Hosting Conversations about Questions that Matter
From a letter to Juanita Brown and Maria de los Angeles Cinta from Kelly McGowan of Upstream Consulting, reporting on the inter-generational bilingual World Café she hosted in Santa Ana, California in September 2010:
The Intergenerational Bilingual World Café in Santa Ana, CA, was a fabulous success thanks to your generous support and coaching!
I co-hosted with a lovely, young, local bilingual woman who was intimately involved in the project. She already loved World Café from a couple of experiences at her university (by the way, I continue to hear that student groups in university settings across the country are using World Café). We worked together well and became quick friends, which added a level of enthusiasm and collaboration to the event.
The work in Los Angeles was set up by the Casey Family Foundation. They arranged to fly-in my colleagues from Leadership Transformation Group in NYC to help a collaborative community-wide strategic planning group to get through its stuck place. The planning group had 3 separate work groups - youth community members, adult community members and local providers - working simultaneously on a 10 year strategic plan that was a prerequisite to receiving California Endowment and Casey Family Foundation grants. In the first effort to bring the 3 groups together, the youth texted or snuck-out the back door, the adults slept or complained and the providers dominated and fought. In the second attempt, Appreciative Inquiry facilitators were sent in by the California Endowment, which failed and created near mutiny from the Facilitation Team (the local coordinators, a group of 12 reps from each of the 3 work groups and a paid coordinator, a dynamic local Exec Director named America).
At this point, enters Casey with the 'right help', 'a solution!' - the Leadership Transformation Group team from NYC comprised of an African American man from Florida, a white 65 yr old professor from New York and an English-only speaking Puerto Rican man from NYC.
Casey and LTG had a strong working relationship through its work on the East Coast with child welfare systems. The folks at Casey like the way that LTG uses story to help shift conflict and stuckness that arises from cultural misunderstanding. LTG had one phone call with the coordinators and decided to invite me to help them design the one-day 'intervention'.
Two of the LTG partners and I flew out to LA to interview the coordinators and individuals from the work groups. From the many issues raised, we found three themes to address in the design: (1) the work group participants ached for an opportunity to be in the room together and longed to get to know each other; (2) the Facilitation Team was a bit shell shocked from the 2 'failed' attempts and were filled with doubt, fear and responsibility about making it work; (3) everyone wanted deep 'systemic change' not just more of the same, but did not have shared language for discussing it; and, (4) intergenerational dialogue is valued and considered foundational to the entire process.
The final design drew on three, tested and wise structures... LTG's use of story (dialogue circles), World Café and art!
America and the LTG partners opened the day by framing the approach and flow for the day .
The rest of the morning was spent in a bilingual World Café. Below are my notes and the flow that the two of you helped design! I included the helpful coaching points that you both offered!
Bilingual Community Cafe Design 3.0
• Flip charts naming the Cafe: Intergenerational Community Cafe (in English & Spanish)
• Harvest Wall prepared
• Tables with 5 chairs, paper, markers, stickies
• Divide room into two sections marked Spanish & Bilingual and English & Bilingual
Simpler and engaging to have room in 2 sections - not physical division, but clear designation of the cafe tables.
Spanish-bilingual: 13 tables where participants mix youth and adults/elders who speak Spanish-only mixed with bilingual.
English-bilingual: 13 tables where participants mix youth and adults/elders who speak English-only mixed with bilingual.
• Bilingual folks move back and forth.
Introduction to World Cafe (10 min): Translator provides sequential translation
• Offer Cafe story of origin in the region
• Describe bilingual structure
• Name the "Intergenerational" Cafe: discover how each generation makes sense of the world. Highlight this in the room.
• Define the time and # of rounds
• Describe how rounds will end (Facilitator raises her hand and people who see it also raise hand)
[Maria suggests explaining the host role at the beginning. With bilingual cafes it helps the group 'capture' the process. Or, 3 minutes before the first round is over, let them know it will close in 3-minutes and then introduce the host (we chose the latter)].
• After intro, ask participants to move to appropriate tables.
[It's OK to ask for volunteers to move if hosts notice that the generations are sticking together. Make sure there is a good mingling. Help people feel at home, get to know each other.
The first question is to focus the attention on the issue at hand. Keep it simple, do not start probing questions this early, purpose is warming up and starting whole group dialogue.... to get a sense of the drivers or attractors that are in the room]
Round 1 & 2 (20 min each): What is it about your community that has led you here today? Why do you care? ? Que de tu comunidad te ha traido aqui hoy? Porque te importa?
Mini Harvest (10-15 min): What are you noticing? ?Que estas notando?
• Translator hands the mic to participant and then offers sequential translation
• Graphic recorder (one of the youth) captures responses in graphic harvest in original language (side by side to both validate what they are saying, making it OK to speak whatever language they are speaking, and to keep them engaged)
[Once you have established a deeper understanding of why you are here (Q 1) it's time to move people to connecting ideas, to uncover what is in the room. Move to a more systemic view of things... connecting the dots. Highlighting a different understanding of the situation and the network of connections they need to have in place. Highlighting what else they need to know.
