Hosting Conversations about Questions that Matter
Question of the Month
Hi all,
I am passionate about powerful questions, and I have been thinking if we could organize a monthly contest in this online community: The Question of the Month.
This is the idea:
We contribute the questions that are most important to us and share them somewhere in here. We collect the questions for a month, then leave the community some days to rate the questions, and we can find out and publish the topfive questions every month.
Could that be a way to monitor what we are caring about? Could that be a way to make this community visible to itself? Not to say to explore the face of this (new?) community ...
Would you be curious to find out the best questions for the world? And then share it with the world ... and create conversation and coordinated action to inquire how to best solve them ...
What would be the best questions to guide the ratings?
Please share you resonance and build on this idea. If you have any ideas how we could implement this, please share your thoughts. There might be some statistic tools somewhere in cyberspace that could be used.
I am completely overwhelmed by the activity in this Now Online Community! So I am listening forward to the resonance this idea might create.
I have hosted a World Café last year on the topic of the moralisation of markets. In this café we have explored and collected »questions that should be answered in order to take wise decisions in respect to the moralisation of markets«. Don't ask me what the moralisation of market means (I never understood it – it was the topic of the conference where the café was a central communication tool), that is why the question was so complicated. 120 participants produced many questions, we made a collective rating, and we came out with a top ten list. If your enter TWCBayreuth as a search term, you'll see the graphic recordings and some impressions of the café. Some of the questions I have been touched most was: Who makes moral? Do we need a global moral for a global market? Can we afford moral?
So again: What are the questions that matter most for you?
I am passionate about powerful questions, and I have been thinking if we could organize a monthly contest in this online community: The Question of the Month.
This is the idea:
We contribute the questions that are most important to us and share them somewhere in here. We collect the questions for a month, then leave the community some days to rate the questions, and we can find out and publish the topfive questions every month.
Could that be a way to monitor what we are caring about? Could that be a way to make this community visible to itself? Not to say to explore the face of this (new?) community ...
Would you be curious to find out the best questions for the world? And then share it with the world ... and create conversation and coordinated action to inquire how to best solve them ...
What would be the best questions to guide the ratings?
Please share you resonance and build on this idea. If you have any ideas how we could implement this, please share your thoughts. There might be some statistic tools somewhere in cyberspace that could be used.
I am completely overwhelmed by the activity in this Now Online Community! So I am listening forward to the resonance this idea might create.
I have hosted a World Café last year on the topic of the moralisation of markets. In this café we have explored and collected »questions that should be answered in order to take wise decisions in respect to the moralisation of markets«. Don't ask me what the moralisation of market means (I never understood it – it was the topic of the conference where the café was a central communication tool), that is why the question was so complicated. 120 participants produced many questions, we made a collective rating, and we came out with a top ten list. If your enter TWCBayreuth as a search term, you'll see the graphic recordings and some impressions of the café. Some of the questions I have been touched most was: Who makes moral? Do we need a global moral for a global market? Can we afford moral?
So again: What are the questions that matter most for you?
Replies to This Conversation
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Permalink Reply by Amy Lenzo on -
Hi John,
I agree that a place where people can share their projects and collaborate and help each other move to action or find out about what else is happening is a great idea. I can see it happening in two ways -
1) starting a conversation thread that invites people to add their ideas/projects/ etc. - and anyone can do that - just click "add a conversation" at the top of the page conversation and get started. People can respond as they have done to this one. I think the best category for it would be in Passion and Ideas, but what do you think?
2) have someone start a "group" (just go to the Group tab and click "Add a Group" to house the idea. I'd be happy to approve it and send the new group owner ideas for how to keep it lively and healthy (that's one pre-requisite for starting a group - you have to care for it)
Does this answer your question, John? Or were you asking something else?
Best of luck with this excellent idea!
