Follow up on "World Cafe comes to a very conservative non-profit organization in the U.S. South"

Thought I’d catch everyone up on the results of the Café we held in November of last year for the non-profit educational investment organization located in the conservative South where my husband Max and I live. The organization was experiencing a rapid drop in membership and educational seminar attendance.

Max and I felt that a world café would be helpful in understanding what the members really wanted that they didn’t feel they were getting. Never had the organization considered just asking. We proposed a World Café; with some finessing and going back and forth, the idea was approved.

I mentioned in my original post that we decided, because of the conservative nature of the group and their concern about “new things” to use the title “Town Hall Meeting” rather than World Café. It was the right decision. The members were familiar with the term, and curious about the organization’s first “town hall meeting.”

The technical college where the meeting was held was very helpful in creating the comfortable space we needed. They gave us access to tables and chairs, and a full day to set up. We had volunteers who picked up extra tables and card tables on loan so that we could have more intimate tables of four, rather than the ones the organization uses that seat 6 -8. We also had volunteers who came early to help set up, and with their arrival, the excitement was palpable.

From the beginning, as members walked in, they remarked on how different and welcoming the environment was. When we began, people scattered to tables in ones and twos, and an occasional three. We reseated people so that all tables were filled with four people. There was a little discomfort at the request, but once some people began quadrupling up, everyone got in the spirit of it.

It turned into a wonderful event. Here are some of our reconfirmations and learnings from this event:
• Being with people in the language they live in is invaluable. At first, it was an effort to eliminate the jargon we used so that it did not cause separation between us and the members (starting with the invitation all the way through the follow up post the café). The VP was instrumental in helping us with that. Anything we posted, and our slide presentation, passed by her eyes, and invariably she would find some word usage we had glossed over because we are so familiar with the jargon. Once we got into the actual world café, staying away from WC speak or organizational/consultant speak was easy.
• All the right people at the right time. We didn’t have as big a turnout as I had anticipated (29% of membership), but we did remember that the people who were there were the right people. It was the largest meeting both members and officers remembered in a very long time, and they were thrilled.
• Magic happens. When people who don’t normally have a venue to converse and who don’t expect to be heard suddenly do and are, magic happens.
• The head honchos gave their all. We couldn’t have done it without the support of the Board of Directors who were skeptical and enthusiastic at the same time. Max and I were impressed that those two qualities existed side by side, which gave us the opportunity keep them informed and involved, as well as giving us the freedom to move ahead.
• Members have been spreading the good word. We made the public commitment to take all the info generated in the conversations and carry them forward. Members have been watching and commenting about some of the changes that are even now beginning to be obvious in the organization, all generated from the WC, and participants are generating excitement about the future with members who were not at the event. .
• Something that didn’t work out. We made one statement to the group, that all table notes and priorities would be transcribed and posted on the website for all members to see. This has not yet been done, and we are trying to figure out what is holding it up, and how we might have done that differently so that it could have happened sooner.
• Assumptions. Some of the results that were emerging in real time at first led us to assume that the majority of the members attending were investors who had one to two years of experience. When we asked the question, it turned out that the majority of the members there were investors with 5 or more years of experience! Their needs and wants were very much the same as those with little experience. Glad we checked out the assumption!
• Happy with the outcome. All in all, we were very pleased with the results, because the members and the board were so pleased. A noticeable number of people said to the overall group or to the board members that it was the best meeting they had ever been to. The feedback we got from the group at the end was very positive, and steps towards meeting members’ needs are already being taken.

• Creative version of a table. Oh, yes, the tables! It looked as though we would be short tables. I posted an inquiry about what creative things others had done when more tables couldn’t be found. I got some great ideas back. We ended up going with the idea of finding a paper company, and buying very large cardboard pieces, which we cut, taped plastic tablecloths over, and had as backup. We liked the idea of 4 people sitting so that the tabletop rested on their knees. It creates the intimacy needed, and also is an exercize in cooperation --- keeping the table steady requires all four people!

Though we did not use the cardboard tabletops because of fewer numbers than originally expected, we have saved the cardboard tables and are looking forward to finding a way to use them in future events.

• Change is inevitable ☺. Yesterday I got a call from the board member who is the most conservative, old fashioned and who doesn’t like change . . . he says! He’s coming up with all kinds of interesting, exciting and interactive programs in response to info generated at the WC. He and others who said we’d have to get past him just proved themselves wrong. Now we just have to keep up with him!

We want to express our thanks to Christine Whitney Sanchez, Juanita Brown, Karen Swim, Sabine Soeder for their support, and to the entire World Café Community, which is, as we all know, AWESOME!