creating conversations for change€¦ · 2 creating conversations for change the best leaders are...

Creating Conversations

for Change

Large group participatory methodsfor transforming our

world

Sally Ramsden & Chris Chapman

Creating Conversations for Change2

The best leaders are those The people hardly know existThe next best is a leader who

is loved and praisedNext comes the one

who is feared.The worst one is the leader

who is despised.

If you don’t trust the peopleThey will become

untrustworthy

The best leaders value their words

And use them sparinglyWhen she has accomplished

her taskThe people say ‘Amazing

We did it, all by ourselves.’

Chris CorriganThe Tao of Holding Space

Written by Sally Ramsden and Chris Chapman

Published by ReachAbilityThe Old Music Hall106-108 Cowley RoadOxford OX4 1JEEmail: [email protected]: 01865-403 129www.reachability.co.uk

Design by Shtig (www.shtig.net)Front cover photo by PadmakaraPrinted by Print Services, Oxford

Brookes University using recycledpaper from UK waste

Foreword

This guide offers one way of approaching theconcepts, tools and techniques used in a clusterof large group participatory methods that arebecoming more widely used for communitybuilding, engaging stakeholders and organisingchange across all sectors.

Ideally, this guide is designed to supportpeople taking part in a group learningexperience exploring why and how to use WorldCafé, Open Space and other inquiry approaches(in particular, some aspects of AppreciativeInquiry).

The whole experience for participantscombines:• the group learning event

• the harvest (or outputs) created during thatevent

• this guide.

Like the methods explored, we put this guidetogether in a collaborative way. It is an act of co-creation and emerged out of a process ofcommunication and connection starting fromwhen we met at an Art of Hosting training eventin Ireland that Chris was part of organising andfacilitating.

Sally mostly wrote parts 1 and 3 followingmany conversations with and much resourcesharing by Chris. Chris wrote more onfacilitation, methods and resources.

Please feel free to share anything that you findhelpful here – we simply ask that you credit ourwork using a creative commons licence.

Sally Ramsden & Chris Chapman, September 2009

www.reachability.co.uk 3

Part 1 The bigger picture: overall approach and values

Conversation as community: inclusion, diversity and wholeness Conversation as action: meeting each otherLiving systems: re-learning life’s lessons

Part 2 The practicalities: facilitation and methods

Power, wisdom and leadership: letting goPreparation and process: small group, large group; circle, squareHarvesting, recording and communicating the resultsThe methods:

Circle Appreciative InquiryWorld CaféOpen Space

Part 3In conclusion: over to you

Ten Top Tips

Resources

Contents

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Part 1: The bigger picture: overall approach and valuesConversation as community: inclusion, diversity and wholeness

This guide is about supportingconversations in ourcommunities about the thingswe care most about, so thattransformative changes canhappen.

It focuses on ways of bringingpeople together to talk andlisten, reflect and act acrossboundaries, hierarchies andcultures – whether they work inthe same or very different team,organisation, profession, sector,country or culture.

Our approach explores thescience of conversation, the artof listening, the power ofquestions and the role of silencewhile offering ways of workingwith groups of different shapes andsizes, ranging typically from 12 to onethousand or more people at a time.

We highlight two particular methodsfor working with large groups of people- World Café and Open Space – anddraw on core aspects of AppreciativeInquiry. All three also provide elementsand ideas for working with muchsmaller groups, including with just oneother person. It includes ‘Circle’ as themother of all such methods.

Like all participatory approaches,these methods are:

• inclusive• build on people’s own experiences

and knowledge • have the potential to generate

ownership and responsibility • assume that people can work well

together and share ideas and developplans collectively


All are welcome: the whole system in the roomThese large group methods are allabout creating processes and placeswhere everyone’s contribution isencouraged, where people voice theirexperience, share their knowledge,exchange ideas and build community,capacity and plans together.

Inclusiveness is embedded in thenames of both World Café and OpenSpace. A café for the world – foreveryone, for the whole, for the globe,where all of us can be at home,welcomed and embraced. An ‘open’space – open to all, open to whoevercomes, open without preconditions andpresupposed outcomes. A space that isjust that: empty, ready, available - forcreating, for sharing.

Both methods are also aptly namedfor the times we live in. We can nowtalk to each other, to many others,across time and space, across the globe.And we need global conversations –global in size and scope – involving asmany people as possible – to tackle theburning issues of our times – climatechange, peace, poverty. And we needopenness and we need space in order todo this – to explore and think and acttogether.

“Diversity of thought and experience is perhaps the

single most important criterion forgaining new insight and accessing

collective wisdom.”Brown with Isaacs, The World Café

Diversity underpins these methods.The simple rule of thumb is thatdifferent people have differentperspectives. No two people see thesame picture in the same way.

Who you are and where you sit in theorganisation, society or global ‘system’shapes what you know and how you seethings. So the more diversity you bringinto the process (depending on yourpurpose) the richer and more completethe bigger picture will be and the betterinformed the decisions and plansarising.

The principle here is that visions andactions are more likely to be wise, themore they are based on a fullerappreciation of the system. Engagement of ‘the whole system’means relationships are built, voicesheard and experiences exchanged thatprepare the ground to be fertile for newideas, action and change. The answerslie in the connections within the wholesystem, not in leaders or keyindividuals, however important theircontribution is too.