Warm Hug,
Amy
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Permalink Reply by John Inman on -
These were the exact ideas I was looking for Amy. And I hope that the desert is being good to you. Thank you so much. I will work on this tomorrow evening unless someone else gets to it before I do. Ulrich? LOL
John
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Permalink Reply by Ulrich Soeder on -
Hi John,
go ahead! I like the idea very much and the setting Amy describes fits well. I will focus on the conversations and groups I'm already involved. If some coordinated action will grow out of these conversations ...
For the moment, I see the conversations about The New Face of Community, The Question of the Month in a phase of brainstorming and listening to ideas. There will be a moment when it is time to decide for one (or several) directions. And then join the group on projects!
Cheers from my early morning to your ... late evening?
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Permalink Reply by Ulrich Soeder on
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Hello Tess,
this is a really important question you rise! How can we get from talking with each other to coordinated action?
I don't have an answer. But I know that from talking alone, you will not get to know people well. As we are so creative in our language, it might turn out only during action what the words really mean and if someone is ready to walk his/her talk.
Collaboration is a wonderful way to learn together, if there is a willingness to reflect together. Also in World Café settings this is not guaranteed!
Together with friends I am preparing the European Salon, and this is kind of an action inquiry approach on how we can get from talking to doing.
Thanks for joining the conversation. Ulrich
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Permalink Reply by John Inman on
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Ulrich, good evening to you, my morning. I appreciate your kind words and leadership in this conversation about questions. Certainly talking alone is not the answer. We need to create the contexts to draw people into conversation. That is our quest. Is it done through the articulation of a good and compelling question? Is it done through TWC process? Do we need to create communities of practice so that practitioners of TWC do not have to act in isolation to sponsor an event? We humans work best in collaboration. TWC is a collaborative process. Yet we have passionate people around the world trying to do good work alone. Hummm.
John
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Permalink Reply by Ulrich Soeder on
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Hi John,
I find your reflections very inspiring. Thank you.
Questions initiate actions. Questions direct our attention. Questions might ignite our passion.
Just one direct suggestion: How could we best reach out to other communities and invite them for cross-pollination? Every method / group / organisation one table within the World as Café?
I'll put up this question in the group on strategic colalboration as well ...
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Permalink Reply by Ulrich Soeder on
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Hi John,
this is a late comment on your post. One question that might not belong in this thread, but I ask it anyway:
In what kind of research does the use of TWC as a scientific method of inquiry makes sense?
(If one comes from a positivistic stance, why should one care for dialogue?)
Cheers, Ulrich
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Permalink Reply by david isaacs on -
What is it that we don't know as a community and learning and practice that we want to become conscious of as a question... and then engage it as a social research question? a question that when explored successfully will create breakthrough for those the World Cafe community serves?
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Permalink Reply by John Inman on
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David, I just reviewed all of the questions that our TWC community posed as captured in the document that I attached in TWC and Fielding group. Your question above is exactly what I would like to answer. We need to define the question that if answered, will help solidify TWC as 'the' conversational practice worldwide that will help people and communities heal, create learning, and bridge differences. Let's explore just what that might look like. The questions that I captured mostly fall within community, but some are specific to online, others to world transformation, some for TWC process/practice, and some for personal transformation. If you have a chance, take a look and see what emerges.
Have a wonderful new day.
John
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Permalink Reply by Luis Carlos Jacobsen on -
Depending on the context, and the issues presented, good questions should touch the soul of the matter in a non invasive way. Questions starting with HOW are great to me, since there is a call for action and involvement to the cafe guests. Besides, appreciation of the past successes, just like appreciative inquiry suggests us, makes the process running.
Thanks for the question.
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Permalink Reply by John Inman on
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Ulrich and all, I just added a doc under the "World Cafe - Fielding Research Group" in which I collected all of the questions on this site which could help us build TWC community. Visit and explore the questions and consider them for your own practice, a foundation for a cafe, or a way to build research to further TWC movement worldwide.
John
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