what happens when you mix OS and world cafe

[Harrison Owen]

My personal experience has been that World Café does some of the things
that OS does, but in a much more controlling fashion. Doing them in
combination therefore seems to be a questionable practice. As near as I
can figure out, there is nothing that will happen in Café that will not
also occur in OS -- and OS offers many more possibilities. So why not go
for the whole enchilada??? Typical responses to that question usually
come down to the comfort level of the sponsor, the facilitator or both.
In a word, there is a fear that the participants won't be able to "make
it in Open Space" without some preparation, which Café is seen to
provide. As long as the presenting issue meets the criteria of use for
OS (real business issue about which people truly care, lots of
complexity, diversity and conflict -- with a decision time of yesterday)
-- everybody seems to do just fine. And doing a Café first often elicits
the comment from participants -- "That was nice, but why did we waste
the time?"

Harrison

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20845
Phone 301-365-2093

Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Chris
Macrae
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 1:48 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: what happens when you mix OS and world cafe

I am trying to understand what the difference in outcome is between a
day spent in open space and a day that mixes open space and cafe -latter
case here http://www.theworldcafe.com/storyconversing.html

Worse I am coming from a situation where I would have been happy with
open space but the powers that choose sound like they will go for the
mixture. (And yes the one day feels like another cramping factor)

I am taking a first guess that Open Space is better where there is
conflict resolution on all sides and indeed the normal powers that be
are part of the communal problem. OS and cafe may have an advantage if
like the charette there are some expert parameters that are going to
need to be built (eg if an architect is designing something in a town at
the end of the day the co-creation has to stand up to being
architecturally stable)

Is that a correct first guess? And what other major differences are
there/ eg is there something about Open Space being better if you want
the people to reconcile with each other and continually network around
their shared situation whereas the OS & Cafe may be more about one
product development decision where neither of these issues (there may
not be people-based hidden agendas to start with and the need for people
to continuously reconcile viewpoints from that day on may not be as
primary as it would be in peacemaking context) may be so big?

Help!
chris macrae

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