Large group participatory methodsare designed to encourage bringing arich and representative mix into theroom. The more voices and the moreviews, the more cross over andconnections to be made. And the morelikely new insights and ideas are toemerge. Such methods lend themselvesto inter-disciplinary, multi-sector,cross-cultural working; where the levelof complexity of the issues is matchedby the level of complexity andsophistication of the response.


These methods can also be usedfruitfully for team building within onedepartment or within one organisation.The point is that the sum is greaterthan the parts and the parts are not allthe same, even if we tend to think theyare.

“Only when we have many different perspectives do we have

enough information to make gooddecisions. And exploring our

differing perspectives always bringsus closer together.”

Margaret Wheatley, in the foreword of The World Café

Wholeness: the bigger picture Whether the work is about communitydevelopment or organisational change,national policy on climate change orinternational initiatives on poverty,these methods can support the ‘system’- the organisation, community, projector network – to hear itself, see itselfmore fully and develop in new ways.

What works as a ‘whole system’ willdepend on specific purpose and focus.Work on the theme of ‘sustainability’for example, may mean convening adifferent slice of life from say ‘inter-faith working’. Strategic planning for aparticular neighbourhood couldinvolve government, residents,business, education, youth, faith,agencies, transport etc. etc. – withattention paid to demographics such asage, gender and ethnicity. As withparticipatory research methods, the keyquestion to ask is: ‘Who else needs tobe included ?’.

At the same time, both World Caféand Open Space share an explicitground rule, spelt out clearly by theiroriginators: who ever is present in theroom are the right people to be here.And the work done at the time is wholeand complete. This is not the same assaying there isn’t more to be done andothers to be included in the future. Butright now whoever is in the room,there is the potential for new creativity.

As the originators of World Cafépoint out, we often neglect to invitethe ‘right’ people:

• those most affected by the outcomesof the conversation

• those who bring unique or diverseperspectives

• members of our communities whocould benefit most deeply frombeing part of the process.

So in this approach, it would bestrange, for instance, to convene agathering on the future of educationin one local community withoutinviting pupils as well as teachers,education managers and parents.


Diversity generatescreativity and innovation. Itmay also bring with it somedissent. However, as Blockputs it in Community,voicing doubt or saying ‘no’authentically is also whatenables people to say ‘yes’and mean it.

“All the potential for change, the capacity to do itwell, the future that wants to be

born – it’s all in the room.”Chris Corrigan

The Tao of Holding Space

The value of differentperspectivesBecause everyone has theirown perspective, it is onlyby coming together andsharing that we can learnfrom each other and buildup a bigger, fuller picture.

At a café session aroundmarketing in a collegelooking at how people formtheir first impressions of theplace, the chief executiveand head caretaker endedup at the same table.

The caretaker asked if anyone elseknew what happens there in the earlyevening and then told how heregularly sees people turn up lookingfor information when all the servicesare closed. Their first impression wasof a big, confusing, unhelpful place.

This contribution led directly to thedesign of a new movable noticeboardthat was put out each evening, withbasic information and details of howto get more.


“It takes courage to start aconversation. But if we don’t start

talking to one another, nothing willchange. Conversation is the way we

discover how to transform ourworld, together.”

Margaret Wheatley, Turning to One Another

Many major changes in our modernworld only come about becausesomeone somewhere starts aconversation about them. TheSolidarity movement in Poland wouldnot have happened without a smallgroup of workers starting to talk toeach other. French salons and Englishcoffee houses both played a part inbringing about historic shifts inphilosophical thinking, culture andpolitics. Abolition of slavery wouldprobably not have happened withoutthe small groups of people who startedmeeting to see how to change things. Asimilar process helped win the vote forwomen. Study circles helped usher inthe 19th century Scandinavianrenaissance; sewing circles wereimportant in the lead up to theAmerican Revolution.

A group of friends had dinner onenight in Germany (Kinsler 1992 in TheWorld Café) and expressed theirconcern about the number of neo-Naziattacks on foreigners.

Each called several friends andcolleagues who all gathered for acandlelit vigil involving one hundredpeople. Many of these individuals toldtheir friends. Within days the wordspread and 400,000 people cametogether in Munich.

Conversation as action These days it’s common to think ofmeetings and talking as different fromtaking action and getting on with thejob – we tend to see them as precursorsor even impediments to action.

So what does it take for the action toarise? Or can we look at if differently?What if talking to one another is takingaction? What if having the rightconversations with the right people isactually taking radical action in itself,given the fragmented communities andworld in which we live? The word‘conversation’ is just one letter short ofcontaining the word ‘action’ within it.

We’ve just become used to seeing talkand action as separate and as linear –first we talk (if at all), then we takeaction. So instead of too much talk, toolittle action, how about more talk andmore considered action – at leastslowing it down and considering itfrom multiple perspectives and anglesbefore leaping to conclusions andaction plans?

Conversation as action: meeting each other


To converse means ‘to commune’, ‘totalk familiarly’. Given the right,supportive conditions conversations arefundamental to bringing about changeand they do so, not least, through usdropping our guard a bit, getting toknow each other and swopping storiesand aspirations.

Open Space was created by HarrisonOwen when, after spending a wholeyear planning for and preparing aninternational conference, everyoneincluding himself agreed the mostuseful conversations had taken place inthe coffee break – the bit he and theother organisers had nothing to dowith was where the real actionhappened.

Conversation as insight“We speak our world into being”, writethe World Café originators. We knowthat how we view the world determineswhat we see. It’s the same with the waywe talk. How we talk about somethingalso shapes what we and what otherssee and what is possible (the future, theoutcomes).

