World Cafe Community

What's in a Name, or Label

A "Wiser Together" contribution from guest blogger Tom Beech:

A little while ago, I received an email that caught me up short.  It was from a young, 20’s-something, friend of mine.  He and I are working on a project together and he sent me a copy of a note he had written to another friend of his, a young guy he wanted me to meet.  In this email he said, “I’d like you to meet an elderly man I know.....”

OK. Well, first let’s get some facts on the table.  I’m 74 years old, in pretty good mental and physical health, retired from a long career but still active in my community. I can string several strands of thought together and keep track of most of them without losing my way or boring others. “Elderly,” is not a word I’d use to describe myself.

Death Cafés

Has anyone heard about, hosted, or been part of a Death Café?

They are impromptu cafes in homes or literally in cafes, where people gather to talk about their experiences, feelings, fears, ideas, etc. about death. I've been hearing about them a lot lately and am really intrigued ... given the power of the subject, I bet they can be quite amazing.

Here's an article about one held at the edge of Beachy Head - an infamous "suicide cliff" on the South Downs in East Sussex where I used to live. The article is by Claire Davies and was published in Aeon Magazine.

Conversational-Centered Leadership

This from our good friends at the Daily Good, a wonderful daily pep-talk post sent out by what was Charity Focus, and is now ServiceSpace:

Talking It Out: The New Conversation-centered Leadership
by Alan S. Berson and Richard G. Stieglitz

Every year, hundreds of thousands of new graduates enter the business world, eager to climb the corporate ladder. Their progress on the early rungs of that journey will often be determined by qualities like hard work, determination, knowledge and technical proficiency. But business consultants Alan S. Berson and Richard G. Stieglitz argue that those same qualities prove less helpful at higher rungs on the ladder, and may even be one's downfall if they are not balanced by a very different set of leadership qualities. They sum up the thesis of their new book, Leadership Conversations: Challenging High-Potential Managers to Become Great Leaders, like this: "As you move into upper leadership levels, your technical skills -- what you know -- become less important. What counts is whom you know and, perhaps more important, who knows and trusts you."

The importance of building strong working relationships within an organization may seem self-evident. But Berson and Stieglitz go well beyond a call to establish and maintain open lines of communication. The kind of conversations they are advocating for are not simply talk for talk's sake. Rather, they are the heart and soul of any thriving organization's culture: a strategic tool incorporating very specific techniques toward very specific ends.

Read more!

New Features for the World Cafe Online Community

Hi there,

I'd like to introduce a new tab to you on our Online Community, it's called Features. Under it you'll find four tools that were already there but at different places (and i updated the Tag Clouds!) and you'll see two new tools that I just finished programming! As some of you know I am keen on experimenting with ways to access, navigate and comprehend "virtual/face2face-hybrid-organisms/entities" like the World Café Online Community. These two represent my latest manifestions in that inquiry:

1) The Sitemap Graph is my best current attempt on visualizing the Online Community as a whole; still not the content, but at least the complete content-structure in the form of a graph! Once i was into graphs i also made a membergraph and an animation of the sitemap-development since 2009. Let me know what you think of it. 

2) The Nearness Radar allows you to filter out those members, amongst all 4000 (almost), that are within a certain radius of your location. That is finally air-distance based, yes > transcending national borders for search.

Please be assured that these two tools only use the information that is publicly accessible (without login) on the Online Community anyway.

... And let me use this opportunity to share another tool-idea with you. It would also only use publicly accessible data, but work with it in a way that causes issues for some people and I want to be sensitive to that.

My thinking is the following; 4000 members... that gives almost 8million different possible groups of 2! And seriously, not the best host in the world could not make sure that all of those 8million, who could benefit from being connected, are actually getting a chance to connect to each other. In my opinion, that's where the power of computation comes in.

So, concretely I am thinking about an algorithm that suggests you to visit other profiles based on the use of words you both share in your profile/posts/comments, based on the membership in groups you share, based on your physical location or even based on your resonant (or particulary dissonant?) star-signs. Basically a match-making tool. The same concept that dating-sites are using and the same concept that Facebook uses massively (but secretly). How about having that same here; but out in the open, transparently, honest and with professional intentions? Everyone of course would have to be able to choose not to be displayed in any matching-results.

