriad of voices from across the hospital related to the topic of what a ‘model’ hospital would be like
To engage the organizational system in dialogue different from the usual ways of communicating in order to generate ideas and meaning different from the status quo
To discern whether all staff were committed to the Hospital of Hope mission
To allow all to have a voice in the future of their hospital
To celebrate what’s going well with HOH

Participants

About forty personnel from the hospital including doctors, nurses, specialists, technicians, cleaning staff, administrative/executive staff members, and international volunteers were participants.

Hosts and Facilitators

The process was hosted and facilitated by 6 graduates students and two faculty members from Friends University, Wichita Kansas. The students and faculty were part of the Master of Science in Organization Development program and were facilitating the World Café as part of their international residency. Two translators were also

Process:

We converted the hospital waiting room into the café, using small square tables and a few round tables; each table was able to seat 4 people. 11 tables were set up to accommodate approximately four persons per table. The participants sat in groups of four. Each table was covered with a large piece of paper. We took the chart paper with us since it was not available in the location we were in. Markers and crayons were also provided. An introduction of the process was given, along with verbal instructions, translated into Spanish.

A few of the employees had their children with them which added to the energy in the room. They wandered around, looking at the drawings being created and even adding their own coloring!

The information was also displayed in Spanish power point slides projected onto a TV monitor on the wall in the waiting room. The process consisted of 3 rounds of questions. Each session was approximately 20 minutes long.

The following process was used:

World Café Round 1

As the first question was asked, participants were asked to capture their ideas with words or pictures on the paper provided at each table.

Question for round 1: What can each of us do to help the hospital achieve its mission of showing Christ’s love by healing bodies and souls?

World Café Round 2

For the second question, participants were asked to move to other tables, with person staying to be a host of the table. For this second round, participants were asked to capture their ideas by drawing pictures and not using any words.

Question for round 2: What would an ideal hospital look/feel like?

World Café Round 3

For the third question, participants were asked again to “popcorn” around the room, with person remaining at each table to serve again as the table host. Ideas were to be captured on post-it notes with only 3 words or fewer and/or pictures per idea on each post it note.

Question for round 3: In this time of celebration, what is there to celebrate about HOH?

Gallery Walk:

After the 3 rounds of questions, a gallery walk (display of papers from each table posted on the wall around the space) was utilized where participants walked along the wall, looking at the information and ideas gathered. Participants were encouraged to discuss what they noticed as they looked over the ideas presented on the wall. While the gallery walk was taking place, the facilitators placed new sheets of chart paper on the tables.

Reflection time:

After the gallery walk, participants regrouped at tables and were given the following reflection questions.

Reflection Questions:

What was most significant insight from today?

What did you most appreciate about this conversation?

What surprised you?

What challenged you?

What do we need more clarity about?

What is next?

The participants captured their ideas on new sheets of chart paper.

The event concluded with a full lunch. In Bolivia, this was very important because lunch is considered their main meal so this contributed to the level of participation and engagement.

The World Cafe worked very well in this setting and the feedback was very positive. The following were the outcomes:

Outcomes:

Organizational energy observed as high volume of voices during the activity as well as additional people continuing to join the activity as time progressed.
Inclusivity of voices—range of staff from across the hospital interacting and dialoguing with each other: doctors, nurses, cleaning staff, administrative staff, support staff, other medical specialists, and volunteers. Individuals and groups that would not normally interact were engaged in deep, meaningful dialogue around their passion for the hospital.
Generation of many ideas reflected in text and pictures. Recognition across positions of similar dreams and concerns for the hospital’s future.
Shared commitment for the mission of the hospital.
The themes that came out of the event indicated that the staff has the desire and ability to become a Level 3 hospital.

Quote:

There were many thanks and a lot of hugs from participants to the hosts/facilitators. One cleaning lady, with tears streaming down her cheeks, thanked us, saying she had worked at the hospital for 7 years and this was the first time anyone had asked her ideas or what she loved about the hospital or what the hospital could become; for the first time, she was given a voice. This was powerfully moving.

Lessons learned:

The process works! The language barrier was not an issue, for several reasons. First, the translators were able to help introduce the questions and we provided all the instructions via the visual slides in Spanish. Most importantly, the language was not a barrier because the dialogue at each table was what was important and it was not necessary for the hosts/facilitators to understand individual conversations. The importance of remaining flexible and adjusting as the process evolves was evident. The need to be creative and allow the time to be flexible was essential in the Bolivian culture. It was also essential that a meal was provided, given the cultural context. The process also drew in participants (mainly doctors and specialists) who did not originally plan to participant. It was also possible to find a 3 hour block of time during the middle of the day to facilitate the process, with the understanding that there might be interruptions and the needs of the hospital and patients not being but on hold. It was a transformational experience for the hospital as an organization, for the participants, and for the students and faculty who facilitated the process.

