Welcome to the World Café

Shaping our Futures through Conversations that Matter

14 October 2010

■ World Café in the Global Context

■ World Café Experience

Dinner

■ World Café Design Guidelines

■ World Café Application

Today’s Program

The World CaféShaping Our Futures

Through Conversations That Matter

Translated into 10 languages including Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese & Chinese

Selected in January 2010 by Prime Minister of Japan as 1 of 28 books that will be essential to Japan’s

future

The capacity to see the world of the “other” sounds simple, but it is not. Yet it is the core of creating a new human history together.

The World Café and this book serve as an inspiration to help make that possible.

Lic. Esteban Moctezuma Barragan, Mexico’s Former Minister of Social

Development

The World Café is a simple yet powerful method for large and small groups of

people to:

• foster collaborative dialogue • share and create new knowledge

• build community• inspire collective action

Café Outcomes

1. Communication Across Silos

2. Broad Engagement on Strategic Initiatives

3. Create Shared Direction, Momentum for Action

4. Cross Pollinate Learning, Generate New Insight

5. Build Community and Trust

6. Uncovering Deeper Issues

CAFE ETIQUETTE

Listen to understand.Focus on what matters

Contribute your thinkingSpeak your mind and heart

Link and connect ideasListen together for insights and deeper

questions.Doodle – on your tablecloths

Have Fun!

■ 3 Rounds of Conversation at 3 Different Tables • Different Question for Each Round• Use Talking Piece• Look for Themes & Connections• Relax & Enjoy!

■ Harvest Collective Insight & Learning

■ Connect to Next Steps

Say hello

Share a story of a conversation that made a real difference for you

What happened?What made the conversation possible? What happened after?What made it meaningful for you?

Café Round 1:

Café Travelling Instructions…• One person stays as host• Others move to different tables

• Host welcomes new people• Wait for next question

Café Round 2:

Begin by sharing one idea, theme or insight from your last round

Then, share a story of a conversation that made a real difference for someone else

What happened?What made the conversation possible? How did you know it was meaningful?What happened after?

Café Travelling Instructions…• One person stays as host• Others move to different tables

• Host welcomes new people• Wait for next question

Café Round 3:

Share one nugget from your last round

What themes, connections and insights are you seeing from your first two rounds?

What are you learning about what makes a conversation “matter”?

Harvesting our Collective WisdomThemes, connections, insights…

New questions or ideas…

Dinner

World CaféDESIGN

PRINCIPLES(powerful when used

together!)

The knowledge and wisdom we need is already

present and accessible

Intelligence emerges as the

system connects to itself in

creative ways

Listening into the center

Connecting ideas

Noticing new

possibilities

Honoring unique

contributions

Collective insight evolves

from…

CAFÉ ASSUMPTIONS

Outcomes are better when they are informed by:

• Diversity of Perspectives • Cross Pollination of Ideas

• Attention to Meta Level Themes & Patterns• Questions that Matter to People

When Designing a Café, Consider…

1. What is my Purpose and Intention?

2. How can I invite people so that my Purpose and Intention come through?

3. Who needs to be in the room?

4. Who will you partner with?- to design the Café questions- to “make it happen”

5. What are the questions that matter?

Questions are intrinsically related to action, they spark and direct attention, perception, energy and effort…

Creativity requires asking genuine questions, those to which an answer is not already known.

Questions function as open-handed invitations to creativity, calling forth that which doesn’t yet exist.

-Marilee Goldberg Adams The Art of the Question

The World Caféwww.theworldcafe.

comsamantha@theworldcafe.co

m

All images used in this presentation are part of the World Café Community Creative Commons

We see a movement from the traditional view that talk and action

are separateto an understanding of conversation

as a core process for creating our world

Outcomes are better when they are informed by:

• Diversity of Perspectives • Cross Pollination of Ideas

• Attention to Meta Level Themes & Patterns• Questions that Matter to People

And…We have the Capacity, Creativity and Wisdom to Address our most Challenging

Issues!

Connection + Conversation bring Intelligence to Life!

Understanding the World Café’s fascinating model of a living social system is essential for the understanding of life and leadership in human organizations.

Fritjof Capra, author of Web of Life and The Hidden

Connections

Endorsements

The challenge of leadership in these times of breathtaking speed and exhausting complexity is to find creative ways to embrace the future, and let of the past. World Café dialogue provides us the opportunity to do just that.

Paul Borawski, ED and Chief Strategic Offer,

America Society for Quality

Endorsements