And here's where I am keen on hearing your thoughts; how would you feel about such a tool? Under which circumstances would you find it useful? Should people be given an opt-in chance or an opt-out chance upfront? My ideal image of how this would play out, is that people will polish their own profile-information in order to appear in more meaningful search-queries and a few hundred new meaningful connections will be made every year. My worst-case scenario would be that people will find it intruding and actually reduce their profile-information or leave the Community altogether. What do you think?

Warmly,

Benjamin Aaron Degenhart
Global Communications Team of the World Café Foundation

Anne's Blessing

Everyone may not share her spiritual perspective but those who know Anne Dosher know why we at the World Café Community Foundation feel so blessed to have her hold the role of "Elder" and "Guardian of the Soul of the World Café", along with her more prosaic roles as a Community Foundation board member. Her wise council over many years now and her 80+ years have earned her the title of Elder, and it is her deep understanding of life's mystery and our true relationship with all things that make her a Guardian.

We asked Anne to share some personal words of blessing for this last day of Harvest Fund Drive, and here they are:

"For me, I have been privileged for fifteen years to be asked to be Elder and Guardian of Soul of The World Café and I have called for silence and spoken the blessing at the
beginning of meetings. Every day I call on the Great Spirit who moves in and around all things to be with us. All those who have found this work are blessed. Thank you for
joining us and supporting the work.
Blessings aye, Anne
Elder and Guardian of Soul"

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

On this last day of our first ever Fund Drive, I hope you too are inspired to contribute to our goal of raising $25,000.00 by the end of today, November 4, 2011.

Thank you to all of you who have already joined us in making this Harvest Fund Drive a great success. Please make your valuable contribution to the World Café Community Foundation now, and help us bring home this Fund Drive successfully at this critical time for the World Café.

You'll be helping to catalyze the most critical conversations of our time.

 

Culturewheel in Cairo

This just in from Deborah Goldblatt, the World Café Community Foundation's Director of Resource Development, who is travelling in Egypt right now:

"We can clean up the streets, build bridges and skyscrapers, but if we aren't building people, none of that matters."

You can feel Mohamed el Sawy's personal warmth throughout el Sawy Culturewheel, the center in Cairo, Egypt he founded in 2003 as a one-stop venue for music, art and theater.  An architect and engineer by training, Mohamed is the son of a famous Egyptian writer who has a deep love for all aspects of Egyptian culture.  He is a puppeteer, musician and craftsman as well as a supporter of the free exchange of ideas. 

Mohamed's dream of a town hall and community center for the new Egypt became reality during the days of the January 25th revolution.  The Culturewheel stayed on the pulse of the latest events by hosting debates and presentations, in addition to its artistic events, in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect.

His goal is to provide a platform for Egyptians to become even more thoughtful, active and engaged citizens.  In the past months, membership has grown quickly and he is currently in talks to open more cultural hubs in other Egyptian cities.  The spirit of the Culturewheel - and the spirit of el Sawy - is catching on.

Just yesterday, in Cairo, I had the great pleasure of meeting Mohamed.  One of my quests in visiting Cairo was to place a World Café book in his hands. As he received it from me and we spoke about what was possible in hosting World Cafés at Culturewheel, his eyes lit up, he smiled widely and appreciatively.... and his dream expanded right in front of me. 

This is a tiny glimpse into the world of the World Café and the work of the World Café Community Foundation.  Through a spirit of generosity, we keep passing it forward.  We have all read a book that changed our lives and then told as many people as we could to read it.  This was one of those moments in Mohamed's life (and mine) and I am excited to hear soon about the first World Café at Culturewheel, built under the bridge and over a dump in Cairo.

Please help us now to catalyze the most critical conversations of our time by making a contribution, any contribution - they are all welcome - and keep the gift of the World Café moving forward.

A Hospitable Space

From World Café steward Donald Proffit, about what the World Café has made possible for him and why he is contributing to the Harvest Fund Drive:

I first met Juanita and David in 2004 at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, California on Tomales Bay. Rolling December storms coming across the Pacific triggered a number of power outages, leaving our group in the dark. Hurricane lamps were placed around the room and candles on small tables. In this setting surrounded by "intimate strangers," I was introduced to the World Cafe, which prior to this moment I had thought was a radio show originating on WXPN-FM in Philadelphia. Juanita welcomed us, in a very true sense, "out of the darkness." And Finn was there and Tom and Meg and Peter and so many more...