We can either end up having thesame (old) conversation with the samepeople in the same way. Or we can dosomething different. We can find ways to have differentkinds of conversations that will havedifferent outcomes. That’s what theselarge group participatory methods areabout. They provide a minimum levelof structure and support for shiftingthe conversation.

We can find ways to have differentkinds of conversations that will havedifferent outcomes. That’s what theselarge group participatory methods areabout. They provide a minimum levelof structure and support for shiftingthe conversation.

“We live in the conversation wehave about the world…. We have

the opportunity to shape thatconversation and in doing so to

shape history.”Brown with Isaacs, The World Café

Conversation as meeting each other Human beings have always engaged inmeeting (s) – ways to come togetherand talk and wonder and make plansand take decisions, ways to organiseourselves and our lives. Without‘meetings’ we wouldn’t survive orthrive.

So how can we meet one another inthe modern world? How can we hearand be heard rather than talk at eachother amidst the speed and pressures ofmodern life? As human beings weyearn for connection and we talk aboutwanting to ‘be met’. To be mutuallyseen, heard and understood is atremendously valuing, affirming thing -so much so it can be transformative initself.


When large group participatorymethods are used authentically andsensitively, they offer ways to create andpresence our human connection, just asdo other approaches in different fieldssuch as Nonviolent Communication(NVC).

The basic premise of NVC is that allhuman beings share the same feelingssuch as joy, sorrow, inspiration andneeds such as safety, fun, learning etc.We can ‘connect’ with each otheraround these universal feelings andneeds, even when we seem to becoming from different places andwanting different things. In NVC it’sjust our strategies for meeting ourneeds that may differ, not our corehumanity. This approach leaves plentyof space for mutual understanding andmeeting of each other.

Different levels of conversationsIn ‘Theory U: Leading from the Futureas It Emerges’ (2007), Otto Scharmercharacterises four levels ofconversations:

1. Downloading – talking nice –polite routines and empty phrases –speaking from what ‘they’ want tohear;

2. Debate – talking tough – divergentviews – ‘I am my point of view’ –speaking from what I think;

3. Dialogue – reflective inquiry –from defending to inquiry intoviewpoints – speaking from seeingmyself as part of the whole;

4. Presencing – generative flow –stillness, collective creativity, flow –speaking from what is movingthrough.

The nature of our attention andlistening is different at each level:

1. Downloading – I am on autopilot,going through the motions;2. Debate – I am my pointof view, disagreement can beinterpreted as personalcriticism;3. Dialogue – I aminterested in you and howwe relate as part of a biggersystem;4. Presencing – I amsensing the potential of thismoment.


Living systems: re-learning life’s lessons

“Nature organises much moreeffectively than we do, and quite

differently. For example, life workscooperatively, not competitively, in

networks of relationships whereeach depends on the other.”

Margaret Wheatley, Turning to OneAnother

In the world of organisationaldevelopment there’s now a school ofthought that views organisations asliving communities – organisedcollections of parts, systems made up ofmany smaller systems. So if one partchanges, the nature of the overallsystem changes too. Healthy, wellfunctioning systems continuallyexchange feedback with their variousparts and the external environmentandkeep making the necessaryadjustments.

Put like that, it may seem perfectlyobvious, yet much thinking aboutleadership and change managementand organisations has been devoted tojust the opposite – to top down modelsof management

Both World Café and Open Space arein different ways very compatible withthis fresh approach to understandingorganisations and systems as living,self-organising, interconnected,evolving and changing communities.

World Café supports a rich web ofconnection to emerge through aprocess of cross-pollination andonvergence. Open Space ensures thatparticipants choose and explore a widerange of topics and angles of their ownchoosing under any particular overallheading. It is the ultimate large groupmethod when it comes to self-organising.

This is all very different from thelinear, rational way of seeing things thathas come to dominate modern life. NB. See Part 2 for more on thepracticalities of using these methods.

The science of conversation: living systems The changed thinking aboutorganisations as living communities ispart of a much bigger paradigm shift inthinking overall. It’s arises from anongoing conversation about how natureis organised that has been going on forabout 50 years and is now mostcommonly known as ‘living systems’thinking (or general systems theory).

To put it very simply, this way ofseeing the world says that we andothers and all ecological beings,including our planet, are living systems,not static machines. We are constantlychanging and evolving and thisevolution happens as a result ofconnections and relationships.


This represents a paradigmshift from what’s been labelledCartesian thinking (ie.Descartes, Francis Bacon etc.)and the analytical, mechanicalmodel where cause and effectcould be separated from contextto a more holistic, organic viewof the world where weappreciate that everything isconnected to everything elseand a small change in one placein the system can contribute tobig changes elsewhere.

In many ways ‘living systems’ theoryis not so much a new way of thinkingas a further understanding of what hasgone before. What all sorts of scientistshave been finding out and talkingabout since the 20th century hasremarkable congruence with mucholder ways of thinking found amongindigineous peoples and in ourreligions. They started off looking atwholes, not parts and at processesinstead of substances.

From here modern scientistsunderstood that each ‘system’ – a cell, atree, a river, a bird - is not separate. Itdoes not exist in isolation and is notreducable to its individual components.It is interdependent and part of a largerpattern.

As systems we all participate in theevolving web of life, giving andreceiving the feedback necessary forboth self-regulating balance andorganic change. Each element is part ofa vaster pattern that connects andevolves and varies.

Rationalist Cartesian thinking led toextraordinary technological gains andindustrial growth. However it stillcouldn’t explain the constantlyunfolding self-renewing process of life.