If host notices some of the youth are disengage, name this before round 3 and invite them to change tables. "If some of you feel a need to be a bumble bee and move to different tables during the next 20 min, you can. You can contribute or ask questions, write it on post-it note and write it on the table as a gift. (I love this, but we did not use it)
Round 3 (20 min): What are you learning or discovering so far? What do you need more clarity about? OR What new questions do you have? ?Que necesita mas claridad? ?Que preguntas neuvas tienes?]
[The 4th round creates movement forward, toward some kind of action...] Round 4 (20 min):
What would it take for us to stay together in a way that would make the most difference to the future of our community? What do we need to have in place to make this happen? ?
Que haria falta para que podamos estar juntos de una manera la diferencia mas grade a nuestra com? Que necesita ocurrier para que esto pase? [The Harvest anchors them in possibility thinking. What is possible here...]
Harvest (20-30 min):
What are the most important things you have explored today and what have you learned?
• Host invites everyone to take 5 min to reflect and write response on stickies (to be given to graphic recorders at end)
• Then translators walk around w/ mic and offer secessional translation
• Host can offer probing questions:
o What's at stake here?
o What is surprising or challenging you?
o Whose voice is missing here?
• Graphic artist captures responses in graphic harvest in original language
• At the end invite everyone to bring their stickies to the harvest wall
The Café worked! And a great highlight was the spoken word harvest. Before the lunch that followed the café, I invited poets and spoken word artists in the room to join me. A youth provider who leads poetry workshops and some of his students were attending! During lunch they worked together and we returned with two, beautiful harvest poems. A young Latina read her Spanish poem and got a standing and teary applause from the adults and Spanish-speaking providers. Then the most beautiful accident happened. Three youth who represented the diversity in the community wrote an English piece together. They were a young African American girl, a Vietnamese boy, and a Latino boy. Again, standing applause and tears. Several of the facilitators and the project Coordinator grabbed the mic following their poems and renewed their commitment to the project and to inviting art and creativity into the work.
Also during lunch, some youth worked on the graphic recording. They cut highlights out of the Café table paper and made designs with the stickies. This confused the 'recorders' who were funded by the foundation to be there w/ laptops... as did the Café, but in the end they were quite delighted by all of the rich language that was created. Commitment was made to not only develop the written plan for the funders, but to create a graphic mural for the community that reflects the heart of what they are trying to accomplish.
We heard recently that the group has been sticking together and getting into the real issues. They still name this day as when the shift happened!
Thanks for the loving and attentive support. It could not have happened this way without your generous contribution of wisdom and learnings.
The Intergenerational Bilingual World Café in Santa Ana, CA, was a fabulous success thanks to your generous support and coaching!
I co-hosted with a lovely, young, local bilingual woman who was intimately involved in the project. She already loved World Café from a couple of experiences at her university (by the way, I continue to hear that student groups in university settings across the country are using World Café). We worked together well and became quick friends, which added a level of enthusiasm and collaboration to the event.
The work in Los Angeles was set up by the Casey Family Foundation. They arranged to fly-in my colleagues from Leadership Transformation Group in NYC to help a collaborative community-wide strategic planning group to get through its stuck place. The planning group had 3 separate work groups - youth community members, adult community members and local providers - working simultaneously on a 10 year strategic plan that was a prerequisite to receiving California Endowment and Casey Family Foundation grants. In the first effort to bring the 3 groups together, the youth texted or snuck-out the back door, the adults slept or complained and the providers dominated and fought. In the second attempt, Appreciative Inquiry facilitators were sent in by the California Endowment, which failed and created near mutiny from the Facilitation Team (the local coordinators, a group of 12 reps from each of the 3 work groups and a paid coordinator, a dynamic local Exec Director named America).
At this point, enters Casey with the 'right help', 'a solution!' - the Leadership Transformation Group team from NYC comprised of an African American man from Florida, a white 65 yr old professor from New York and an English-only speaking Puerto Rican man from NYC.
Casey and LTG had a strong working relationship through its work on the East Coast with child welfare systems. The folks at Casey like the way that LTG uses story to help shift conflict and stuckness that arises from cultural misunderstanding. LTG had one phone call with the coordinators and decided to invite me to help them design the one-day 'intervention'.
Two of the LTG partners and I flew out to LA to interview the coordinators and individuals from the work groups. From the many issues raised, we found three themes to address in the design: (1) the work group participants ached for an opportunity to be in the room together and longed to get to know each other; (2) the Facilitation Team was a bit shell shocked from the 2 'failed' attempts and were filled with doubt, fear and responsibility about making it work; (3) everyone wanted deep 'systemic change' not just more of the same, but did not have shared language for discussing it; and, (4) intergenerational dialogue is valued and considered foundational to the entire process.
The final design drew on three, tested and wise structures... LTG's use of story (dialogue circles), World Café and art!
America and the LTG partners opened the day by framing the approach and flow for the day .