This one experience changed how I would work with others from then on. A principal at a large New Jersey public high school, I returned with a gift for my community. Faculty meetings shifted to cafe conversations on what students needed to be successful; diverse groups of students gathered to consider ethics and the school's core values. It was transforming, magical.

The World Cafe Community Foundation has provided me with the generosity of tools and skills to transform a school community. It's time to pay it forward.

Donald

What Juanita's Up To!

More from Juanita Brown, co-founder of the World Café, including some highlights from her recent email on behalf of the World Café Community Foundation's Harvest Fund Drive:

"I continue to be excited and delighted by the potential of this work at the leading edge of conversational leadership around the globe. I’m hopeful that with your support we’ll be able to expand our Wiser Together initiative which is empowering the collaboration of people across generations with the capacities to co-create communities and organizations that embody the wisdom of all generations. Here's an interview from our own personal efforts in this regard on our ¨family farm¨ in North Carolina in collaboration with next generation leaders.

I’m also very intrigued by the pioneering collaboration we’re exploring with the International Storytelling Center that is demonstrating the power of connecting individual and collective storytelling with catalytic conversations, community-building and committed action. We're collaborating with their Staging Change Institute on Nov 3-6, and would be delighted to see others of you there!

In addition, the World Café is joining with others in nurturing inter-generational gatherings of leaders across modalities of conversational work, helping to catalyze a global effort to bring many of the doorways to collective intelligence into the “jardîn central¨---the central garden—of our human experience—and to use these on behalf of movements for positive futures across the planet.

(Click the image to see it larger)

As David and I transition from our role as direct coordinators of our global work into the role of ambassadors for the ¨World as Café,¨ we are deeply grateful to Amy Lenzo, Deborah Goldblatt, Barbara Krohn and the core team who is continuing to nurture the life of the  World Café. We hope you, too, will continue to fuel this incredible movement with your time, your skills, your financial support, and your love.

With gratitude for all that you've helped to happen,

Juanita

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Our immediate goal is to raise $25,000.00 by November 4, 2011.

Thank you to all of you who have already joined us in making this Harvest Fund Drive a great success. Please make your valuable contribution to the World Café Community Foundation now.

You'll be helping to catalyze the most critical conversations of our time.

 

World Café Services: An Update from Deborah Goldblatt

With the launch of our new website on June 1^st, World Café Services moved into high gear with a flurry of inquiries from all directions!

During the month of June and July, I enjoyed many conversations with people from a variety of public and private sectors:  education, energy, forestry, sustainability, entrepreneurship, immigration, climate change and health.  

What is so encouraging for me about World Café Services is being on the frontlines of the World Café world hearing about the diverse communities and businesses who are curious about The World Café – not just as a method or process but as a practice and way of being in all our communications - and are wanting or are already implementing an approach of “learning together through inquiry” in life and work today.

World Café Services, through our professional network, is serving community and business clients everywhere– whether that’s by having a half hour conversation with myself and others looking at the possibilities of convening very small or very large groups in a new way or exploring ways to renew or deepen the conversations they’ve been hosting internally within their organizations.

One of my favorite stories from this month’s World Café Services work is helping an organizing team for a conference in Arusha, Tanzania to find some guidance and support to co-create their World Café design.

Letter to Daisuke and Our World Cafe Friends in Japan

Paper Whites, photograph taken/donated by Stephen Goldblatt

Dear friends in Japan,
 
We in the World Café community want you to know that our hearts are with you in this time of devastating loss and heartbreak.  At the same time, to see the way your citizens have come together to help and support one another in the midst of this tragedy is very inspiring. We can all learn from you about how we can come together as caring human communities in times of trouble.
 
Please let us know if there are ways the World Café community can be of support and we will be sure to let our global friends know.  And, we’d be grateful to learn more of the conversations you are having in Japan in the face of this crisis and how the World Café process can be of service in some small way.
 
We send you our prayers and the wish that these challenging times can strengthen us all to meet adversity with the grace and courage that Japan is showing to the whole world.
 
With warmest regards and best wishes,
 
Juanita Brown and David Isaacs
& the World Cafe Community Foundation
on behalf of our global community