Hi, folks Dave wrote: < I was wondering what experienced Open Spacers think of The World Cafe process and how you would differentiate between their use?> I forget if we shared the website for World Café or not to inform folks unfamiliar with this method just in case, here it is: http://www.theworldcafe.com/ I agree with Chris that using World Café might be a good way to engage people in a short conversation about an issue. People mix and match for different insights, plus they are invited to draw on the tables (Im all for using other modes than verbal/text-based to enhance conversation and thinking, whether in Open Space or other methods). Ive participated in it at conferences, and it has worked in some instances and not in others. In the instance it didnt work, people did not want to have their conversations directed by the facilitators questions but they handled this quite naturally by talking about whatever they wanted to talk about they mutinied, as dear Harrison would say. I think in that case the questions (key to the design) were not chosen with the participants needs/interests in mind they were not compelling or rich - but rather may have seemed like a good idea during the conference design phase. Also as you may have experienced in many situations, perhaps the wrong method for the wrong objective at that time (hard to say without knowing the inner workings of the design committees for those conferences). In the instances where it worked, the tables Ive been sitting at have still talked about whatever they really wanted to talk about. But hey, maybe the invitation to talk about what matters is the wonderful part of it and I think that any method that invites conversation brings wonderful things into the room. I think World Café would be well-used as a way to follow some learning (move into World Café to process and integrate the learning), and the questions asked could bring people into conversations sharing case studies or personal experiences to show how what they have learned applies to concrete situations. But when I design workshop curriculum, I design this sort of thing in without using the World Café method (there are many ways to engage more whole-body learning and reflection). Still, I have participants mix and match for new viewpoints and different engagement, I have them move to new areas of the room, and I have them draw and such all components to enhance learning and all components which happen to also be used in the World Café method all good for learning and engagement. The thing that World Café doesnt do, to my mind, is invite personal passion and personal responsibility, as even the short Open Spaces do. So people can have engaging conversations and I think thats great. But I find that its more amazing to see what the participants themselves invite into the conversations the unexpected and delightful (and those elephants, skeletons, and hot porridge analogies we use to describe whats usually *not* being talked about are invited into the room, as well). Plus, in Open Space people gather according to their passions and interests, and are so often surprised by who else shares their passion. Also, in Open Space, participants are told that any conversation in or out of the room is the work its all the work, whether it occurs in the pre-set places or not. I think this is a marvelous invitation and honoring of the fact that whether one chooses to sit alone and write, or engage over cookies, or sit in a circle its all good, and all important. Ive done Open Space in under 3 hours as the plenary for a conference of several hundred people, when they couldnt take the tables out of the room. I just pushed a few tables more away from the center to create a bit of open center space where folks could come up and announce their topics, and I walked around the room to help create the intention of a circle, asking people to visualize sitting in one big circle as well. Not ideal, but it worked. However if I was asked to do something in *one* hour in a conference of hundreds of people, I might use World Café or another process I wouldnt use Open Space. World Café fits into tiny timespans What do others who have used and experienced both think? Lisa ___________________________ L i s a H e f t Consultant, Facilitator, Educator O p e n i n g S p a c e 2325 Oregon Berkeley, California 94705-1106 USA +01 510 548-8449 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <http://www.openingspace.net> www.openingspace.net
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