World cafe
| Citizen participation (→ overviews ) | |
| World cafe
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| Goal / function | Influence on the public and society |
| typical topics | versatile |
| context | Questions at local to transnational level, organizational or internal issues |
| typical clients | Administrations, authorities, associations, churches, educational institutions, companies etc. |
| Duration | several discussion rounds of 20–30 minutes each |
| Participants (number and selection) | 12–1,200 people; Self-selection |
| important actors, developers, rights holders | Conversation Café |
| geographical distribution | v. a. USA , Great Britain , also other European countries |
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Source: Nanz / Fritsche, 2012, pp. 86–87 |
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The World-Café - developed by the US management consultants Juanita Brown and David Isaacs since 1995 - is a workshop method. It is suitable for group sizes from twelve and for up to 2000 participants ( large group moderation ).
The method
With a world café, the inviting guests open up a safe space for the guests with relatively little effort and professional guidance in order to get to know the different perspectives on - and different approaches to a topic from each other, to discover patterns and to recognize goals and connections, to get to know new ways of dealing with one another, To become cooperative , to listen carefully, to question, to discuss constructively and thus to solve problems together . The inviting people also try to enable the guests to remain cooperative beyond the meeting.
With the right questions, the attempt is made to bring people into a constructive conversation with one another - on topics that are relevant to the participants.
It is about letting everyone involved have their say, finding common goals and strategies and thereby awakening their willingness to participate in the change processes in their favor.
World-Café also supports joint planning and thus promotes self-development, self-control and self-organization of the guests and makes the performance advantage of the group visible and the strength of the group tangible.
procedure
A world café takes around 45 minutes to three hours. The participants stand or sit around the room at small square tables with ideally four or a maximum of five people. The tables are equipped with colorful tablecloths, flowers, writable paper place mats (often flipchart paper, more environmentally friendly is upcycled wrapping paper) and pens or markers. The colorful tablecloths (e.g. with red and white checkerboard pattern) and the flowers should create a café feeling, so food, at least coffee, tea and water should also be freely available. A moderator introduces the working methods, explains the process and points out the rules of conduct, the World Café etiquette . If you work with hosts at the tables, they ensure that the content of the findings from the various discussion groups is linked.
In the course of the process, the same or different questions are dealt with at all tables simultaneously in successive discussion groups lasting 15 to 30 minutes. The groups mix again between the rounds of talks, and a host may stay behind at each table. The hosts only stay at the table for one round at a time and should be changed at the end of each round. They welcome new guests, briefly summarize the previous conversation and restart the discourse. The World-Café concludes with a joint reflection phase.
Development of the questions
The right questions are an essential success factor for a world café. Therefore, the development of these questions in the planning group - formed from a representative cross-section of the expected participants - is given special attention. The questions should arouse interest. They are formulated simply, openly, have an inviting character and should arouse curiosity about the dialogue.
In practice, the questions often build on each other in terms of content and dramaturgy. When developing action plans and strategies, for example, the following dramaturgy of questions has proven itself:
- The first question has an opening / collecting or analytical character in order to collect all information and ideas on a topic,
- the second question is then asked rather narrowly and action-oriented , e.g. B. "What would we have to decide today to achieve xy?"
evaluation of results
A multitude of ideas, insights and suggestions emerge in the table discussions. There are several best practices to bring this diversity back together, such as:
- “Reporters” from the discussion tables summarize the most important results of their table in a nutshell
- Hang up all tablecloths in a "result gallery" and prioritize the most important statements with adhesive dots
- Dignitaries or representatives of the invitation sift through and comment on the results
- In the last discussion round, tables write their “Top 3 recommendations for action” (with regard to the central issue) on moderation cards; then group the results on a pin board
Role of the host at the tables
The hosts, who are supposed to volunteer, have a special meaning in the World-Café. They make sure that an open, clear and friendly atmosphere is created. In the standard version, the hosts only stay at their table for one round of dialogue and in the transitions they say goodbye to the guests, greet the newcomers and briefly summarize the core ideas and most important findings of the previous round. In the course of the conversation, they ensure that everyone involved knows each other and that important thoughts, ideas and connections are written and drawn on the tablecloths by everyone. The host for the next round should be determined at the end of the current round.
The hosts should not moderate the table discussions. Moderation is especially not necessary if the question is clear and interesting enough for all participants and the group size at the tables does not exceed 5–6 people.
Possible uses
World Cafés take place in international corporations, political organizations, municipalities, cities, associations, etc. The method is particularly effective with heterogeneous, mixed groups of participants who are jointly affected by a topic. She lends itself well to
- bring together different perspectives on a topic,
- to draft an action plan within a short period of time,
- to develop strategies together
- To give feedback and response to proposals that have already been developed and, if necessary, to develop suggestions for improvement
- as part of project evaluations or collection of interim results
A regular side effect is the networking of the participants, which happens almost "on the side" through the interactive discussion rounds.
Differentiation from the knowledge café
The World Café described here differs from the “neighboring” Knowledge Café : The Knowledge Café is a knowledge management tool . It is strongly structured with fixed topics and a set moderation. As a rule, the participants work through all topics, so that learning and teaching are the focus here.
literature
- Juanita Brown, David Isaacs: The World Café. Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter , McGraw-Hill Professional, 2005, ISBN 978-1-57675-258-6 .
- English: Juanita Brown and David Isaacs: Das World Café. Creative shaping the future in organizations and society , Carl-Auer Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89670-588-4 .
- Holger Scholz, Roswitha Vesper, Martin Haussmann: Learning map No. 2 - World Café. Neuland, ISBN 978-3-940315-02-1 .
Web links
- International World Café Page (English)
- European World Café site (English / German / Spanish)
Single receipts
- ↑ Patrizia Nanz , Miriam Fritsche: Handbook Citizen Participation: Procedures and Actors, Opportunities and Limits , bpb (vol. 1200), 2012 (PDF 1.37 MB) → to order the printed edition at bpb.de.
- ↑ World-Cafe History
- ↑ World-Cafè Cafe-To-Go
- ↑ World-Cafè Community
- ↑ World-Cafè Cafe-To-Go
- ↑ World-Cafè Cafe-To-Go
- ↑ World-Cafè Cafe-To-Go