Conversational Tactics

The World Café
 is a powerful social technology for engaging people in conversations that matter, offering an effective antidote to our fast-paced world and lack of connection in today’s world. Founded by The World Café Community Foundation and based on the understanding that conversation is the core process that drives personal, business, and organizational life, the World Café is more than a method, a process, or technique – it’s a way of thinking and being together sourced in the philosophy of conversation World Café Method Drawing on seven principles, the World Café methodology is a simple, effective, and flexible format for hosting large group dialogue. World Café can be modified to meet a wide variety of needs. Specifics of context, numbers, purpose, location, and other circumstances are factored into each event’s unique invitation, design, and question choice, but the following five components comprise the basic model: 1) Setting: Create an environment, most often modeled after a café, i.e. small round tables covered with a checkered tablecloth, butcher block paper and colored pens. There should be four chairs at each table–each table will also have a “host” who will be stationed at the table for the entire World Café. This person will act as the point guard for all discussion, as the “conversators” switch after each round. 2) Welcome and Introduction: The host begins with a warm welcome and an introduction to the World Café process, the contextual discussion, sharing the Cafe Etiquette and putting participants at ease. 3) Small Group Rounds: The process begins with the first of three or more 10-15 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. They may or may not choose to leave one person 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. 4) Questions: Each round is prefaced with a question designed for the specific context and desired purpose of the session. The same questions can be used for more than one round, or they can be built upon each other to focus the conversation or guide its direction. 5) Harvest: After the small groups (and/or in between rounds, as desired) 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, most often using graphic recorders in the front of the room.

Graphic Facilitation is the use of large scale visual imagery to lead groups and individuals towards a goal. The method is used in various processes such as meetings, seminars, workshops and conferences. This visual process is conducted by a Graphic Facilitator, who will draw and record the conversation as a means to better understand the crucial points of what was said. Emergent Savannah staffs Brittany Curry as our Graphic Facilitator. For more information on Brittany’s work, visit: http://bcurry910.tumblr.com