Interconnection and emergenceIn a ‘living systems’ way of seeingourselves and our world – our cells, ourbodies, ecosystems, the planet -interconnection and emergence are key.Natural systems are dynamicallyorganised, intricately balanced systems.They are open systems that not onlymaintain balance but evolve incomplexity. “Life surprises us withemergence”, writes Margaret Wheatleyin her foreword to The World Café.

Other thinkers working in other partsof the ‘system ‘ – in organisationalchange, in learning, in leadership, ininformation technology and in futuresresearch, for example – have broughtsystems thinking to their disciplinesand communities and conversations.


Large group participatory methods areabout setting up the conditions for lifeto keep growing and emerging,connecting and developing, in ourcommunities.

“We still believe that in building a community we are ineffect building and operating a

clock. Once again problem solvingcan make things better but it cannot

change the nature of things. Thisinsight is at the center of all

thinking about complex, adaptivesystems , emergent design and theorganic, self-regulating nature of

the universe.”Peter Block, Community - the Structure

of Belonging

In a living systems approach top down,tightly controlled hierarchicalmanagement structures are more likelyto weaken than strengthen the system.The all-seeing, all-knowing leader putspressure not just on themselves, but onthe whole system, not least becausethey can’t afford to admit they don’tknow all the answers and let go. AsDowney and Youell point out(www.dya.ie) , since no one person canknow everything, this model ofleadership tends to lead to people andorganisations playing it safe and thingsstaying the same. In a systems way ofworking, not knowing is a great placefrom which to begin an inquiry.

World Café and Open Space andinquiry methods in general are notbased on providing the answers straightaway or engineering change but onfacilitating collaborative socialprocesses that help us move on. This is a much more facilitativeapproach to leadership and in essence itis about providing the conditions forpeople to have transformative,collective conversations. NB. For more on living systems see, forexample, Joanna Macey ‘The Work thatReconnects’ and ‘World as Lover, Worldas Self ’.

Appreciative questions

An appreciative inquiry approachwould frame questions more like this:

What keep us together? rather than‘What separates us?’

What nourishes us?rather than ‘What starves us?’

What helps us grow?rather than ‘What keeps us stuck?’

What brings you alive?


The power of questions

“The traditional questions implythat the one asking knows and

others are a problem to be solved.”Peter Block, Community - the Structure

of Belonging

A good question is just that, a quest – a journey, an adventure, a search forsomething important. As Block notesin Community, the Structure ofBelonging:

• answers tell us something – they tendto bring closure.

• questions are invitations – they canopen things up and help us exploreand change.

• genuine questions are ones we don’talready know the answer to.

Good questions in ourexperience can be(deceptively) simple.However it may takehours, days or evenweeks for the mostpowerful ones toemerge. Often it’s aquestion of having towade through clumsyformulations, beforearriving at an elegantsimplicity.

Signs of a good question A good question is rarely the first onethat comes to mind. It may be farmore productive if it does notencourage a direct rush to action, butrather stimulates more lateral, deeperthinking. Good questions are, amongother things:

clear constructive creative catalytic

Framing QuestionsWhen Art of Hosting co-founder andfacilitator Toke Moller ran an educationcafé about the future of a local schoolin a small Danish community, thequestions he invited people to thinkthrough were invitations to explorecreative options for the future.


They avoided judgement about whatwas already happening and immediatepressure for action. This is why heasked:

Not questions like: How can we improvethis school? How could the school bebetter (an invitation to moan)

Rather: What could this school also be?(an invitation to imagine and becreative)

Negative questions generate negativeresponses. The key shift here is fromseeing people as problems and the lackof community as a deficiency to besolved. So why not ask:

What do you most like about yourorganisation? Team? Neighbourhood?Community?

A group of people living in a clusterof rural villages and hamlets inEngland were worried about how manyyoung people were leaving the area forthe bright city lights. They cametogether to talk about what to do.

First question that came into mindwas: ‘Why do all these young peoplewant to leave?’

Then: 'What would it take for ouryoung people to really want to stay inour area?' Later question after furtherthought: 'What is our vision for acommunity that includes young people?’

In this case (and many others) theimportant thing is to resist thetemptation to jump to action tooquickly. Inviting participants to becreative opens up the conversation upand leads to very different outcomesthat can then be actioned moreeffectively.

Questions about questionsWorld Café can be a great way to findthe questions that need to be asked. Inthis way of working a good questionabout questions is fine.

What questions are we not asking here? What are the most important

conversations that we never have ?What question if (not) explored could

make the most difference?What do we not know that could

transform this situation? What’s the most important question each

of you has, which if explored wouldallow you to move forward in yourrole?

Open Space commonly begins withan overarching question or themeframing the gathering. It is alsoperfectly possible to begin with –as thename suggests – a completely blanksheet and simply invite people “Whatwould you like to talk about with eachother?” – which can be a very powerfulquestion where people have notpreviously experienced such freedomand respect.


The art of listening

“I believe we can changethe world if we start listening to

one another again.”Margaret Wheatley, Turning to One

Another

Listening is in some ways even moreimportant than talking to each other.It’s telling that Wheatley’s book openswith an emphasis on listening ratherthan talking and that she reminds ushow the way that we live in noisy timesis part of our fragmentation. Listeningis part of any conversation – otherwiseit might as well be a one waymonologue and we are talking at eachother rather than talking with. In themodern world we often seem in dangerof listening becoming a forgotten art, adisappearing language. We may learnhow to give a talk or present anargument, but not how to listen and tolet the other person know they havebeen heard. In the modern world we’reincreasingly in need of structures andspaces to help us to listen more. Weneed to re-learn how to listen - deeplistening – not advice giving, fixing,telling people what to do.

