The World Café Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9781576752586
• ISBN10: 1576752585
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-15
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Summary

The World Café process has been used by tens of thousands of people around the world to tackle real-life issues. Based on seven key principles, it begins with small, intimate conversations at café -style tables; these gatherings then link and build on each other as people move between groups and cross-pollinate ideas. In this way, Café learning enables even very large groups to think together creatively in a single, connected conversation. This complete resource explains the Café concept and provides readers with the tools they need to get started. Each chapter opens with stories from business, education, government, and community organizations, each a dramatic example of how leaders are using this process in the real world. Such stories underline the Café 's immediate, practical implications for meeting and conference design, strategy formation, knowledge creation, and large-scale systems change. The book includes a foreword by best-selling author Margaret J. Wheatley, an afterword by author Peter Senge, and real-world stories of the Café process in action at Hewlett-Packard, the nation of Singapore, and the University of Texas.

Author Biography

Juanita Brown, Ph.D. is co-originator of the World Café and has served as a Senior Affiliate at the MIT Sloan School’s Organizational Learning Center (now Society for Organizational Learning), as a Research Affiliate with the Institute for the Future and as a Fellow of the World Business Academy.
David Isaacs is President of Clearing Communications and designs strategic dialogue forums with senior leaders in the U.S. and abroad. David is also a co-originator of the World Café and serves as adjunct faculty with the University of Texas Business School’s Executive MBA Program.
The World Café Community is made up of organizational and community leaders and others who are fostering conversational leadership across the globe.

Table of Contents

Foreword	viii
We Can Be Wise Only Together
Margaret J. Wheatley
Introduction	1	(11)
Beginning the Conversation: An Invitation to the World Cafe
Seeing the Invisible: Conversation Matters!	12	(14)
Discovering the World Cafe: The Intellectual Capital Pioneers	14	(2)
Perspectives and Observations	16	(9)
Questions for Reflection	25	(1)
Conversation as a Core Process: Co-Creating Business and Social Value	26	(16)
Creating a Culture of Dialogue: Museum of Science and Industry, Tampa Bay	28	(3)
It's Win-Win All the Way: Sanofi-Synthelabo, Canada	31	(3)
Perspectives and Observations	34	(7)
Questions for Reflection	41	(1)
Principle 1: Set the Context	42	(18)
De Congreso a Conversacion (From Conference to Conversation): Mexico's National Fund for Social Enterprise	44	(4)
Perspectives and Observations	48	(11)
Questions for Reflection	59	(1)
Principle 2: Create Hospitable Space	60	(18)
A System Thinking Together: The Pegasus Systems Thinking in Action Conference	62	(4)
Perspectives and Observations	66	(5)
Building on Traditions of Dialogue: Saudi Aramco	71	(6)
Questions for Reflection	77	(1)
Principle 3: Explore Questions That Matter	78	(16)
A Cafe on Questions	80	(8)
Perspectives and Observations	88	(5)
Questions for Reflection	93	(1)
Principle 4: Encourage Everyone's Contribution	94	(12)
Every Voice Counts: Fostering a Culture of Contribution: The Financial Planning Association	96	(3)
Perspectives and Observations	99	(6)
Questions for Reflection	105	(1)
Principle 5: Cross-Pollinate and Connect Diverse Perspectives	106	(16)
The Peace Cafe: University of Victoria Law School	108	(3)
Perspectives and Observations	111	(5)
Suddenly, It Crystallized: The Fielding Graduate Institute	116	(5)
Questions for Reflection	121	(1)
Principle 6: Listen Together for Patterns, Insights, and Deeper Questions	122	(16)
What's in the Middle of the Table? Scandinavian Sustainability Forum	124	(3)
Perspectives and Observations	127	(9)
Questions for Reflection	136	(2)
Principle 7: Harvest and Share Collective Discoveries	138	(16)
Harvesting and Planting Seeds of Change: University of Texas at San Antonio, Executive MBA Program	140	(4)
Perspectives and Observations	144	(4)
Connecting the Parts and the Whole: The Financial Planning Association	148	(5)
Questions for Reflection	153	(1)
Guiding the Cafe Process: The Art of Hosting	154	(22)
Working on Behalf of Their Sisters: African Women with Disabilities	156	(3)
Perspectives and Observations	159	(3)
The World Cafe Hosting Guide	162	(13)
Questions for Reflection	175	(1)
Conversational Leadership: Cultivating Collective Intelligence	176	(20)
Fostering Conversational Leadership in Education: Polk County Schools	178	(2)
The Results Are in the Relationships: Hewlett-Packard	180	(3)
Living Strategy: Discovering the Future, Together: American Society for Quality	183	(2)
Perspectives and Observations	185	(2)
Designing Organizational Infrastructures for Dialogue: Philip Morris USA	187	(8)
Questions for Reflection	195	(1)
The Call of Our Times: Creating a Culture of Dialogue	196	(30)
What Does It Mean to Care? Creating a Learning Culture Through Dialogue: Singapore	198	(4)
Perspectives and Observations	202	(9)
Questions for Reflection	211	(1)
Epilogue
How Can We Talk It Through?	212	(5)
Anne W. Dosher
Afterword
Discovering the Magic of Collective Creativity	217	(4)
Peter M. Senge
Acknowledgments
It Takes a Village to Raise a Child	221	(5)
Illustration Credits	226	(7)
Resources and Connections
The World Cafe	229	(1)
Related Resources	230	(3)
Bibliography	233	(3)
Index	236	(6)
About the Authors	242