2. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
The World Café
„The World Café – Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter“,
J. Brown, D. Isaacs, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco 2005
3. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
When is World Café appropriate?
Choose World Café:
• For sharing knowledge, stimulating innovative thinking,
building community, and exploring possibilities around
real-life issues and questions.
• For conducting an in-depth exploration of key challenges
and opportunities.
• For engaging people who are meeting for the first time
in authentic conversation.
• For deepening relationships.
• For creating a meaningful interaction.
• When the group is larger than 10 (up to 1.200).
• When you have the minimum of 1½ h
(better 2h) for the Café.
4. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
World Café is no optimal choice
• When you are driving toward an already determined solution or answer.
• You want to convey only one-way information.
• You are making detailed implementation
plan and assignments.
• You have less than 1½ h for the Café.
• You are working with a highly polarized,
explosive situation.
• You have a group smaller than 10.
5. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
Website from which I depictured the drawing shown:
http://transitiontownworthing.ning.com/events/can-you-imagine-worthing-in
6. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
Set the Context: Purpose – Participants – Parameters
Purpose:
• What is the purpose for bringing people together?
• What are the best possibilities or outcomes you can
see emerge from your Café?
• Find a name for your Café so that the name reflects
the purpose. Examples: Leadership Café, Knowledge
Café, Community Café, etc.
Participants:
• Which participants have to be included?
Diversity of thought yields richer insight and
discoveries!
Parameters:
• Check the parameters: Time, money, venue, and so on.
7. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
Website from which I depictured the drawing shown:
http://transitiontownworthing.ning.com/events/can-you-imagine-worthing-in
10. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
Encourage everyone´s participation
Collective insight
The Café Assumptions evolves from…
• honoring
unique
contributions
• connecting
ideas
• listening into
the middle
• noticing
deeper
patterns and
questions
11. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
The Café Etiquette
At the tables:
• CONTRIBUTE your thinking
and experience.
• LISTEN to understand.
• CONNECT ideas.
• LISTEN together for patterns,
insights and deeper questions.
• PLAY!
• DOODLE!
• DRAW!
13. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
Cross-pollinate and connect diverse perspectives
Characteristics of that phase:
• Moving among tables
• Talking with new people
• Contributing your thinking
• Linking essence of your
discoveries to ever-widening
circles of thoughts
• Emerge of patterns
• Additional perspectives surface
• Discovery of new combinations of
insight and creativity
15. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
Listen together for patterns
and deeper questions:
• Invite participants to enter a conversation
with the goal of learning from each person.
• Encourage people to view different
perspectives and assumptions as gifts.
• Remind participants to listen together for
patterns or core questions that underlie the
various perspectives.
17. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
Harvest and share collective discoveries
Time of reflection in a whole-group
conversation:
• What have we learned?
• What has heart and meaning?
• What is present now?
Time of sharing key ideas, themes or core
questions:
• What holds real meaning for me
personally?
20. Well-Structured Workshop Facilitation
Open Space Future Search World Café
Features: Features: Features:
• 5 to 2000 participants • up to 100 participants • 10 to 1200 participants
• 1 to 3 days • 2 ½ days • 1½ hours to 3 days
Purposes: Purposes: Purposes:
Dealing with complex and Creation of shared vision; Sharing knowledge;
potentially conflicting issues; action plan for organization, exploration of key
Looking for an answer network or community; find challenges and core
nobody knows yet; common ground among questions; deepening
participation of large stakeholders; implementing relationships; stimulating
number of people is existing visions. innovative thinking.
required for dealing with
question.
Short overview: Short overview: Short overview:
Law of two feet; be pepared Whole system in a room; Café-styled conversation;
to be surprised; self- global context for local action; café etiquette; moving
organization; proceedings; focus on future and common among tables; network
conference book. ground, not on conflicts; self- building; stand
management, responsibility alone/serve as part of
for action. large-group event.