Rarely if ever do we think aboutlistening together as a group – let alonegroups in a system. How do we listencollectively – a very differentproposition from much that has beenwritten and is taught about listening inthe individualising sense. The systemhearing itself is part of the systemunderstanding itself.

Theory U offers a useful way ofunderstanding what’s going on in aconversation. Individuals contribute tothe whole and the whole is thensomething else altogether – the sum isin other words greater than the parts.

Individuals are no longer justlistening to see how they might win theargument, but now listening so thatthey can have a fuller appreciation ofthe overall picture and maybe, even,listening for the ‘crack’ of possibility–within that bigger picture, what mightjust be possible? Where exactly mightthat potential to make the differencethat makes a difference lie?

"Another world is not only possible,she is on her way. On a quiet day,

I can hear her breathing." Arundhati Roy

NB. For more on the relationshipbetween listening and creativity seeNancy Kline ‘Time to Think: Listeningto Ignite the Human Mind’.

The role of silence: pausing for reflectionWith many groups and processes apause for thought can work wondersduring an intense event or busy day.Even a short pause has value beyondwords. See what can emerge out of thespace that silence creates.


It can enable people to do all sorts ofthings including:

• drop deeper • ferment • synthesise • integrate• consolidate • rest.

There are many ways to offer peoplethis opportunity such as invitingeveryone to:

• walk around the room initially insilence taking in some of the ‘fruits’produced in small groups during acafé or open space(graphic records ofconversations that can be posted onthe walls or laid on the floor for all toview)

• take a brief stroll outside or in adifferent space for a bit of digestion

• sit in silent contemplation as a way to,for example, consider an importantquestion or make a closure andenable people to move on to the nextactivity.

• 'Take a minute to pause here - if therewas something deeper at the heart ofthis conversation, what might thatbe?'

"Silence provides an easilyavailable yet seldom used

opportunity to listen for and accessthe wisdom that often lies just

beneath the surface of our mutualdeliberations. I sometimes think of

silence as a way to access a deepwell in the centre of the group."Brown with Isaacs, The World Cafe

Making the difference A large international developmentNGO used a mix of World Café andOpen Space for its annual away dayfor senior UK-based staff. The aimwas not to produce formal strategiesand plans, but rather to make themost of a rare opportunity to standback and reflect on all their work tosupport a key sector over many years.Had the millions invested made anydifference? If so, what and how? Andhow could they best use theirresources to improve more lives inthe future?

People found the event ‘powerful’and ‘unusual’. They noted how theconversations were of a differentnature and how little grand standingthere was among the 35 participants.They saw what a difference it madebringing in a handful of people fromfar flung parts of the organisationwho would not normally be invitedto such occasions. They committedto bringing a wider choice ofrepresentatives into the room thenext year in order to move beyondseeing ‘this is this the sum of ourparts’ to see if they could create ‘morethan the sum of our parts’.


“What we want to do is facilitate the flow of collaboration.

Your role is to care for the smallintangibles, the space, the quality

of the invitation, the integrity of the offering.”

Chris Corrigan, The Tao of Open Space

Leadership and facilitation approachesand styles can be viewed as acontinuum from tight control(maintaining order) to letting go(embracing chaos). Working with largegroup participatory methods involves ashift from one way information sharingby experts and top down leadership toenabling the flows of information to gowhere they need to go and leadershipto emerge where ever it emerges.

These methods promote sharedresponsibility – co-creation, co-leadership, partnership not parenting.The facilitator ensures the basicconditions for creativity are in placeand as little as possible is getting in theway. You are there to support; you arenot in charge – the opposite. You arethere to facilitate – ‘to make easy oreasier’ the flow.

Your role is much more aboutthinking/reflecting, inviting, preparingbefore the day, communicatingfollowing the event if needs be. Duringthe event itself you are more like a hostthan a conventional leader. Your role isto set up an open house and welcomepeople in so they can meet each otherand create a buzz together.

The inner work of being a facilitatoris challenging in these methods. Stepback. Step aside. Let go. Let go of selfand ego. This model is the opposite ofpower over. It is power with. You arehanding over the pen and the space tothe participants.

The facilitator:• starts off / stimulates the inquiry• sets up the café

• opens the space

In this way of working the facilitator is:

• not the action hero • not the saviour or god. • not responsible for getting it right nor

blamed when it all goes wrong.

Part 2: The practicalities: facilitation and methods

Power, wisdom and leadership: letting go


With these methods everyone isequal, every voice counts and everyidea is valid. All we need – and need toknow – is in the room.

The key learning is not to try and dotoo much. With these methodsfacilitation is about creating andholding that space within which thesystem can see itself and start to fulfilits potential. Neither facilitator, norsponsor, no-one can control theoutcomes.

Facilitation needs to encourage the waywe’d like our communities to be:

• valuing diversity• acknowledging feelings and needs• giving time and space to what

matters• playing• connecting up parts• celebrating• being compassionate to all, including

ourselves.

Facilitation: treading the tightropeMany people think that the route toanxiety-free facilitation is through theaccumulation of techniques andmethods and, of course, having the‘right’ approach for a particularsituation will help.

