Tool 13: World cafe

TOOL 13

World cafe

STAGE IN THE COMMUNITY-LEAD PLACE-BASED PROCESS: Stage V.. Measure and Evaluate PARTICIPATION LEVEL ON THE LADDER: 5. Involvement

WHEN TO USE THIS TOOL: Have you made an impact measurement plan (in Stage III)? Have you conducted baseline research? Have you put on your placemaking intervention, or begun with a long term placemaking project? Are you ready to find out what local residents and stakeholders thought about your initiative? If the answer to these questions is yes, you are ready to use this tool! HOW TO BEST USE THIS TOOL: We will use the World Cafe as a method of collecting the impact measurement data, like a big focus group! When you are ready to collect data based on your impact assessment plan, you will use this tool to see if you have progressed towards your objectives. TYPE OF ACTIVITY: Workshop with community members. DURATION: Preparation: 2 hours; Workshop: 2 hours.

Participation level on the ladder 7 8 6 2 4 1 3 5

World Cafes are basically focus groups set up in a relaxed cafe format, with evolving rounds of conversations on a specific topic. They are great to collect the views of a large group over a relatively short period of time.

PART 1. GETTING READY

STEP 1.

HOW TO ORGANIZE A WORLD CAFE 1. Set the Context: Be clear on the reason you are bringing people together, and what you want to achieve. 2. Create a Hospitable Space: Café hosts around the world emphasize the power and importance of creating a hospitable space—one that feels safe and inviting. 3. Explore Questions that Matter: Knowledge emerges in response to compelling questions. Find questions that are relevant to the real-life concerns of the group. 4. Encourage Everyone’s Contribution: It is important to encourage everyone to contribute their ideas and perspectives. 5. Connect Diverse Perspectives: The World Cafe format gives people the opportunity to move between tables and meet new people. As participants carry key ideas or themes to new tables, they exchange perspectives, greatly enriching the possibility for surprising new insights. 6. Listen Together for Patterns & Insights: The quality of our listening is perhaps the most important factor determining the success of a Café. Encourage people to listen for what is not being spoken along with what is being shared. 7. Share Collective Discoveries: Conversations held at one table reflect a pattern that connects with the conversations at the other tables. Invite a few minutes of silent reflection at the end on the patterns, themes and deeper questions experienced in the small group conversations and call them out to share with the larger group.

In a World Cafe, participants are seated at café-style tables with a total of 4 or 5 other participants. At least 3 rounds of conversation, approximately 20 min each, take place. At each table, the same question is discussed by the participants. After each round, the participants move from their table to a new one, where they continue their discussion with a new group of people. At each table, one host is selected to remain at the table in order to convey the preceding discussion to the new group.

STEP 2.

PLAN THE QUESTIONS The questions that you use for a World Café conversation are critical to its success. The central question posed to each group should be clear and simple, provoke thought, open new possibilities, invite deep reflection, and seek useful insight. Above all else, it should be directly relevant to the participants themselves.

EXAMPLES:

• Question 1: To what extent has our objective of getting more citizens to understand the procedures for civic engagement been achieved? • Question 2: What were your main barriers to participating (in the past, and now)?

What other actions could have been useful to increase civic participation? • Question 3: Have you cooperated with any cross sector groups for the first time?

If so, what enabled this participation? Did this lead to positive or negative effects?

WHEN MAKING QUESTIONS, THINK ABOUT:

• Relevance – To what extent are the objectives of the intervention consistent with beneficiaries’ requirements and local needs? • Effectiveness – To what extent have the objectives been achieved, or are expected to be achieved? • Impact – What positive and negative long-term effects result from the project, directly or indirectly, intended or unintended?; • Efficiency – Has the way that we have implemented the project made it possible to obtain the maximum effects (based on the stated objectives)? • Sustainability – To what extent has the project contributed towards continued long-term benefits even after the project has been completed?

STEP 3.

PLAN HOW TO COLLECT THE DATA There are a few different ways that you can collect data during the World Cafe. One of the ways that we suggest is by having big papers across each table, which the participants write on as they go through the questions. Other ways to collect data include: • Use a Graphic Recorder: In some Café events the whole group conversation is captured by a graphic recorder who draws the group’s ideas on flip charts or a wall mural using text & graphics to illustrate the patterns of the conversation. • Take a Gallery Tour: At times, people will place the paper tablecloths from their tables on the wall so members can take a tour of the group’s ideas during a break. • Post Your Insights: Participants can place large Post-It notes with a single key insight each on a blackboard, wall, etc. so that everyone can review the ideas during a break. • Create Idea Clusters: Group Post-Its into “affinity clusters” so that related ideas are visible and available for planning the group’s next steps. • Make a Story: Some World Café hosts create a newspaper or storybook to bring the results of their work to larger audiences after the event, using graphic recordings along with text as documentation.

STEP 4.

PREPARE FOR THE WORLD CAFE

Prepare the venue:

• Make the space look like an actual Café, with small tables that seat four or five people. Less than four at a table may not provide enough diversity of perspectives, more than five limits the amount of personal interaction. • Arrange the Cafe tables in a staggered, random fashion rather than in neat rows.

Tables in a sidewalk café after it has been open for a few hours look relaxed and inviting. • Use colorful tablecloths and a small vase of flowers on each table.

Prepare to host the world cafe. The HOST should:

• Explain the Café guidelines and Café Etiquette. • Explain how the logistics of the Café will work, including the role of the Table

Host (the person who volunteers to remain at the end of a round of conversation and welcome new people for the next round). • Encourage everyone to participate. • Remind people to note key ideas, doodle and draw. • Make sure key insights are recorded visually or are gathered and posted if possible.

HOW TO MOVE UP ON THE LADDER:

DO: Incentivise groups to participate by making the workshop fun, and providing resources like childcare for those who need it. DO: Have follow up structures in place– such as writing a flyer for the community– so that participants know that there will be follow up on their ideas.

For more info on how to set up a World Cafe, consult pages 5-6

PART 1. EXECUTION OF THE WORKSHOP

STEP 5.

REFLECT ON THE WORKSHOP It is important that you leave some room open for people to question the questions themselves! To be truly democratic, the debate itself should be negotiable, within the focus area. Ask the participants what they thought about the questions, or if there were particular themes that came up that would have been more useful to discuss. This will initiate a period of sharing discoveries & insights in a whole group conversation. It is in these town meeting-style conversations that patterns can be identified, collective knowledge grows, and possibilities for action emerge.

AFTER THE WORKSHOP • Collect the material produced on tablecloths, flipchart, cards etc. Verify if the photos and videos, if used, worked throughout the session. • Make any notes on your written notes, e.g., to clarify any scratching, ensure posters are numbered, fill out any notes that don’t make sense, etc. • Write down any observations made during the session. For example, where did the session occur and when, what was the nature of participation in the group?

Were there any surprises during the session? Any major themes that came out?

STEP 6.

INSPIRATION

HOW TO GET PEOPLE FROM DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS TO TALK TO EACH OTHER OPENLY? By putting them together in an informal space and organizing them in small groups!

In Harmanli teachers from the local kindergarten used the world cafe method to bring together the principal, parents and teachers from the "Alen Mak" school with municipal representatives, and local businesses and NGOs to discuss ideas in an informal cafe style environment with music in the art gallery of the Cultural Centre, in contrast to the usual school meeting space.