I'm attaching some photos.

World Cafe and Teaching

2012-09-14T17:18:31.403Z

My co-instructor, Molly Gordon, and I had a slightly modified World Cafe in our two and a half hour Sociology of Education class at the U of Minnesota last night. We couldn't use tablecloths (there are big "lumps" in the middle of the round tables in the new hi-tech classroom building) but we had treats, poster paper, colored markers, etc. and grouped students in fours. Class members were introduced to WC, and given a one "big question" -- How do organizational characteristics of schools and universities get in the way of achieving valued educational goals? Our modification was to be a bit more directive by asking them to discuss how this question was reflected in course readings as well as their own experiences (It is a graduate level class after all....). They were startled when we asked them to move between tables as they focused on different readings (students usually chose a seat at the beginning of the semester and never move unless they are required to do so).

The time went so quickly that we could only apply our second "big question" -- How can we use organizations and organizing to achieve valued educational goals? -- to one of the readings. Students were very engaged and covered all of the ideas that we might have lectured on a few years ago -- but we need to working on their doodling skills (they have been pounded out of graduate students through years of linear thinking demands...). The success of the class did require that we use a video of a "lecturette" that they had to watch ahead of time. I am now proficient in uploading to Vimeo (YouTube has a 15 minute limit on videos...)

It was great, and we will do it again. AoH can help to revolutionize teaching even in a high-tech world and a high tech classroom. I am sorry that I didn't take any pictures.

World Cafe at New Student Orientation

2012-09-10T19:15:24.583Z

We used World Cafe as part of our new student orientation this year. We orient about 120 students to the Master's of Social Work program at the University of Minnesota each August. This year we started the morning off with a World Cafe which seemed like a good way to meet our objectives for the day which are:

Provide a warm welcome to the SSW community
Preparing students to enter into a learning environment that promotes active participation and embracing inevitable discomfort as an opportunity
Exploring ideas of identity, privilege and power as they relate to entering into the MSW program and preparing for professional social work practice
Framing the MSW program in terms of the intersection of multicultural practice and social justice
Assist students in beginning to develop a personal concept of social justice

Students, faculty and staff all participated in World Cafe together. We did three rounds and in each round we offered the group a quote and a conversation question.

World Café Round 1

“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

Introduce yourself and discuss what this quote means to you as you start out this academic year as a member of the School of Social Work community?

World Café Round 2

“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” – Lila Watson

What does the profession of social work look like with this as a guide for our service?

World Café Round 3

“I looked down and saw shards of my mother glistening like snow crystals under a bright morning sun. I looked into her glaring eyes and heard her soft but stern voice. ‘You need to be more careful’.” Mark Anthony Rolo (p. 1, My Mother is Now Earth) (Note: This is a quote from a book that everyone read before coming to the orientation

In this passage, Rolo is describing his dream. How would this warning apply at a societal level? When we look to our society, and communities within our society, where do we see the "shards," and how might we go about "being more careful?"

We were challenged by space. Our orientation room had stadium-style seating and all the other rooms in the building were reserved for other purposes. Space is at a premium on campus right before the term starts! We got creative with the public spaces in the building, using nearly every nook and cranny we could find. We were able to create 10 conversation spaces in the atrium and others were on two different floors. We invited the participants into the challenge of making this work with us and stationed staff at critical places on each floor to help direct traffic between rounds so that everyone could find a place to land. We had all three rounds of questions printed on the tables because we had no way to communicate with the group as a whole once we got started. It went surprisingly well.

A note about tables: We used 6' long tables for the most part and we had conversation with 4 to 5 people. 6' tables actually work quite well for WC even though they aren't as intimate as the small rounds.

By way of harvest, we asked each table to write on a large post it (8.5x5.5) a word or a thought or an image that captured one piece of their conversation. We posted these back in our stadium style room. Each round was color coded and had matching question pages and post it sheets.

World Cafe worked very well in this setting and the feedback was very positive.

I'm attaching some photos.

Flopped?

2012-08-24T17:00:32.438Z

Well my first venture to try a world cafe didn't go over well. I brought together a community group and they were very excited about the library as a center for community engagement. However, they weren't as interested in the idea that I thought had brought us together: a community discussion of a recent event where the police had removed folks occupying a building. The community was pretty upset by the tactics used by the specific police. But the group I got together wasn't really interested in doing a community discussion about it.