Harrison Owen, the creator ofOpen Space, advices:

‘Trust the people’.‘Less is more’. ‘Collect the coffee cups’.


Edwin Nevis (OrganizationalConsulting: A Gestalt Approach, 1987)offers a deeper perspective. Whilstwriting about consultants, he is talkingtoo about facilitation. He describes thenotion of ‘marginality’ – a precariousbalance on a boundary where you areboth ‘in’ the group enough and ‘out’ ofthe group enough :

1. The consultant is seen by the clientas being sympathetic and comfortablewhile working in a system – as fittingin even though a stranger.

2. The consultant’s differences are seenby the system as interesting orattractive; the client experiences acompelling presence from another‘world’

3. The consultant is fully available tothe client, but is not a protector or a‘buddy’

In terms of facilitator anxiety, thismeans facilitators have to be able toensure that their own needs to expresstheir individuality and to belong to agroup do not interfere with theirmaintaining of the ‘precarious balance’that the group needs them to occupy.

A facilitator is not a full groupparticipant. S/he is a human beingwith needs, who is able to ‘bracket’ thegreater part of those needs whilst in thefacilitator role. The ability to detachoneself and bracket one’s needs isdeveloped through self-awareness andpractice.

A word on co-facilitationCo-facilitation, at its best, models aform of collaboration and co-operationthat fits these methods perfectly andcan reinforce and strengthen goodprocess and inspiring outcomes.

Working together can take thepressure off the individual facilitatorand add value with the additionalperspectives of the second facilitator.Co-facilitating can be a good way ofvarying the pace and tone of activities.

Ideally, co-facilitating gives you moretime and space to watch and learn fromthe group and the opportunity toconsider how you might want to shiftthings, when it is your turn to take thelead.

For some though, co-facilitating canintroduce an additional anxiety into thework, which makes it harder for you tostay grounded. You may want toconsider how you jointly use the timejust before an event starts to make sureyou ‘are’ the way you want to ‘be’.

Successful co-facilitation dependsmost on the quality of the relationshipand trust between the co-facilitators.The relationship and trust will grow themore honest you are able to be witheach other in giving feedback andmutual support and the more you areable to plan together in advance of asession.


The dance of co-facilitationSometimes people talk aboutco-facilitation being like adance – one person takes thelead, the other follows. Manyof us tend to have a stock offamiliar moves andsometimes if you’re feelingbrave you try somethingdifferent – your partner willeither follow your brave moveor just stand back and watchbecause they haven’t got aclue what you’re doing. Onlyin extreme circumstances willyour partner politely suggestto you that maybe you’d liketo stop dancing now and letsomeone else have a turn.

Like dancers, experiencedpartners can develop anintuition for where their co-facilitator is going and howthey may choose to fit in –eventually it may becomealmost seamless, as if the twopartners were in fact onewhole being. This issomething to aim for overtime. To start with, justconcentrate on having reallyclear communication witheach other and learning fromexperience - the rest willfollow.

Co-facilitation: making it work It’s important to:

• be up front about the nature of the co-facilitation relationship – is it a relationship ofequals or more of an apprenticeship?

• know where each other are comfortable andwhere you are less comfortable. - for eachsection of the event, it is best to know who istaking the leading role;

• be very sensitive about cutting across orundermining your co-facilitator in some way – be aware of this possibility and check outwith each other how you feel this balance isworking out between you.


With large group participatorymethods such as World Caféand Open Space, how you setup the event, from the venueand physical space to the overallstructure of the day is vital.They are at least as important ascontent, if not more so.

Working with either or bothmethods requires goodpreparation. Most of the hardwork goes on before anyoneenters the room on the day ofthe meeting. This is a frontloaded way of working and itstarts with the very firstconversation you have withothers about bringing peopletogether – with a client, with amanager, with a team, withyour network.

Key factors worth spending time on include:• how you frame and communicate the

invitation to move people to come;• finding the right venue (and flexible,

understanding venue managers);• who you invite;• what themes to focus on or whether to go

for a completely Open Space (“What wouldyou like to most talk about today?’) or around or two of World Café to find theburning themes and questions;

• what questions are asked and how andwhen;

• which method/s or mix of methods to use;• making sure the client understands how the

methods work, especially the letting go andinclusive aspects;

• sharing contextual/ background informationbefore hand, when appropriate.

Size and shape Whatever your purpose and process,the structure will involve participantsmoving in various ways between smallgroup and whole group work.

The small group allows every voiceto be heard and works well for deeplistening and connecting. The largegroup is about more public sharing,speaking for the whole, ‘sharing withthe world’ as Block puts it inCommunity: the Structure ofBelonging.

Preparation and process:small group, large group; circle, square


He goes on to spell out how the roomis the container, the metaphor forcommunity. So the set up and processbecome ways to both model and createthe (ideal) community. To practiceright here and now what it is we aspireto. Block notes:

• circle is the shape of community • squares and rectangles (have sharp

edges) – negotiation, positioning• rows in a classroom (or church or

army parade) – instruction, (givingorders)

So the more circles the better. Thismeans small round café style tablesreally do make a difference when doingWorld Café. And that it’s important tobegin and end in a whole group circleor circles, if humanly possible. OpenSpace also thrives on softer edges andwholeness, so where possible, usecircles in your room set ups for boththe whole group and small groupsstages.

Transparency of process is alsoimportant. Mapping the structures andprocesses as you go, using graphicrecording, not only enhances opennessand strengthens trust, but can helppeople see the bigger system of whichthey are a part.

