Collaboratively written by Michaela Sieh and Amy Lenzo
In the dynamic, ever-changing movement of these times, when the world seems to speed up even as so much of what we have known is unravelling, it can be hard to discern what a sober, balanced perspective of what’s good for the whole might be. In these moments, the reflective, “listening” stance that distinguishes the World Cafe experience is becoming more and more valuable.
From our own collective experience, we know what is needed to create containers where much-needed open conversation can take place, where the promise of a new future can take root. Let’s embrace the opportunity to remember the lessons of our past, keep listening to what is emerging from the moment, and continue exploring ways to take our learning forward into the future.
Living and working in these times of social unrest and economic uncertainty brings many questions to the surface. In looking at our own stance, our own behaviour, and the larger social field under a magnifying glass, one of the questions we are asking ourselves is: “How can we be in integrity – with ourselves, with our practice as World Cafe hosts, with the World Cafe Design Principles and with the social fabric we all live within?”
What is the integrity we are being asked to live into, each day anew?
Being in integrity has a unique flavour for each of us. And yet, at the same time, it can also connect us across our differences. For some, the borders are very distinct and crossing our own sense of integrity creates a visceral response impossible to deny. For others, the boundaries are more fluid and change according to context.
Some hosting teams may have developed a way of collaborating that supports each team member in their own sense of integrity, while others might struggle with differing perspectives on what integrity means for them as a group.
While it has always been crucial for World Cafe hosts to be aware of the power dynamics at play in our work; while we always need to question our own assumptions and support each other in uncovering unconscious bias, taking personal time for reflection and self-examination is more crucial now than it ever has been before. It can sometimes be challenging to find, articulate, and act from our own “true north” as World Cafe hosts. Each of us is responsible to do our own inner work, and … we can learn from and with each other.
We have always known we are wiser together than we are alone. This is the time for us to come together and find ways to turn to one another and examine our values and standards of practice. No one else can give us the answers to these questions – but we can start by exploring them together as a community of practice.
The World Cafe Community Foundation offers monthly online Community World Cafes to the international community, not only as a practice ground for new hosts and the opportunity to experience World Cafe for those who are new to it but as a container for these and other necessary conversations. They are our contribution to the collective need for wisdom, community and shared meaning in these turbulent times.
We invite you, our community, to participate, and contribute to these community conversations. Let your colleagues know about them, and share any other opportunities you are aware of that can be of support to us as practitioners – this is what our time is calling for, and what we are stepping up to now.
It’s good to have each other’s backs!
Wonderful, Amy and Michaela !
An invitation to becoming Wiser Together through designing, convening, hosting, and harvesting “Conversations That Matter”… and Synergizing individual Intelligence into Collaborative Learning and Wisdom Around integral questions… such as:
GIVEN THE SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES THAT A CRITICAL MASS OF PEOPLE ARE EXPLORING, WHAT ARE WE LEARNING TOGETHER THAT GENERATES POSSIBILITIES THAT MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE PRIOR TO THE CURRENT TIMES WE’RE COLLECTIVELY LIVING INTO???
With gratitude,
David
Amy, Michaela and David
Thank you for these timely reminders of why and how our community of World Cafe membership and practices set us apart in making meaning and exploring better options. Yes, the current environment is fertile ground for helping people to pause, inquire, test, consider, examine and discover the hunger and hope lurking beneath all of the anger, hostility, racism and brutality. Each soul out here is crying out for something we are missing and I am concerned that policing, politics, governance and new rules are adding fuel to a global “humanity on fire.” Looking for love in all the wrong places. It is an “us and them civilization that is finally imploding.”
Bringing this back to the Community Table you introduced the concept of integrity. I believe our “integrity” rests in the degree to which we bring the World Cafe Principles alive in every conversation that we host on line and in person; in the mind, heart and actions of each host and hosting team and therefore into the container we experience as cafe, with others. Sometimes I fear I/we treat the principles as “content; subject matter” rather than THE pathway to a different experience. The principles set our permeable boundaries; rules of engagement; stance. Do those eager participants joining a community cafe for the first time know that the principles are the fuel that make the experience special, different; why they walk away “feeling good?” There really is something magical that happens when we “bring it” to this work. Are we minimizing our uniqueness and strength? Our integrity lies in digging deeper into practicing what we believe and value. The principles may be the first shovel to pick up for the dig. The time is certainly now. Given the opportunity are we prepared to help our communities break through the fog by shaping a different way of listening together, first and foremost, for what the world is really crying out for? I am asking myself these questions. I hope we all are.
Muryah
You are EXACTLY right, Muryah. Thank you.
As one of the designers of the process you know that’s why the World Cafe’s Hosting Fundamentals (our Signature Learning Program with Fielding) is centred around a deep understanding (and application) of the World Cafe Design Principles. They are presented as the ground for all World Cafe hosting practice.
So much of what I’m thinking about in terms of integrity is linked to that all-important beginning principle – Setting the Context – which of course first requires that we UNDERSTAND the context we are working in (easier than it sounds :-).
I believe all the time we could spend unpacking each principle would be repaid ten-fold in our practices.
Thank you for responding – this kind of exchange is so valuable!
I’m wondering … do you see the self-responsibility we have as World Cafe hosts to examine our own assumptions and unconscious biases, etc. (and help each other see them) connected to a particular principle? Or is it embedded in context, hospitable space, questions, etc.? If so, do you see value in making that aspect of our hosting practice more explicit?
Again, I really appreciate the exchange, and your wisdom, Muryah. Thank you.
Yes Amy I think there is so much more to explore within the principles. I realize you create the opportunity and emphasize the principles in the Fielding course which establishes the trained hosts as “carriers of the principles”. I must pull up some of the notes that the Signature Learning design team created describing the cultivation and practices of World Cafe hosts. It fits well with your question of examining our personal assumptions and biases toward each principle. Will share in separate communication. We may follow-up with our insights in response to your question here. Stay tuned.
Yes!
And to everyone out there who wants to explore this with us – it’s all going into the World Cafe Hosting Fundamentals course with Fielding, and the Learning Program Muryah and I are hosting for the community of Tampa Bay in Florida, both starting in September. Let us know if you are interested.