The World Cafe is a flexible, easy-to-use process for fostering collaborative dialogue, sharing mutual knowledge, and discovering new opportunities for action. Based on living systems thinking, this innovative approach creates dynamic networks of conversation that can catalyze an organization or community's own collective intelligence around its most important questions.
Filled with stories of actual Cafe dialogues in business, education, government, and community organizations across the globe, this uniquely crafted book demonstrates how the World Cafe can be adapted to any setting or culture. Examples from such varied organizations as Hewlett-Packard, American Society for Quality, the nation of Singapore, the University of Texas, and many others, demonstrate the process in action.
Along with its seven core design principles, The World Cafe offers practical tips for hosting "conversations that matter" in groups of any size- strengthening both personal relationships and people's capacity to shape the future together.
The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
Description
Table of Contents
FOREWORD We Can Be Wise Only Together, by Margaret J. Wheatley
INTRODUCTION Beginning the Conversation: An Invitation to the World Café
Chapter One Seeing the Invisible: Conversation Matters!
Chapter Two Conversation as a Core Process: Co-Creating Business and Social Value
Chapter Three Principle 1: Set the Context
Chapter Four Principle 2: Create Hospitable Space
Chapter Five Principle 3: Explore Questions That Matter
Chapter Six Principle 4: Encourage Everyone’s Contribution
Chapter Seven Principle 5: Cross-Pollinate and Connect Diverse Perspectives
Chapter Eight Principle 6: Listen Together for Patterns, Insights, and Deeper Questions
Chapter Nine Principle 7: Harvest and Share Collective Discoveries
Chapter Ten Guiding the Café Process: The Art of Hosting
Chapter Eleven Conversational Leadership: Cultivating Collective Intelligence
Chapter Twelve The Call of Our Times: Creating a Culture of Dialogue
Epilogue How Can We Talk It Through? by Anne W. Dosher
Afterword Discovering the Magic of Collective Creativity by Peter M. Senge
Acknowledgments
Resources and Connections: The World Café
Related Resources
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Author Description
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.