Product Description

The World Café 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 café -style tables; these gatherings then link and build on each other as people move between groups and cross-pollinate ideas. In this way, Café learning enables even very large groups to think together creatively in a single, connected conversation. This complete resource explains the Café 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 Café '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 Café process in action at Hewlett-Packard, the nation of Singapore, and the University of Texas.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10018 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-10
• Format: Illustrated
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

Paul Borawski, Executive Director and Chief Strategic Officer, American Society for Quality
This book provides all of us the opportunity to embrace the future and let go of the past.

Lic. Esteban Moctezuma Barragan, Mexico’s former Minister of Social Development
The World Café serves as an inspiration to help make greater mutual understanding across social and cultural differences possible.

Fritjof Capra, Author, The Tao of Physics; The Web of Life; and The Hidden Connections
Understanding the processes that constitute the World Café's conversation network is essential for understanding life and leadership in human organizations.

Customer Reviews

A Great Idea that Needs a Better Book
This is an incredibly hard book for me to review. As with some other business books I've read in the past, I think the ideas are good and useful. On the other hand, despite its deceptively friendly appearance, I find this an incredibly difficult book to read.

My main complaint is simple and, again, commonplace among books of this type: it is entirely too long for what it is trying to achieve. This is a two hundred-plus page book that could have easily accomplished its purpose in thirty pages. It is bulked up by vagueness, repetitiveness and numerous personal anecdotes that are only occasionally useful. With much more direct and succinct writing, the authors could have given us a clearer picture of how to make the world cafe process unfold.

Still, it needs be said that the world cafe idea is a good one. I've used it a few times in meetings and it has always been successful. If you're looking for what the world cafe is about, this is the place.

The Wisdom of The Team
As CEO Coach, Poet and author of a leadship book that helps leaders unleash the genius of themselves, their teams and their businesses, I recomend this book. I have been through the process described in this book and find it an excellent way to discover the wisdom of a team or a company. Paul David Walker Unleashing Genius: Leading Yourself, Teams and Corporations

abbeypress
This book provides useful insight on leading discussions of diverse groups. I found the ideas to be a fresh way of looking at the discussion process. Especially useful for classroom and retreat situations.