But we did get some really wonderful programs out of it: a panel discussion with local activists about activism and a fantastic program led by a local poetry group about finding your voice in social justice issues.

I have since realized I just wasn't trained or well read enough in how to do the World Cafe style discussions so I really couldn't advocate for that type of thing. I think now that it is going to be a process to get to the point where we can do a World Cafe on a civic engagement issue.
As librarians we are so used to presenting a program and we've trained our community to expect to come to a program, not as much to participate in a discussion.

I'm going to try to get more training, get more reading done and then set out for a smaller goal. I like what was done by some libraries in California I just read about. They planned the dialogues around several holidays (Martin Luther King Jr. day, Cesar Chavez Day, etc.). This gave them their themes and perhaps a more receptive audience.

Anyway, thanks for listening to a bit of reflection and a chance for me to write to firm up some of my feelings. I'm glad this resource is out there.

Skilled role!

2012-08-24T10:59:58.166Z

The challenge of World Cafe is to get the questions right - open ended but specific enough to encourage quality discussion around the topic/issue being explored. As a facilitator gathering feedback from each and linking together similar themes and responses is really useful to get an overview of the discussions that took place in the entire room. It's quite a skilled role facilitating World Cafe effectively.

When we die and go to heaven....

2012-08-22T13:57:58.117Z

...are we graded on a percentage or a curve?

Do you have to be religious to be spiritual? Can secular ethics be taught in school?

What is the proper way to load a dishwasher?

What was the first piece of art you ever created, and what inspired you?

Will we ever have world peace, or is humankind naturally violent?

These are just some of the conversation topics tossed into the hat at a recent Orange County Saturday Salon. (Saturday Salons are unique conversation salons I created and now help people host) I would love to invite you to participate in our online Saturday Salon topics, and share your experiences with World Cafe conversations, also.

I am a big proponent of all kinds of conversation salons, as I believe the first step in solving our problems is to listen to others different from ourselves, as well as form friendships with a wide variety of people.

I'd love to hear what you think, so feel free to stop by http://saturdaysalon.com or visit us on facebook and like our Saturday Salon page, or if you're interested in the history of conversation salons, artist, political, family, work or school Saturday Salons, check out my new book on the site, or at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or iTunes.

Child labour & poverty

2012-08-21T15:01:02.780Z

I've just watched a couple of videos on YouTube about child labour and poverty, and to say the least it moved me but even more it appalled me.

I know we live in an unequal world but it is so easy to shut out these things with the thought 'what can I do? I sort of comfort myself that there are many organisations working on their behalf but nevertheless the exploitation of children goes on. Often this exploitation exists purely out of poverty and necessity but too often it goes on purely because lack of education and opportunity for betterment.

Most of us live in affluent countries, enjoying a good life; we can travel and enjoy freedom but many of the children of the world will not grow up to experience such things. This thought attacks my conscience.

Of course I can send some money to the organisations who are doing something but is this really enough? And I can make lots of excuses as to why I don't do more - best thing to shut it out and get on with my life? But now I can't and why should I?

My philosophy is that we should strive to create a better world but this can't be done just by creating a better life for ourselves, we can only do it by creating it for others and then our life will become better as a consequence.

http://youtu.be/yfKJ8Mof6lU http://youtu.be/F_tRJLszXxc

This site tells us more http://uk.oneworld.net/guides/childlabour#Facts

Life, Love & Dying

2012-08-18T22:20:26.768Z

Hello,

I'm from the UK but am working in China teaching English and have been so for four years in total. Currently I'm on holiday in England but soon will go back. If anyone is interested in teaching in China, I would be happy to give you some information.

I've recently finished writing my book with the title Life, Love and Dying and I've also created a website where if you're interested you can download it for free @ www.lifelovedying.org

The book has ten separate chapters but all with the same theme which I describe as 'different perspectives on life and death'.

Through much of my adult life I have been a questioner, always seeking to understand 'why'. I think the root of this came about because my mother died when I was one year old and I never knew her, so when something like this happens it causes one to ask questions about life; at least it did me. Actually I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has had a similar loss and how it affected you

My view of life is that we are all one because we are all actually the same. Okay, we look a little different and behave a little differently but just observe facial expressions all around the world and you will see we are same. We are all a collection of billions of cells, all doing the same thing - giving us life. We perceive ourselves to be separate individuals but we are one because we are intertwined by our very need for each other. I believe that all of our great problems stem from seeing ourselves as different and separate.

Anyway, enough of that. China can be a lonely place at times so I'd be glad of some company, albeit keeping in touch with some of you guys here.

Best wishes Geof