The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter

Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, World Cafe Community

ISBN 10: 1576752585 / ISBN 13: 9781576752586

Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005

About this Item

Used - very good. Ships from the USA.

The World Cafe process has been used by tens of thousands of people around the world to tackle real-life issues. Based on seven key principles, it begins with small, intimate conversations at cafe -style tables; these gatherings then link and build on each other as people move between groups and cross-pollinate ideas. In this way, Cafe learning enables even very large groups to think together creatively in a single, connected conversation. This complete resource explains the Cafe concept and provides readers with the tools they need to get started. Each chapter opens with stories from business, education, government, and community organizations, each a dramatic example of how leaders are using this process in the real world. Such stories underline the Cafe 's immediate, practical implications for meeting and conference design, strategy formation, knowledge creation, and large-scale systems change. The book includes a foreword by best-selling author Margaret J. Wheatley, an afterword by author Peter Senge, and real-world stories of the Cafe process in action at Hewlett-Packard, the nation of Singapore, and the University of Texas.

Seller Inventory # B200_33_11

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1576752585
• ISBN 13: 9781576752586
• Binding: Softcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
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About this title

Synopsis

The World Cafe is a flexible, easy-to-use process for fostering collaborative dialogue, sharing mutual knowledge, and discovering new opportunities for action. Based on living systems thinking, this innovative approach creates dynamic networks of conversation that can catalyze an organization or community's own collective intelligence around its most important questions.
Filled with stories of actual Cafe dialogues in business, education, government, and community organizations across the globe, this uniquely crafted book demonstrates how the World Cafe can be adapted to any setting or culture. Examples from such varied organizations as Hewlett-Packard, American Society for Quality, the nation of Singapore, the University of Texas, and many others, demonstrate the process in action.
Along with its seven core design principles, The World Cafe offers practical tips for hosting "conversations that matter" in groups of any size- strengthening both personal relationships and people's capacity to shape the future together.

About the Author

Juanita Brown, Ph.D. is co-originator of the World Café and has served as a Senior Affiliate at the MIT Sloan School’s Organizational Learning Center (now Society for Organizational Learning), as a Research Affiliate with the Institute for the Future and as a Fellow of the World Business Academy.
David Isaacs is President of Clearing Communications and designs strategic dialogue forums with senior leaders in the U.S. and abroad. David is also a co-originator of the World Café and serves as adjunct faculty with the University of Texas Business School’s Executive MBA Program.
The World Café Community is made up of organizational and community leaders and others who are fostering conversational leadership across the globe.