The World Cafe

A Word from our Friends at SoL

by Amy Lenzo | Nov 3, 2015 | 20th Anniversary Messages

Our friends at the Society for Organizational Learning have this to say about World Café:

The Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) has used the World Café at many of our events and community gatherings, such as our Executive Champions’ Workshop (every August) and our upcoming Applied Organizational Learning Program this December. The World Café has provided us with a social technology to bring together leaders and change makers from all over the world and have them focus on questions most important to them. The deep reflections, the conversations that built on each other round after round, and the insights that people generated by tapping into their analytical as well as creative side has been an inspiring and impactful process. We know that many lasting relationships, personal transformations and shifts in our collective consciousness have resulted from using the World Café. We look forward to many great experiences to come.

Frank Schneider
SoL North America President/CEO

>> Please join them for their Applied Organizational Learning for Business Results Program with Peter Senge, in Ashland, Mass on December 7-11th!

And join all of us in the social change community – wherever you are in the world, and whatever your conversational method of choice may be – in the online Global Impact Jamboree Harvest Cafés November 17th & 18th (choose the time zone that works best for your part of the world)!

Harvesting with the Art of Hosting

by Amy Lenzo | Nov 1, 2015 | Harvesting, Video

This beautiful video on the nuances of Harvesting is full of insights from Toke Moeller, Jerry Nagel, Monica Nissen, Jake Voit, and other friends in the larger Art of Hosting network. As we consider the harvest we want to generate through our 20th Anniversary Impact Cafés, and all World Cafés, there is much here to inspire and aspire to.

The video is one of an excellent series commissioned by Jerry Nagel as part of a tri-state multi-year project he carried out in collaboration with the Bush Foundation and InCommons.

The World Café Revolution

by Amy Lenzo | Nov 1, 2015 | 20th Anniversary Messages

Our dear friend Margaret Wheatley sent the following message in honor of the World Café’s 20th Anniversary. Meg was instrumental in the birth of the World Café; we are blessed by her friendship and touched to have received this thoughtful note of wisdom & inspiration:

The World Café is a true and verifiable revolution. I was present at its birth, benefited from its growth and now delight in its strong and robust maturity. It has revolutionized our expectations of what’s possible in a world of polarization and conflict. Before the World Café, we didn’t know we could have intimate conversations in large groups of strangers. We didn’t know that if we listen well and speak from the heart, we are no longer strangers — just humans eager to connect and make a difference. We didn’t know that it could be so simple and uncomplicated to connect at deep levels of shared meaning. We didn’t know that there were so many other people who care as much as we do.

The World Café revolution has shown us that we can turn to one another and find the clarity, courage and conviction to step forward in service to our yearning, troubled world.

May we not be separated,

Margaret Wheatley
(The Berkana Institute)

Join the international World Cafe community for online Global Impact Cafés November 17th & 18th!

Building relationships

by Amy Lenzo | Oct 30, 2015 | 20th Anniversary Messages

This inspiring anniversary message was sent to us by Brian Bacon, founder of Oxford Leadership Worldwide:

“The World Cafe philosophy and way of talking together as a community has had profound influence on organizational dynamics. It helps people have the conversations that heal and build real relationships that shape the trajectory of our civilization.”

Brian Bacon, Founder and Executive Chairman,

Oxford Leadership Worldwide

Thank you, Brian!

Join the international World Cafe community for online Global Impact Cafés November 17th & 18th!

Team Building

by Eduardo Afonso | Oct 26, 2015 | 20th Anniversary Messages

This from André Duarte in Brasil:

“The use of positive conversation, through the World Café concept, has been used in many team buildings, culture enhancement events and other workshops I have participated in the last 10 years. Even today, it strikes me how powerful yet (or because it is) simple way it is to address essential and fundamental points. I feel like being part of a process that aggregates everyone in searching for answers, solutions, and insights. Additionally, and maybe more important, it catalyzes the feeling that the team is trailing the right path!

Of course there were other such meetings that did not use those concepts and it has been interesting to compare: those other meetings usually look duller and much harder to lead to the convergence of World Café!”

Andre Luis Oliveira Duarte
CRO – Chief Risk Officer
Banco Votorantim S/A
Former Risk Director of Banco Itau Unibanco

Join the international World Cafe community for online Global Impact Cafés November 17th & 18th!

Sacred Portals

by Michaela Sieh | Oct 22, 2015 | 20th Anniversary Messages

I remember vividly the first time when I heard Juanita speak about the different participatory practices as the sacred portals to the central garden of our shared humanity. I was struck, speechless for a while. That was what I had felt for so long: that there was a field in the middle where we can meet. And it does not matter what our background is, where or with whom we have learned or what our “tribe” is called. The central garden is our togetherness, our interconnectedness – our knowing that we are in this, together.

And equally important: all these practices are sacred portals. Entering that central garden, I will always step through one of these sacred portals. Sacred-ness: this moment of pausing before I enter, this moment of grounding and centering myself, and this moment of connecting with the invisible world, listening to the deeper quest of the work that lies ahead.

Hearing Juanita speak these words was a crucial turning point in my life. Coming home to a community who knows about the sacredness of our work in the world and who is willing to invite all contributions: I feel a deep gratitude for all who are part of this community.

In this time of celebrating the 20th anniversary of The World Café: I want to say “thank you” to Juanita and David who have held and are holding this work in their hearts in such a beautiful and inspiring way. “Thank you” to so many others – across the world, who take bold steps to bring the spirit of The World Café to their local communities. And to those who are stewarding the global community with so much commitment. And I want to say “thank you” to those who are entering the central garden through another portal…

I want to say a very personal “thank you” to Amy who has been such a caring and inspiring team member of our World Café Impact Jamboree team. Her way of being present to the larger field of our work has been helping me to bring my best to this celebration.

Sometimes, in front of my inner eye, I see this circle: humans reaching out to support each other and forming a circle around the world.

Generosity and generativity: this is what The World Café has brought and continues to bring to my life.

May The World Café Impact Jamboree radiate generosity and generativity…

Warm greetings,

Michaela