Hosting Conversations about Questions that Matter
Guidance for a World Cafe this Thursday
[Cross-posted to the Art of Questioning Group]
As a novice WC host, I am seeking some guidance in the framing of questions for a cafe I am hosting this Thursday evening--a gathering of people interested in the new Coffee Party Movement. The movement's organizers have announced that they want to draft a "Declaration of Principles." I have persuaded them to begin this effort with an open conversation, rather than having a small group of writers produce a draft before soliciting any outside feedback. The cafe will be one of the main platforms for this discussion to take place.
Very little specific guidance has been offered as to the purpose or scope of these principles to date, although there are a number of pieces that the movement's organizers have already written that might serve as an outline, such as Report on Coffee Party World Café #2--Advocacy and Dialog.doc on the Coffee Party's main website. Indeed, the person charged with overseeing this effort asked in a recent email "what would you think is the optimal starting point for the big discussion, and why? It would seem that anything in the range from a blank slate to an almost final draft would be an option."
The cafe will take place over the phone using Maestro Conference, this Thursday, 5/27 from 8-10pm Eastern. Previous calls have had about fifteen participants and I have been able to conduct three rounds of breakouts plus a harvest by each group with a scribe sending me an email compiling the insights generated. Participants will have varying familiarity with the Coffee Party Movement as well as WC.
I realize this is fairly short notice, but if the members of this group have any suggestions for me in terms of question framing, they would be most gratefully received.
If you are interested in seeing a report from the cafe I hosted last week on the tension within the Coffee Party's mission between the promotion of civil and transpartisan dialogue on the one hand and advocacy for political reforms on the other, please see the attached document.
And of course, if you wish to join the conversation this Thursday, that would be terrific! Here is the link for advance registration: http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/5LU58C2P...
Sincerely,
Ben Roberts
Newtown, CT
203 426-5088
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Replies to This Conversation
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Permalink Reply by John Inman on -
So Bob I am happy to offer some ideas. I come from a place that says all problems can be solved through conversation. We tend to make statements about what we want but do not understand how to get there. Just as when the Coffee Party sent out the issues to focus on, everyone wanted to focus on the financial system (Wall Street, Banking, Corporate Greed, etc.). The problem that I see is a foucs on such an issue does not recognize what change is based on, and that is grass roots organizing using small group dialogue from more than a party. So for me the question of "how do we get the system in the room for a conversation about the financial health of our communities, our nation, our world" might get a broad based participation. Otherwise we perpetuate the duality that plagues our conversations. More government - less government is a classic. Does this actually mean something. I would say no. Or you have the Paul's of the world who believe that all personal action including corporate action should be allowed regardless of the impact on the world assuming that the market will self adjust. Has not in the past so not sure why we would assume it will do so in the future. So how do you ask the question to draw into the conversation broad based participation? First, your question is simpler than this, but based on the same principles.
"Declaration of Principles" is what you are seeking. Where do principles come from? From personal values. So the over riding question is "What do you value?" To get to this you might ask a series of questions maybe something like this:
First round - How do you like to interact with others in your community?
Second round - What does a community based on the welfare of everyone look like to you?
Third round - What are the principles that your community would like to live into?
Fourth round - Harvest
Just an idea of how to frame. Good luck.
John
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Permalink Reply by Ben Roberts on -
Wow--that's an unexpected take! Thanks for the input, John. So interesting to see how different people would go about this. I certainly see the logic in taking a step back and exploring the root source of principles. At the same time, I would worry that the participants--especially the more literally/pragmatically oriented ones--might feel like this isn't the conversation they signed on for and that it's too "airy fairy." Do you think they would stay with it and get past that and into some really meaty discussion fairly quickly?
In the Art of Questioning Group where I cross-posted this, David Shaw suggested "What is a Declaration of Principles to you, and why do you care?" as the opening question. I wonder if you think that still gets people to look at the root source of the problem/opportunity, while also labeling it clearly as bieng on the subject they were invited to discuss and giving them a more tangible charge?
And can you tell me a bit more about the "live into" phrase and how you see that working to spark good conversation? It's another term that I can imagine a lot of more conventionally minded people balking at.
Meanwhile, I was watching a video on The Art of Harvesting with Monica Nissen and was trying to think about what output/outcomes I want for this WC and how the questions would reflect that. I don't know if it's too much to go for, but I really like the idea of coming up with a list of key themes/topics/subjects the DoP might address (anything from the purpose of the CPM to how it is funded to how meetings are run to who can be a member or what constitutes a legitimate group) would be great, and perhaps having people pick one of those where they have a strong insight and suggesting a specific principle on that subject.
That said, I would be interested to hear what you and others think the most useful outcomes for the WC might be. Remember that a team of writers is about to start putting together a draft, which will then be presented back to the general membership for comment.
BTW, any chance you can join us tomorrow evening?
Ben
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Permalink Reply by Amy Lenzo on -
Ben,
You may want to integrate a more results-focused process into the harvest for this cafe - something that will allow the group to explore and look for patterns and also come up with a list of solid recommendations at the end.
Warmly,
Amy
P.S. I hope you will post the story of the 2nd Coffee Party World Cafe (that you refer to in your initial post) in the StoryNet here. Sharing these stories and having them be accessible to the whole community is at the heart of how we learn from and with each other...
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Permalink Reply by Ben Roberts on
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Thanks for the suggestion, Amy. Can you say more about a "results focused process" for the harvest? Not sure what that might look like. Would it mean working with the full group instead of having each of the final breakouts doing their own harvest?
As for posting to StoryNet about the second Coffee Party WC, I did that a week ago! I'm surprised that the WC Community website administrator didn't alert you to that! ;-)
http://www.theworldcafecommunity.org/forum/topics/world-cafe-and-th...
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Permalink Reply by Amy Lenzo on
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:-) Oops! A breakdown in the system, obviously! :-)
What I meant by my suggestion above was to use the World Cafe harvest (or some part of it) to focus on eliciting a number of specific ideas from the group about what to include in a Declaration of Principles, which you can then offer to the Coffee Party as an example of what can result from this kind of open dialogue.
There are many ways that elicitation might be done, but doing something like this would be a bit more results-oriented than a World Cafe harvest focused on harvesting themes, patterns, and insights.
You might even gear your last question toward this result, i.e. "Taking into account everything you've heard, what principles do you think would add most value to a Coffee Party Declaration of Principles?"
Does this help clarify?
Amy
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Permalink Reply by Ben Roberts on
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Yes, Amy. Thanks. That fits with my instincts on this as well.
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Permalink Reply by John Inman on
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So Ben here is the deal. Each of us lives out the story that we have constructed for ourselves. We create roles for the people in our stories, we construct meaning around the events in our stories. Communities also do the same thing. So do parties, nations etc. Obviously things get more complex as one goes from individual story to community story etc. If we do not have the courage to change our story, we will forever be doomed to live the story that we have constructed. And all stories are socially constructed, they are not real but they are real to us since we created them.
We have the obligation and the power to construct a new story to live into. In fact if we do not, we will never change the pattern of the life we are constructing. So what is the story that you are living? Is it the story that you want? Are there aspects that you would change? If so do so and live into this new story. It is the only healthy choice. So how about the story that the Tea party has constructed for itself? How about the story that the Coffee party is constructing for itself? The battle grounds are being set by the stories constructed. There is choice here. But is there a will? Hummm
John
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Permalink Reply by Ben Roberts on
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I understand. How's this for a summary of what you have described, plus an answer to your question? http://discoveryfuel.com/uncategorized/the-empathetic-civilisation/
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