Page 9 - The World Cafe

Special Report – Hosting Strategic Conversations 8
communities and organizations to create new options.
The challenge with large-scale change is that detailed redesign needs to be done in small groups, and yet if everyone is not involved in the process, and thus engaged and committed to the solution, you hit resistance. The café process enables you to tap the power of conversations of small groups of people (4-5 people) while potentially engaging much larger numbers.
The core notion of the World Café is that people in small groups, as around a café table, can be actively engaged in conversations. Even the most silent person can safely step in, and the effect of hierarchy is minimized in these small groups.
Cafés are made up of small café tables with 4-5 chairs around them. Often they are covered with red and white checkerboard cloths and have small vases with flowers on them. Also on the top of each table is a large sheet of paper and an assortment of markers for people to doodle with, as you find in many cafés.
When participants arrive, they seat themselves at a table and meet their table-mates. Hosts set the stage by presenting the framework for the process and the context – the reason for the café. They then present a core question that will drive the first round of café.
The crafting of the questions, as well as the other six principles outlined in this article are critical to the success of a café. Unlike traditional facilitation, most of the work is done in advance by working on
these seven principles, and the host does very little (that’s visible) during the café.
One note of caution: while it is possible to start using Open Space Technology with little training and build your experience, you should only use experienced hosts for World Cafés, especially larger ones. While the process of the café is amazingly simple, it is also incredibly sophisticated under the surface, and needs to be hosted by those with significant experience to work effectively.
Questions should use the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach, which states that you focus on what is working well and on what could be possible.
Some examples of powerful questions are:
• When have we truly experienced success? Based on those experiences, what could we truly be?
• What could a good we as a good organization/school/community also be?
• What were the conditions that allowed that success to emerge?
• When have we best worked together as a team? What conditions supported those times?
• What qualities existed that made this experience outstanding?
Participants are given 20-30 minutes to share their stories or thoughts about the question. They are asked to fully listen to each other and to look for common elements to the different stories and ideas.
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