The World Café is a global community of people dedicated to awakening and engaging collective intelligence through conversations about questions that matter… this is our collective blog. Your active involvement in this conversation is warmly invited. Make comments on what you like or have questions about, send us posts, links, etc. or better yet – become an active blogger and post them yourself! Contact us to set you up with an account.
Community Voices Cafe
One of the participants of the World Cafe Signature Learning Program 2022, Dorothee Nys, shared this story with us. Dorothee is currently in her last year as a student at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, on her way to becoming a music teacher.
I hosted my first ever World Café for the community choir I lead in Glasgow, Scotland. On January 19, 45 singers came together. The central theme of the conversations was inclusion: how and when members feel welcomed and appreciated, which elements and strategies of the rehearsals they prefer most, and any visions/dreams/wild ideas for the future. A truly vibrant evening with joyous and genuine conversations, colorful doodles on the tablecloths, and precious insights on post-its. And, of course, there was music: our usual warm-up before we started and a song at the end of each conversation round.
The responses have given me insight into strengthening and deepening our inclusive practice and resurfaced the importance of the community aspect, for example, through collaborations with other local organizations and events. The singers were excited – the vast majority not knowing World Café – and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to share their voices in a different way whilst also building more connections within the group.
Flow
Questions
In conversation
Tablecloth #1
Tablecloth #2
Harvest questions
Harvest Wall
The Role of Inquiry in World Café Conversations
Musings from Frances Baldwin, March 2021
Key notion: “inquiry is action.” Sometimes the need to move to some type of decision, implication or application eclipses the possibility for depth, breadth, and fresh meaning. Given time and space, more informed and useful options may become visible.
Deeper insights, networking and linking ideas differentiate World Café Conversations from other types of group dialogue. The whole idea is to pause, inquire, be curious and make meaning. We learn from each other’s experience and perspectives. When we find common threads and new insights, new figures emerge from that center; a fresh shared field of consciousness that we create as we talk and think together. Then we have new intelligence, a capacity to know together in this moment. We have planted seeds to feed and fuel whatever mental process or physical actions we choose. Something inside of us changes “the us.” We call this phenomenon the magic in the middle, a phrase introduced and mastered by Finn Voldtofte one of our great teachers. Finn’s depth of understanding and ability to name and teach made this process reliable, repeatable, and intentional for a wide range of circumstances.
The primary vehicle for this process is the Cafe Principles applied with Café Etiquette. The heart of the principles from where I sit is how we use our questions. When we create an anchoring, deep probing question, it is compelling; we hear it we feel it and we want to get inside of it; discover all that it has to offer; AND we get to do that in unison with others; expanding our field of knowledge. We must then allow this compelling question that we have worked to create, to do its work. The magic described above happens because, ideally, participants get the benefit of sharing such questions with at least a dozen people. All those perspectives and the opportunity to explore become a part of everyone’s experience. That is a lot to ponder and play with…. imagine. We get the benefit of the thought process (and the resulting wisdom) of multiple other people to integrate into our own thinking. What we gain is the unique outcome of a World Café Conversation.
So, we must begin to ponder the story we want to create through our questions; determining how many questions; the flow; how many rounds for each question. There are the over-arching penetrating questions that make us think beyond what we already know, individually and collectively Then there are the making more meaning questions that may follow. And the finally the “so what” questions…. how might we use what is gleaned from the total conversation in the interest of our original purpose? Powerful questions stay with us, beyond the boundary of the conversation.
If we are true to the concept of The World Cafe, we may have one question; we may have one question that we repeat for multiple rounds. That repeat question may be the first, second, or third question, again based upon purpose and context. When we find ourselves locked into the same number of questions each time we design and host a café we have put form over function and lost the potential of the concept. We must continue to be creative and daring in our questioning.
Purpose and context drive every decision: the design, the questions, the rounds, the harvest. Purpose and context separate that “favorite question that we carry around” and “it worked so beautifully last year in New York,” from what is meaningful and useful.
I look forward to responses from the field.
Note from Frances: The above are simply “musings”: my wondering about what others think about using fewer questions… I am passionate about this but my intention is not to “own” this dilemma – rather, to stimulate thinking and experimentation toward a deeper inquiry among us all.
Please add your thoughts via the comments field below!
Musings on World Cafe & Integrity
Collaboratively written by Michaela Sieh and Amy Lenzo
In the dynamic, ever-changing movement of these times, when the world seems to speed up even as so much of what we have known is unravelling, it can be hard to discern what a sober, balanced perspective of what’s good for the whole might be. In these moments, the reflective, “listening” stance that distinguishes the World Cafe experience is becoming more and more valuable.
From our own collective experience, we know what is needed to create containers where much-needed open conversation can take place, where the promise of a new future can take root. Let’s embrace the opportunity to remember the lessons of our past, keep listening to what is emerging from the moment, and continue exploring ways to take our learning forward into the future.
