The World Café was invented by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs in 1955. It has its roots in Open Space Technology and Appreciative Inquiry.

As I have pointed out in the last newsletter, involvement of staff and other stakeholders in the design and implementation of a change process has become one of the essential factors
for success. Based on the new sciences such as chaos theory, quantum physics and neuro-biology, new methods and approaches to large systems change have been developed over the last 20 years, among them Open Space Technology and Appreciative Inquiry.

World Café is the newest kid on the block. It has just been developed 10 years ago, but it became very popular in a short time. At the last global meeting of the Society of Organizational Learning in Vienna (September 2005), about 40-50% of all delegates had until then already participated in a World Café session or workshop.

I like the simplicity of design and the fact that in comparison with Open Space, Future Search Conferences and Appreciative Inquiry it needs much less preparation, and can even be organised spontaneously.

History and Background

Juanita Brown, one of the co-developers, writes:

It is Friday, January 27th, 1995--a very rainy dawn at our home in Mill Valley, California. A thick mist hangs over Mt. Tamalpais as I look out beyond the massive oak tree which rings the patio outside our living room. I'm worried. We have 20 people arriving in half an hour for the second day of a strategic dialogue on Intellectual Capital which my partner, David,
and I are hosting ...

As I set out the breakfast and prepare the coffee I wonder how we will manage if the pouring rain continues and no one can go outside on the patio to "hang out" and visit when they arrive. David suggests, "Why don't we put up our TV tables in the living room and just have people get their coffee and hang out around the tables while we're waiting for everyone to arrive and then we can do our formal start up and check-in.

Tomi Nagai Rothe, arrives and adds "Gee, those look like café tables. I think they need some tablecloths." She puts white easel sheets over each of the paired TV tables. Now it's getting kind of playful. I've stopped worrying about the rain, which is now coming down in sheets. I decide we need flowers on the café tables, and go for the small vases downstairs. In the meantime, Tomi adds colored markers on each of the tables, just like those in many neighborhood cafés.
She makes a lovely sign for our front door: "Welcome to the Homestead Café."

Just as I get the flowers on the tables, folks begin to arrive. They are delighted and amused. As people get their coffee and croissants they gather in informal groups around the café tables. People are really engaged. They begin to scribble on the tablecloths. David and I have a quick huddle and decide that, rather than have a formal opening to the gathering, we will simply encourage people to continue to share "what's bubbling up" from their conversations the day before that they think could shed light on the essence of the relationship between leadership and intellectual capital.

Forty-five minutes pass and the conversation is still going strong. Someone in the room calls out, "I'd love to have a feel for what's happening in the other conversations in the room.
Why don't we leave one host at the table and have our other members 'travel' to different tables, carrying the seed ideas from our conversation and connecting and linking with the
threads that are being woven at other tables." There's consensus that the suggestion seems like fun. After a few minutes of wrap-up, folks begin to move around the room. One host remains. Their table mates each go to a different café table to continue the conversations..."

The Process

World Cafés can be used as a general structure for 1-3 days workshops or as a tool for organizing one or more sessions of generative dialogue. The method can be even applied within
workshops that follow other approaches. For example, we applied it for the "Delivery" phase of an Appreciative Inquiry workshop. These are the steps of preparing and facilitating a
World Café.

Clarify The Context
Create Hospitable Space
Explore Questions That Matter
Encourage Everyone's Contribution
Connect Diverse Perspectives
Listen Together and Notice Patterns

Clarify The Context: Like all other interventions into systems, the main role of the facilitators is to prepare the event, together with client. It is important to listen to the client's aspirations, hopes and fears and to find out whether this methodology is the appropriate for their specific
goal. A World Café usually focuses on an issue that matters to the organization,a problem that needs to be solved yesterday, or a topic of generative change in that organization (or community).

Create Hospitable Space: In a typical World Café, participants sit at round or square tables that fit 4. The tables are distributed in a large room that allows for movement
between the tables. Try to create a real Café atmosphere by putting nice tablecloth on top. We usually have flours on the tables, and some drinks including coffee. The entire
room is decorated in a warm fashion, and in between discussions, we play some music which can be soft or energizing, depending on what mood you want to generate.

Explore Questions That Matter: At the tables, participants start to dialogue about a question that is introduced by the facilitator. In large meetings, we project the question at
the wall with an LCD projector. The questions should be compelling and energizing and appropriate to generate meaningful dialogue. Appreciative Inquiry style questions can be applied.

Encourage Everyone's Contribution: Because of the hospitable space, and the small groups that gather around the tables, usually everybody feels comfortable to contribute. However, the facilitator might introduce some general rules of dialogue at the beginning.

Connect Diverse Perspectives: A World Café round usually lasts between 20-30 minutes. After that, participants are encouraged to swap tables, while one host stays behind
to great the incoming guests and to summarize what has been explored so far at the table. This pattern is repeated 2-3 times. In the subsequent rounds, either the same question could be applied to drill deeper, or additional questions could be introduced. Short presentations to the plenary help to capture results.

Listen Together and Notice Patterns: Participants are encouraged to listen to their peers at the tables, share common themes and develop ideas further. The paper table cloth (or flip chart paper is used for taking notes, drawings, etc. These documents can later be displayed in an
exhibition style presentation.

Conclusion

The World Café is based on the generative and self-organizing power of a system. Consequently, it should not be applied for processes in which the desired outcome is already known. It has its particular beauty with large groups of people, and has been applied with up to 3,000 (or more?) participants.

More info at: http://www.theworldcafe.com
Read: The World Cafe: Shaping our Futures through Conversations that Matter by Juanita Brown & David Isaacs. Berett-Koehler 1996

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