Presentation for TSPRA 2012

1. Community Conversations
that Matter
Presentation by
World
Vickie Echols, Pine Tree ISD
TSPRA February 2012 Café

2. What is it?
• The World Café is
– A conversational process
– A protocol for productive discussion and dialogue.
• The innovative methodology focuses on hosting
conversations in small groups.
• It is a method used internationally as a way to
safely dialogue about issues that are important to
the community, which can sometimes involve
sensitive topics for discussion.

3. What is it?
• The conversations link and build on each other
as people
– move between groups,
– discuss questions that matter,
– cross-pollinate ideas,
– discover new insights, and
– focus on issues that are most important in their
lives, work, and/or community.

4. How Does it Work?
• Visitors enter the café, find a table and take a
seat.
• A moderator and table hosts facilitate three
rounds of conversation.
• Each conversation lasts 20 minutes and
focuses on one question at a time.

5. How Does it Work?
• At the end of each 20 minute period,
visitors join a new table to discuss a
different question.
• Participants have the opportunity to visit a
total of three different tables where they
will meet, listen and dialogue with others
from your community.
• Finally, visitors and hosts will share as a
whole to harvest ideas, insights, and
potential actions.

6. The Process:
Before During
• Form a Work-Group • Welcome
• Consider partnerships with • Discuss in Small Groups for
other groups / other events. three rounds
• Clarify the Purpose • Share Whole Group
Discoveries
• Create a Welcoming Space • Post Visual Outcomes
• Craft the Questions
• Designate Moderators and
After
Table Hosts
• Debrief with work-group
after the event

7. Clarify the Purpose / Set Context
• Pay attention early to the
reason and purpose for
bringing people together.
• Consider the needs of the
participants and the
parameters which are
important to achieve your
purpose.
• Create a slogan and goals
that describe the
purpose.

8. Example #1
• Disparity in Education & Poverty: A Cultural
Perspective
– To engage in open and courageous dialogue
surrounding race relations in our community;
– To spark small group conversation where everyone
has a voice;
– To brainstorm solutions for the betterment of our
community.

9. Example #2
• World Café on Poverty
– Pay a Bill or Buy a Meal?
– Understanding the Impact of Poverty
– Partnership with other organizations:
• Provided a light lunch for participants
• Included a creative arts/ theatre performance
• Included a simulation activity prior to the café

10. Example #3
• World Café for Career & Technical Education
– Focus on the Community Advisory Committee
– Combine with CTE Awareness Month and Open
House for community
– Incorporate lunch by Culinary Arts Students

11. Create a Welcoming Space
• Create a hospitable
space—one that feels
safe and inviting.
• When people feel
comfortable to be
themselves, they do
their most creative
thinking, speaking,
and listening.

12. Create a
Welcoming Space
Check List:
• Tables / Chairs • Projector / Screen
• Tablecloths • Sound system
• Paper placemats • Microphones (wireless)
• Markers • Music player / CDs
• Flowers in a vase • Paper/cards for note
• Refreshments taking
• Flip Chart/Tape • Post-It Notes 4x6 or
larger
• And/or White Board

13. Small Group
Conversation
• The process begins with the first
of two or more twenty minute rounds of
conversation for the small group seated
around a table.
• At the end of the twenty minutes, each
member of the group moves to a different
new table.
• One person serves as the "table host" for the
next round, who welcomes the next group
and briefly fills them in on what happened in
the previous round.

14. Questions
• Each round is
prefaced with a
question designed
for the specific
context and
desired purpose of
the session.

15. Questions
• Your Café may only
explore one single
question each round,
or develop several
questions, which
support a logical
progression of
discovery throughout
several rounds of
dialogue.

16. Explore Questions that Matter
• Finding and framing
questions that matter
to those who are
participating in your
Café is an area where
thought and attention
can produce profound
results.

17. Explore Questions that Matter
• In many cases, Café
conversations are as
much about discovering
and exploring powerful
questions as they are
about finding effective
solutions.

18. Effective Questions
1. Attract energy and focus our
attention;
2. Are open-ended, not yes/no;
3. Need not imply advocacy or
advantage, but instead invite
inquiry and discovery;
4. Continue to surface new ideas and
possibilities / stand the test of
time.
“A QUESTION NOT ASKED IS A DOOR NOT OPENED.” MARILEE GOLDBERG, THE ART OF THE QUESTION

19. Example: Race Relations Qs
1. How has your upbringing affected your views of
persons of other races?
2. In our community, describe1-2 issues related to race
relations that you see as needing attention? i.e., job
discrimination, school preference, etc.
3. If racism is to be eradicated, is forgiveness necessary? If
so, by whom and to whom?
4. What actions/ideas do you have to help end racism in
Longview?

20. Example: Race Relations Qs
1. What about this activity had real meaning for
you? (A simulation activity was conducted prior
to the question.)
2. What assumptions about your personal views
have been misinterpreted or questioned? (Such
as your morals or values) Give an example.
3. What needs our immediate attention
in order for us to go forward as an
effective Multicultural community?

21. Example: Career Tech
1. How early were you attracted to your career
path and how did your teachers/educators
influence and support your decision?
2. What skills and traits would be required of a
HS student for you to consider accepting him/her as
an intern?
3. What types of jobs do you predict will exist
within your industry in the next 10-15 years and
what skills will be required to perform them?

22. Table Hosts…What to do…
• Encourage Everyone's Contribution
• It is important to encourage everyone in your
meeting to contribute their ideas and
perspectives, while also allowing anyone who
wants to participate by simply listening to do
so.

23. Table Hosts…What to do…
• Remind people at your table to jot
down key connections, ideas,
discoveries, and deeper questions as
they emerge.
• Remain at the table when others
leave and welcome travelers from
other tables.
• Briefly share key insights from the
prior conversation so others can
link and build using ideas from
their respective tables.

24. Café Etiquette

25. Connect Diverse Perspectives
• The opportunity to move between tables, meet new
people, actively contribute your thinking, and link the
essence of your discoveries to ever-widening circles of
thought is one of the distinguishing characteristics of
the Café.
• As participants carry key ideas or themes to new
tables, they exchange perspectives, greatly enriching
the possibility for surprising new insights.

26. Listen for Insights
• Through practicing shared
listening and paying attention to
themes, patterns and insights,
we begin to sense a connection
to the larger whole.
• After several rounds of
conversation, it is helpful to
engage in a whole group
conversation. This offers the
entire group an opportunity to
connect the overall themes or
questions that are now present.

27. Share Discoveries
• Harvest: Individuals are
invited to share insights
or other results from their
conversations with the
rest of the large group.
• These results are
reflected visually in a
variety of ways, using
graphic recorders or
sticky notes posted in the
front of or around the
room.

28. Visuals of Collective Knowledge
• Use a graphic recorder who can draw group ideas
to illustrate patterns of conversation
• People place the paper from the table on the wall
for a Gallery Tour of the group’s ideas.
• Large Post-Its with a single insight on the wall or
on a blackboard.
• Post-Its are clustered so that related ideas are
visible and available for planning next steps.
• Create a newspaper / newsletter.

29. Visuals of Collective Knowledge

30. Visuals of Collective Knowledge

31. Resources
• Online Community:
www.theworldcafe.com

32. www.theworldcafe.com

33. World Café on You Tube
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCFbNf6
Mb5s&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list
=PL0488C6D47948BA92
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrTKD8Np
ApY
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m7fpoAa
cBY&feature=related

34. Contact Me
Vickie Echols
Pine Tree ISD
vechols@ptisd.org
903-295-5136