World Café, The

Description

While specific content may vary widely, every World Café applies a single set of design principles with three common features: (1) the visual appearance of the setting for the conversation, (2) the roles enacted by those involved, and (3) the use of carefully chosen questions, graphics and writing to generate and collect data and information. The concept originators list seven underlying design principles on their website:

• 1.
  [Page 825]Set the context.
• 2.
  Create a hospitable space.
• 3.
  Explore questions that matter.
• 4.
  Encourage everyone’s contribution.
• 5.
  Connect diverse perspectives.
• 6.
  Listen together for patterns and insights.
• 7.
  Share collective discoveries.

The visual appearance is that of a ‘café’, and whether it is a huge arena with hundreds of participants (as used at the 1995 SoL Global Forum in Vienna) or a small meeting room with as few as 20, the features are common to cafés around the world. There are tables for 4, with colourful tablecloths and interesting centrepieces. The room is informal and well lit, and there is usually no obvious presenter’s podium. However, the ‘implements’ are different from the usual café scene—the tables have an extra ‘cloth’ of oversize sheets of paper and are strewn with coloured pens; one or more walls may be covered by huge sheets of blank paper; posters on the walls advise participants to

• focus on what matters,
• listen to understand,
• contribute their thinking,
• speak their minds and hearts,
• link and connect ideas,
• listen together for insights and deeper questions,
• write and draw on the ‘tablecloths’, and
• have fun.

Process

The key roles in a World Café event are the client, the facilitator, a few presenters, ‘hosts’, participants and a graphic recorder. The client nominates the Café topic, guides the selection of participants, outlines the questions to be addressed and may also participate. The facilitator introduces the process, controls the timing and movement while otherwise not engaging with the emerging content of the event. Presenters, given the task of provoking conversation and dialogue, abide by the client and the facilitator’s guidelines to produce short introductions to a series of ‘powerful questions’ (see below for explanation) to encourage dialogue. The host role is adopted and retained by one person at each table or may be shared among participants as the event proceeds. Participants create conversations— generating ideas and information for collection. The graphic recorder observes and analyzes the event— turning the participants’ words into original images that gradually coalesce into a visual representation of the flow of the event.

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