Is anyone on this list familiar with a process called Knowledge Cafe? Any thoughts on how effective it is as a collaborative learning process? How it would compare with Open Space for the same purpose?
I'm co-chairing a team to organize a half-day learning event for a business association and one of the team members has proposed using this process. Here's how she described it in an email. > Why not use a self-organizing format which doesn't require > expert facilitators? A 5-10 minute introduction would be > required. Place a tent card on each table with four > guidelines: 1. Ask questions. 2. Play devil's advocate. > 3. Move if the spirit moves you. 4. Record aha's! I asked her if she could describe where it works well, where it does not work well, and what risks it might entail. Here is how she responded. > The director of knowledge management at American > Management Systems Inc. presented this format at a > conference I attended in Scottsdale a few months ago > called Braintrust 2000. Participants needed very little > guidance (5-10 min. nuts & bolts intro.) Outcome is both > the experience of being engaged with their own issues (has > everone read The Experience Economy?) and a summary of '5 > best insights' from each table at the conclusion. At this > particular conference, a ballroom full of people had time > for two 45 min. roundtable discussions focused on > sub-topics of their choice. > > My contact at U of T who organizes conferences for execs > says, "We don't do talking heads anymore, we only use > knowledge cafes." > > Risks: > > At Warner Lambert in NJ, organizers of an offsite were > initially skeptical because the format seemed too simple > to work. They tried it anyway, for a portion of the > retreat. People liked it so much that they requested that > the next retreat be entirely knowledge cafe-based. Lesson > learned: required organizers to give up control and accept > inherent risk, which makes some people > uncomfortable. > In conversation later, I asked if she could compare Knowledge Cafe to Open Space. She had participated in the Toronto Company of Friends (Fast Company magazine) Open Space event a year ago and she felt that the intro and wrapup took too long -- for the type of business clients that she deals with. She feels Knowledge Cafe is more efficient and produces similar results for a learning event. Reactions? Patrick McAuley PTM Consulting Tel: (519) 827-9396 20 Magnolia Lane Fax: (519) 827-0956 Guelph, ON N1G 4X7 [email protected]
