The good folks over at the Communities First Association have invited me to facilitate a “World Café”. Tomorrow is the big day.
As you may know, a world café is a structured conversational process for knowledge sharing in which groups of people discuss a topic at several small tables like those in a café. If you’ve facilitated these spaces than you know that some degree of formality may be retained to make sure that everyone gets a chance to speak. Although pre-defined questions have been agreed upon at the beginning, outcomes or solutions are not decided in advance. The operative imagination is that collective discussion can shift people’s conceptions and encourage collective action.
I have found that a world café needs to have at least twelve participants, but there is no upper limit. I think we’re anticipating as many as 150 for this conversation tomorrow.
I can’t wait. These tend to be very generative spaces, I have found that concluding these times can be tricky for as the collective explores possibilities the conversation builds desire for a new way, and I as an outside facilitator will not be able to navigate the organization to act of the ideas that emerge.
Peace, dwight