Make it inviting! How you frame the invitation forpeople to take part is as much a partof the success and flow of the day asthe event itself. It’s worth working on.Effective invitations:

• are compelling, simple and clear;• let people know you will be doing

something different from aconventional meeting; encouragethem to be prepared to besurprised;

• don’t usually say very much aboutthe methods – most prospectiveparticipants won’t want to knowabout the approach you’ll be usingin detail in advance;

• spell out the intent – for example:‘We’re doing this because we carepassionately about X issue in ourorganisation/ community/ networketc;

• make it clear that anyone whowants to know more can contactyou – be ready to offer a phonenumber so they talk direct with yourather than an anonymous email ifyou can.

Human connection and communitybuilding starts from the time you firstconceive the idea for an eventbringing people together in a newway.


“The best experiences of harvesting are done by the

stakeholders themselves. Harvestingcollectively yields more than

harvesting alone”.The Art of Hosting

What’s the point of planting seeds andgrowing them if you leave the harvestto rot in the fields? Thinking aboutwhat to do with the results ofconversations and how to do it needs tobegin well before those conversationshappen. What does this process need toyield ?

Whatever method you choose to use,how you harvest, record andcommunicate the results / outputs ofconversations matters – both to create alasting record for the people who werethere and to communicate to thepeople who weren’t there.

Planning begins with considering thepurpose – what is the point of thisactivity? Is it, for example, to:

• bring people together? • identify clear action plans? • communicate a fuller, clearer picture

than has been communicated beforeetc. etc.

There is no one absolute right way ofharvesting, recording andcommunicating, though some ways aremore engaging than others.

Harvesting, recording and communicating the results

Intelligence:

From the Latin: inter legere – togather the understanding inbetween.

Examples of good practices during theevent itself might include:

• volunteer spokespeople doing 30second adverts of why people mightwant to talk to them in the breakabout what happened in their group;

• action plans from each group can bewritten or typed into a pre-formedtemplate, so that copies can be givento everyone before they leave thesession (this is part of classic OpenSpace practise);

• graphic recording – using mindmaps, cartoons etc. to communicatean understanding of the diversity andinterconnectedness of issues;

• a ‘market place’ where people canwander round and look at theproducts of groups and ask‘stallholders’ any questions they mighthave.


Some people are expert at creatingartistic feedback – this can be inspiring.However, keep in mind that groupstend to warm most to what they havecreated themselves. The recordproduced can be as much about thespirit and energy of the thing, as thepractical details. There is no such thingas a perfect representation ofinformation - a range ofcommunication tools works best.

An interim step may be neededbetween harvesting the fruits freshfrom the café or open space andmoving to the next step in the process.The whole group, for example, can usesticky dots to express energy preferenceand /or priority. However, as withparticipatory research methods such asParticipatory Appraisal / ParticipatoryLearning and Action (PA/PLA) bewarethat significant minority perspectivesare not lost.

Whatever emerges may still not bethat digestible to the rest of theorganisation or system that hasn’t beenpart of it. Or there may be so muchdata that there is a need for a pause forthe whole group to understand it morefully before finding ways to share withothers not present.

Community planning An event in Oxfordshire gave rise tothe creation of a colourful tea towelwhich captured key issues, ideas anddecisions visually. Every householdaffected by the questions exploredreceived one.

Sharing the fruits Information captured during theevent can be displayed anddistributed using a range of methodsold and new, including:

• exhibition, displays, posters, visualsof all kinds

• short booklet, newsletter, newssheet, stories, quotes and more

• slides, photos, video, audio,multimedia

• 30 second video interviews to beput together on U-Tube

• digital photos of flipcharts put upon photosharing sites such as Flickr

NB. Different people respond todifferent styles, so using different kindsof representation is good practice too.

Kolb’s learning cycle

Activists learn best directly fromaction and experience

Reflectors prefer to learn throughreviewing their experience

Theorists like to fit what they learninto models and relate it to theirexisting knowledge

Pragmatists are interested in learningwhat they can apply to theirsituation.


Whose information? Making shared meaningThe act of ‘organising’ information isan exercise of power – careful thoughtshould be given as to who does this – itshouldn’t just automatically be done‘for’ people. All too often the ‘boss’takes control or, at the other end of thescale, the task is delegated to thesecretary as if it were like writing upminutes.

The more the group ‘organises’ theinformation for itself and starts toidentify themes, patterns, differencesand what’s missing, the better. This willcreate:

• deeper, more integrated individualand collective understanding

• a sense of ownership andresponsibility

• rich and new connections andpossibilities.

Ideally, as with participatory research(PA/PLA), the people who provide theinformation and ideas are the same asthe people who find the patterns, thedifferences, the eureka moments; whoanalyse, sift and make meaning. If thisis not possible, then aim for at least abroadly representative selection ofthem.

Next best is a random group ofwhoever feels inspired and willing.Whatever happens find a way to feedthe harvest back into the system swiftly,including if as commissioner orfacilitator of the process, you end uptaking on the role, So even if all elsefails, do your best to feed the ‘findings’back into the system – and see whatstirs and emerges.


NB. If you go down the reporting-inroute, in any shape or form, remindeveryone that it’s not a talent show or acompetition. It’s simply aboutcommunicating – and having some fun.

