The World Cafe

[Peggy Holman]

What can I say about World Cafe?  I've used it on several occasions as a
follow-on to a panel discussion.  It gave people a chance to make meaning
out of what they heard.

My personal experience is that people who have never experienced an OS find
it  wonderful.  As a participant, I felt quite constrained.  As a
facilitator, I felt like a tyrant with two left feet.

I recently had the great pleasure to meet Juanita and learn of TWC's
origins.  It actually grew out of a natural, serendipitous occurrence.
During a meeting, because of rainy weather in sunny California, the hosts
(Juanita and others) in a inspiration of whimsy, set up an intimate
cafe-like setting for breakfast. People gathered in small groups continuing
to discuss the subject matter from the night before.  They were having such
a good time that the facilitators (wisely) left them to their own devices.
After a while, someone in the group said, "I want to know what's going on at
the other tables." Others agreed.  So the group decided to leave a host at
each table and mix themselves up.

There is a natural impulse behind TWC.  It's caused me to take another look.
What intrigues me about TWC is that it seems to very quickly create a
holographic map of the territory, it seems to accelerate the path to
coherence.  What sends me screaming from the room is someone controlling the
flow.

I have come to believe that one of the inherent goodnesses of all of the
other processes that I've played with is they leave people hungry for more
of the tiny bit of space they experience.  For that reason, I believe all
roads ultimately lead to Open Space, where it's essence is so much about
liberation (thanks for that notion, Christine), taking responsibility for
what you love.  This, made all the more clear because the role of
facilitation is to get out of the way, so that, as Harrison often says, it
is exquisitely clear who is responsible for one's experience.

I wonder about TWC meeting the law of two feet.  I like the reflective
potential of TWC, where people are pondering the same framing of the
question(s).  I wonder how to give it back to the people, as it was in the
creation story.

still dark in Seattle,
Peggy

________________________________
Peggy Holman
The Open Circle Company
15347 SE 49th Place
Bellevue, WA  98006
(425) 746-6274

www.opencirclecompany.com



----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Cox" <dwcox at ASTATE.EDU>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 8:02 AM
Subject: [OSLIST] The World Cafe


>A new book just came out. The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through
> Conversations That Matter by Juanita Brown with David Isaacs. It describes
> a group process where participants move (through several rounds) from
> table to table making connections among conversations devoted to a guiding
> question. A host remains at each table to welcome the new group. The
> process seems very compatible with Open Space. I was wondering what
> experienced Open Spacers think of The World Cafe process and how you would
> differentiate between their use?
>
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