Living and working in these times of social unrest and economic uncertainty brings many questions to the surface. In looking at our own stance, our own behaviour, and the larger social field under a magnifying glass, one of the questions we are asking ourselves is: “How can we be in integrity – with ourselves, with our practice as World Cafe hosts, with the World Cafe Design Principles and with the social fabric we all live within?”
What is the integrity we are being asked to live into, each day anew?
read more…Deeper Ways of Knowing
One of the co-hosts from last month’s World Cafe Live! event, Learning Together: Deeper Ways of Knowing, had this reflection to share with us about his experience:
Yesterday, because of multiple personal and political events, I was led to a place of decision. On my way to this place, I was reminded of my experience with Learning Together. What I re-membered fed and filled me; it let me know that I am connected to a greater wisdom already present in us.The result appears in this short piece I wrote for Medium, The Field of Trampled Justice.
World Café at Florida Civic Advance Summit
This story about a recent World Cafe comes from M. Frances Baldwin, Ed. D, & World Café elder. Frances is hosting an upcoming single-session learning program on February 13, 2020, about the symbiotic dance between “Hosting and Facilitating” .
World Café at Florida Civic Advance Summit
St. Petersburg, Florida
December 12-13, 2019
The role of the host is not to control the narrative but rather, to create conditions that help participants to speak up, listen up, and bring all of their resources to the work at hand.
The Florida Civic Advance Summit December 2019 was a state-wide citizen engagement meeting with the objectives to connect social change workers across the state; facilitate inter-generational activities and dialogue; and enhance citizen participation in local government. This is an annual event that included a generous schedule of participant interaction for the first time. The backdrop is that Florida ranks among the lowest states in terms of engaging in civic practices on multiple scales. (FCA and internet documentation 2013 – 2015).
The most unique phenomenon about the Florida Advance Summit was the “textbook” quality. It seems everything worked well according to the book. As a learning moment it may be valuable to take an appreciative dig into that experience through the lens of a café host, and site examples that brought our principles and beliefs to life. I will frequently refer to the entire gathering, not separate from The World Café as the conversations were integrated into the whole of the Summit not simply inserted into the agenda.
Guidelines for Conversations that Matter
Tom Swigart, who has been a volunteer member of the Community Cafe hosting team for a year now, wrote this prompt for himself when introducing the World Cafe Etiquette and Netiquette. We thought we’d share it here – as an inspiration for your own hosting practice. And: come and join us for one of our monthly Community Cafes and/or for one of the other online learning opportunities! Check the World Cafe Calendar for dates! Upcoming: “Learning Together” on Jan 21 and Community Cafe on Feb 10!
Have you heard the comment that two of the most common activities at meetings are speaking and waiting to speak? You may smile but is it so far off?
World Café is much more. As you enter into a conversation through World Café or other participatory practices, you become an active participant in shaping the context and, in turn, the richness of that conversation.
Through years of experience by practitioners of dialogue, elements have surfaced which support effective conversation. Several of these are shown in the Guidelines visual, created by the fabulous Avril Orloff who has been part of the World Cafe Community as a graphic recorder for many years.
In the “World Café world,” these are known as World Café Etiquette.
When I hear the word etiquette, I think of polite social behavior. These guidelines are much more. Look at the graphic and think of the power of each guideline to impact the conversation and its outcome. When you “Focus on what matters”, “Speak with your mind and heart.”, “Listen with your mind and heart”, “Facilitate (Host) yourself and others.”, it creates a powerful context. In such a context people are heard, respected and valued. This way of being in conversation may be different from your experience so you may choose to begin with setting the intention “I will listen to understand”, “I will contribute my thinking”. With practice, this intention will become your nature and the magic will follow.
These guidelines have surfaced through years of experience within many World Café conversations. The metaphor of these World Café guidelines in the swirling vapors over a hot, soothing beverage is a powerful depiction of how they combine, interact and connect.
So, relax with these guidelines and the wisdom will find you.
Netiquette: Etiquette in the Virtual World
Many of our conversations take place in the virtual world without physical contact. The objectives remain the same, to have meaningful conversations around questions that matter. The guidelines also remain very much the same as in an onsite meeting.
While dialogue in the virtual world may have challenges, it offers unique gifts. Conversations are possible that could not have otherwise taken place due to time, distance and cost. Online events also offer opportunities for enrichment based on the cultural diversity they enable.
We invite you to use your imagination. Remember that we are all “real”. Can we see beyond the “headshots” of our camera images and see each other as whole people? Can we bring our own whole selves forward in our sharing?
Be mindful of how your personal assumptions or culture might impact your conversation. “Lean In” and really listen to what is being said. Imagine yourself in the shoes of each speaker. Be grateful for this opportunity to experience from the other’s perspective. If bias or a differing perspective should occasionally interfere, think of this as a learning opportunity, and practice forgiveness for yourself and each other.
Follow Us!