The World Café
methodology is a simple, effective, and flexible format for hosting large group
dialogue. World Café can be modified to meet a wide variety of needs. Specifics
of context, numbers, purpose, location, and other circumstances are factored
into each event's unique invitation, design, and question choice, but the
following five components comprise the basic model:
1. Setting: Create a “special” environment, most often modeled after a
café, i.e. small round tables covered with a checkered tablecloth, butcher
block paper, colored pens, a vase of flowers, and optional “talking stick”
item. There should be four chairs at each table.
2. Welcome and Introduction: The host begins with a warm welcome and an introduction to the
World Café process, setting the context and putting participants at ease.
3. Small Group Rounds: The process begins with the first of three or more twenty minute
rounds of conversation for the small group seated around a table. At the end of
the twenty minutes, each member of the group moves to a different new table.
They may or may not choose to leave one person as the “table host” for the next
round, who welcomes the next group and briefly fills them in on what happened
in the previous round.
4. Questions: each round is prefaced with a question designed for the
specific context and desired purpose of the session. The same questions can be
used for more than one round, or they can be built upon each other to focus the
conversation or guide its direction.
5. Harvest: After the small groups (and/or in between rounds, as desired)
individuals are invited to share insights or other results from their
conversations with the rest of the large group. These results are reflected
visually in a variety of ways, most often using graphic recorders in the front
of the room.
The basic
process is simple and simple to learn, but complexities and nuances of context,
numbers, question crafting and purpose can make it optimal to bring in an
experienced host to help.
Source: http://www.theworldcafe.com/method.html
Uploading ....