The rest of the morning was spent in a bilingual World Café. Below are my notes and the flow that the two of you helped design! I included the helpful coaching points that you both offered!
Bilingual Community Cafe Design 3.0
• Flip charts naming the Cafe: Intergenerational Community Cafe (in English & Spanish)
• Harvest Wall prepared
• Tables with 5 chairs, paper, markers, stickies
• Divide room into two sections marked Spanish & Bilingual and English & Bilingual
Simpler and engaging to have room in 2 sections - not physical division, but clear designation of the cafe tables.
Spanish-bilingual: 13 tables where participants mix youth and adults/elders who speak Spanish-only mixed with bilingual.
English-bilingual: 13 tables where participants mix youth and adults/elders who speak English-only mixed with bilingual.
• Bilingual folks move back and forth.
Introduction to World Cafe (10 min): Translator provides sequential translation
• Offer Cafe story of origin in the region
• Describe bilingual structure
• Name the "Intergenerational" Cafe: discover how each generation makes sense of the world. Highlight this in the room.
• Define the time and # of rounds
• Describe how rounds will end (Facilitator raises her hand and people who see it also raise hand)
[Maria suggests explaining the host role at the beginning. With bilingual cafes it helps the group 'capture' the process. Or, 3 minutes before the first round is over, let them know it will close in 3-minutes and then introduce the host (we chose the latter)].
• After intro, ask participants to move to appropriate tables.
[It's OK to ask for volunteers to move if hosts notice that the generations are sticking together. Make sure there is a good mingling. Help people feel at home, get to know each other.
The first question is to focus the attention on the issue at hand. Keep it simple, do not start probing questions this early, purpose is warming up and starting whole group dialogue.... to get a sense of the drivers or attractors that are in the room]
Round 1 & 2 (20 min each): What is it about your community that has led you here today? Why do you care? ? Que de tu comunidad te ha traido aqui hoy? Porque te importa?
Mini Harvest (10-15 min): What are you noticing? ?Que estas notando?
• Translator hands the mic to participant and then offers sequential translation
• Graphic recorder (one of the youth) captures responses in graphic harvest in original language (side by side to both validate what they are saying, making it OK to speak whatever language they are speaking, and to keep them engaged)
[Once you have established a deeper understanding of why you are here (Q 1) it's time to move people to connecting ideas, to uncover what is in the room. Move to a more systemic view of things... connecting the dots. Highlighting a different understanding of the situation and the network of connections they need to have in place. Highlighting what else they need to know.
If host notices some of the youth are disengage, name this before round 3 and invite them to change tables. "If some of you feel a need to be a bumble bee and move to different tables during the next 20 min, you can. You can contribute or ask questions, write it on post-it note and write it on the table as a gift. (I love this, but we did not use it)
Round 3 (20 min): What are you learning or discovering so far? What do you need more clarity about? OR What new questions do you have? ?Que necesita mas claridad? ?Que preguntas neuvas tienes?]
[The 4th round creates movement forward, toward some kind of action...] Round 4 (20 min):
What would it take for us to stay together in a way that would make the most difference to the future of our community? What do we need to have in place to make this happen? ?
Que haria falta para que podamos estar juntos de una manera la diferencia mas grade a nuestra com? Que necesita ocurrier para que esto pase? [The Harvest anchors them in possibility thinking. What is possible here...]
Harvest (20-30 min):
What are the most important things you have explored today and what have you learned?
• Host invites everyone to take 5 min to reflect and write response on stickies (to be given to graphic recorders at end)
• Then translators walk around w/ mic and offer secessional translation
• Host can offer probing questions:
o What's at stake here?
o What is surprising or challenging you?
o Whose voice is missing here?
• Graphic artist captures responses in graphic harvest in original language
• At the end invite everyone to bring their stickies to the harvest wall
The Café worked! And a great highlight was the spoken word harvest. Before the lunch that followed the café, I invited poets and spoken word artists in the room to join me. A youth provider who leads poetry workshops and some of his students were attending! During lunch they worked together and we returned with two, beautiful harvest poems. A young Latina read her Spanish poem and got a standing and teary applause from the adults and Spanish-speaking providers. Then the most beautiful accident happened. Three youth who represented the diversity in the community wrote an English piece together. They were a young African American girl, a Vietnamese boy, and a Latino boy. Again, standing applause and tears. Several of the facilitators and the project Coordinator grabbed the mic following their poems and renewed their commitment to the project and to inviting art and creativity into the work.
Also during lunch, some youth worked on the graphic recording. They cut highlights out of the Café table paper and made designs with the stickies. This confused the 'recorders' who were funded by the foundation to be there w/ laptops... as did the Café, but in the end they were quite delighted by all of the rich language that was created. Commitment was made to not only develop the written plan for the funders, but to create a graphic mural for the community that reflects the heart of what they are trying to accomplish.
We heard recently that the group has been sticking together and getting into the real issues. They still name this day as when the shift happened!
Thanks for the loving and attentive support. It could not have happened this way without your generous contribution of wisdom and learnings.
Tags: Cafe, bi-lingual, inter-generational
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