knowledge cafe

[Chris Corrigan]

I have been seeing this process come up as "Open Space" among come of
the people I have been working with.  It's obvioulsy not Open Space, but
people who have been there seem to think it is.  This occaisionally
presents problems, but Open Space always sells itself, once people have
been through it.  I'm sure the KC does what it does well...

I have used another technique in the past to explore issues where
everyone gets to talk about everything.  It's called the Interview
Matrix and it works this way.

1.    Prepare with the sponsor a list of four open ended questions
relating to the topic at hand.  Number them 1 to 4.
2.    Begin the meeting by introducing the process and having the gropup
number off by counting out 1,2,3,4.  Each persons number gives them
"ownership" over the corresponding question.
3.    Small groups form, each containg a 1,2,3 and 4.  Each person
interviews every other person on their question for four minutes.  This
means that Person 1 interviews the other three and is interviewed by the
other three. the interviewer keeps notes while the interviewee is
talking.   Everyone gets four uninteruppted minutes of talking about the
issue at hand.  This takes 24 minutes.
4.    All of the 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s gather together for 45-60 minutes to
compare answer and throw in their own two cents about their questions.
These groups then take 10 minutes or so to report back to the whole for
further refinements etc.

It's a good process for getting everyone a chance to speak about
everything on the table in a way that the dominant group members and the
shy ones all have equal time.  And it really compresses the "round
table"`portion of brainstorming.

It's not OS either...but it is what it is...

Chris

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CHRIS CORRIGAN
108-1035 Pacific Street
Vancouver BC
V6E 4G7

Phone: 604.683.3080
Fax: 604.683.3036