Forum Discussions - The World Cafe Community

Mixing a World Café at scale

2019-04-25T14:22:59.943Z

Hi all -

Sabine Soeder and I just had the pleasure of hosting a World Café-inspired session with 200 people where we were keen to maintain a diversity throughout the group changes.

Here's a description of the approach we ended up using: https://www.onsubject.eu/blog/mixing-a-world-cafe-at-scale/

Cheerio * W.

Looking for a graphic facilitator that can help me with website and materials

2019-02-08T21:14:30.535Z

I am interested in learning and working with a graphic facilitator to create some materials/templates and visuals.

Top tips for quietening the room!

2018-07-04T20:50:27.118Z

Hi - I would love to hear from others on top tips to quieten the group so that you can move them on! Do people use sounding (tinging bells - seems a little "alternative" for some groups), or hand in the air (seems a little formal!), or desperately trying to be heard "OK then, time to move on"... but you need the instruction to be listened to before people start shifting!

This is something I would like to have some tricks up my sleeve, for unwieldy and or particularly chatty / enthusiastic groups! Great people want to chat, but to move people on can sometimes be tricky!

With best wishes, Kirsti

Looking to Interview Someone, Anyone!

2018-03-20T23:36:23.804Z

Hello,

By way of introduction, my name is Matt La Riccia. I am currently a graduate student at Bowling Green State University. I am pursuing a Master's Degree in Organizational Development. I am looking to see if anyone would be willing to be interviewed. I will post the questions below. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Responses and, or inquiries can be made to [email protected] .

1. Tell me a bit about who you are and your story that brought you to the work you do today?

2. Describe one of your most successful experiences with leading or facilitating a collaborative change event, a meeting or summit. How did you know it was a success? What made it so successful? How were you different from the experience?

3. What advice do you have for someone who is looking to develop their competencies and confidence doing collaborative work with World Cafe?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Matt

How to simplify and democratically create future stable money

2018-01-11T01:03:29.342Z

“The Future of Money” January 2018 cover story in Scientific American is too complicated. Future money will become simply a medium of exchange. Future money will not have the complications of also being a store of value or unit of value.

Humanity will not have a future unless it adopts a unit of value defined by the efficiency of using benign renewable energy to counter climate change. The Internet of Things can automatically calculate the efficiency of using benign renewable energy in each region of the planet. This will allow all trade and investment contracts to become indexed to the efficiency of producing local benign renewable energy in each host region.

Contracts insured by trusted third parties would create Sustainable Energy Dollars (SED=$Z). The insurance cost and a cost to make money independently self-liquidating would be attached to the money. The self-liquidating user pay fee would limit the excessive issue of money. User pay money emerged in the Great Depression and began circulating again in Germany this Century without a crisis.

Markets would allocate the production of goods, services and the global population to regions that can most efficiently support humanity on a perpetual basis. Blockchains are not needed. But encryption may be required by those with something to hide.

Money becomes very simple, stable, decentralised and democratic with the ability to stabilise humanity on any planet.
Refer to my December 2017 conference presentation posted at: https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract_id=3094732

Focalizing: Somatic Healing Process: Going Within to Move Beyond (Available Online)

2017-11-10T16:23:36.495Z

Hiya everyone. I want to share my new website design. Thank you Nick Werber and Claes Lilja for helping launch this, I couldn't be more delighted. I would be thrilled if you shared this on your other timelines, thanks. www.michaelpicucci.com

Civil Dialogue Website

2017-10-02T21:18:40.961Z

Greetings,

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Guy Nave. I am a professor of religion at Luther College. I recently learned about the work of The World Cafe from Clark Olson, President of the Institute for Civil Dialogue.

I am currently on sabbatical for the 2017-18 academic year, and I am working with website designers to create a website called "Clamoring for Change" (clamoringforchange.com).

While there are a number of voices within society clamoring for change, there is much disagreement regarding what kind of change is needed and what is needed in order to bring about change. One thing that is often common, however, among those clamoring for change is a belief that it is “others” who need to change.

Often when we refer to “change” we are referring to something that "others" need to do rather than something we ourselves need to do. I believe it is this belief that “others” are the ones who need to change that contributes to much of the polarization in society today.

Unfortunately, media (especially social media) often strengthens and affirms our belief that “others” are the ones who need to change. Most media sites function as "echo chambers" that filter the information we receive so that it supports our existing opinions and affirms and strengthens our belief that it is “others” who need to change.

Most media sites present single ideological perspectives (e.g. “liberal,” “conservative,” “moderate,” etc.) that resonate with the perspectives of the people visiting the sites. Clamoring for Change will seek to create a space that welcomes multiple ideological perspectives and that encourages engagement and interaction with and conversation across multiple perspectives.

I believe change is not primarily about persuading and convincing “one side” to see things the way that “another side” sees it. Instead, change is about all sides ending up with new perspectives that can only be arrived at through engagement with and understanding of others.

The site will be designed to expose participants to multiple ideological perspectives about important topics of the day (e.g. the place/role of Confederate monuments in American society). The hope is that engagement with the various perspectives presented will contribute to more informed and open forum discussions on broader topics.

In order for the website to be successful, we will need contributors representing multiple ideological perspectives to produce user content (eg. blogs, videos, podcasts, etc.) for the site. The more I learn about The World Cafe, the more I think there may be some excellent synergetic connections beween TWC and our Clamoring for Change project.

I guess I'm writing to introduce myself and my project with the hope that members of TWC community might be able to provide valuable insights, connections, and potential resources as I work on this project.

Because many (if not most) people do not know HOW to engage in open and meaningful conversations across ideological divides (especially within social media), I am considering a "soft launch" of the site before a "public" launch. My thought is that initially the site can be used by academics as a way of exposing students to multiple perspectives and generating conversations that challenge students to question their beliefs and assumptions about morality, government, and the nature of the "common good."

Once the site becomes populated with enough participants who can model for others what open and meaningful dialogue/conversation looks like, the site would be opened to the general public for broader participation.

While the creation of this site is quite an ambitious project, I strongly believe it has the potential of making a major contribution to the promotion of civil dialogue in a society that is growing increasingly polarized.

I hope TWC members will consider being part of this project and contributing to its development (both as people who contribute content and as people willing to use the site in their own work).

Thank you for taking the time to consider this request. Please feel free to contact me directly at my email address: [email protected]

Sincerely,
Guy

Fees

2017-08-28T18:52:40.812Z

I'm in the process of setting up a consulting firm, Laulima North Consulting. I'm wondering what people typically charge for world café sessions. I've only done them either through school or my employer, so charging for this is new to me! I am in Ontario, Canada.

Fees

2017-08-28T18:52:39.216Z

Suggestions Please

2017-08-06T20:03:30.619Z

Hello everyone,

I am looking for suggestions-- Would like to run a first World Cafe event--we have 5 themes and this is for a small credit Union- Participants would be the Leadership and Management. Some questions I have are: Is there a minimum and a maximum number of participants to make a world cafe impactful? Any suggestions on the best process? Appreciate any info- Thank you