World Cafe: How to do it.

How do you host a productive meeting with a diverse group of people who you might not even have met before? How do you embrace the wide variety of different backgrounds, life experience, strengths, skills and expertise in a democratic and enjoyable way and still achieve useful results?

By: “Awakening and engaging collective intelligence through conversations about questions that matter,” according to The World Cafe.

Here’s a short video of a World Café style meeting in action:

 
I was first introduced to this concept through the Transition movement  and have been researching the idea with a view to using it  more in our local transition initiative and in sustainable business training courses.

The World Café website has some useful looking hosting guides which cover the process and design principles, how to manage logistics plus some ideas for powerful questions to whet the appetite.

The reaction from those I know who’ve already had experience of using this method is that it’s both effective and fun.

What are your views?

If you have experience of using World café for business meetings, how effective did you find it? What drawbacks, if any, did you discover?

If you haven’t already tried it, would you be attracted to giving World Cafe a go?