How to avoid death by feedbackHaving someone from each workinggroup feed back, one by one, to thewhole group can lead to ‘death byfeedback’. If you use a reporting informat, encourage variety andcreativity. Invite people to present in aformat (of their choice) that is not aconventional spoken summary. Ideasto play with include:

• a drawing or visual representation ofsome kind such as a symbol

• a proverb, riddle or inspiring quote ifany come to mind

• a story (short)

• a poem – haikus are good forkeeping things brief and to the pointor koans – short contradictorysounding statements that appeardiametrically opposed

• a song or chant • a role play or two minute drama • an embodiment of some kind e.g.

gestures, mime, a collective bodysculpture

• a personal or found object (availableat the event/venue or from outside/nature if access is easy)

• a single key word (or word from eachmember of the small group).

For more on harvesting see: http://www.artofhosting.org/thepractice/artofharvesting/


In choosing a method to workwith, the main thing is not just toknow how to use themethodology, but to be clear inyour mind about why you woulduse a particular method in aparticular context.

This guide covers four methods– not because they are always thebest to use, but because theyintroduce key concepts andpractices that once grasped, canbe helpful in all sorts ofsituations and settings – and notonly with very large groups.

An (appreciative) inquiryapproach can work just as wellbetween two people workingtogether in a pair or small groupas with 300 people in the sameroom who work for the samecompany. The values and tools ofa café approach can be introducedinto any gathering large or small -such as hospitality, a sequence ofquestions, cross-fertilisation. Theself-organising approachunderpinning Open Space thatallows people to choosing theconversations they want to engagein can be used within a moreconventional meeting.

Circle is the organising mode onwhich these methods are based.Equality, diversity, inclusion andcontinuous feeding forward intothe system.

The methods CircleKey concept: the circle is the fundamentalgeometry of human communication; anancient form of meeting that has gatheredhuman beings into respectfulconversations for thousands of years.

Fundamentally, working in a circlesymbolises an equality between all thepeople involved. (Rather than the hierarchyof a top table or the opposition of directlyfacing each other)

Circles promote a focus on the group andits purpose and a temporary shutting out ofeverything else.

There are many ways of working in acircle. Circles work particularly well toencourage reflection, deeper listening andthe positive use of silence (this tends to befurther enhanced if a ‘talking piece’ such asa stick, stone or other object appropriate tothe theme or group in hand is used)

Sometimes the centre of the circle mayhold objects that reflect the intention of thegroup. Sometimes the centre may be keptas an open space within which creativitycan emerge.

Circles can be used at the beginning andend of a session for ‘checking-in’ and‘checking-out’, creating a symmetry in thework of the group and clear points ofopening and closure.Examples of circle practices: http://www.co-intelligence.org/

P-listeningcircles.htmlwww.earth-circles.org www.peerspirit.com (particularly the use

of circles in storytelling)


Appreciative inquiryKey concept: in any system, there arealways things that work andresources that have untappedpotential – by focussing most of thetime on ‘problems’, rather than‘potential’, we create a mindset thatmisses out on much of what might bepossible.

Appreciative Inquiry is a strategy forintentional change that identifies thebest of ‘what is’ in order to pursuedreams and possibilities of ‘what couldbe’; a co-operative search for strengths,passions and life-giving forces that arefound within every system that holdpotential for inspired, positive change.(Cooperider & Srivastva, 1987)

Appreciative Inquiry is characterisedas being a process of 4 D’s :

Discover: appreciating the best of‘what is’

Dream: envisioning ‘what might be’Design: co-constructing ‘what should

be’Deliver: implementing ‘what will be’

Each phase builds on the last and, inmany inquiry processes, each phaseprogressively involves more and morepeople, as momentum is built.

An appreciative approach can beused to begin any process, i.e. beginwith questions such as:

• What works well here?• What do we value most about our

past that we want to build on for ourfuture?

• When are we at our best?

The stories that emerge help tocapture the ‘spirit’ of a system –sharing these stories can be a great wayto enthuse and inspire; to set the tonefor the work to be done. If done inadvance of an ‘event’, you can train upa team to go out and be storygatherers.

Alternatively, at ‘events’, you can getpeople to share stories in twos andthrees, then double up groups to fours/ sixes to identify common qualities ofstories, then move to the whole groupto create a common picture of what is

special.

Extensiveresources areavailable at ‘TheAppreciativeInquiryCommons’ athttp://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/


World CaféKey concepts : great conversationshappen when there is enoughdiversity in a group to expandhorizons, but not so much diversitythat it becomes hard to keep trackand that an individual can becomeeasily lost. Typically, this is in agroup of 4 or 5.

There is a natural flow in goodconversation from ‘me’ to ‘we’ to‘future’ – that is each individual needsto start with being able to talk abouttheir experience / what they think,gradually a picture of the group’sperspectives emerges and then thiscommon picture creates new potentialfor creativity about the future. Insystems, much the same conversationsare often going on in different places;by connecting up these conversations,greater potential can emerge.

The World Café is a method forcreating a living network ofcollaborative dialogue aroundquestions that matter in real lifesituations.

It is a provocative metaphor - as wecreate our lives, our organizations, andour communities, we are, in effect,moving among ‘table conversations’ atthe World Café. (from The World CaféResource Guide).Operating principles of World Café:

• create hospitable space• explore questions that matter• encourage each person’s contribution• connect diverse people and ideas• listen together for patterns, insights

and deeper questions• make collective knowledge visible

General flow of a World Café:

• seat 4/5 people at café style tables orin conversation clusters

• set up progressive rounds ofconversation, usually of 20 to 30minutes each – have some goodquestions ! Encourage people to‘play, doodle, draw’

• ask one person to stay at the table asa “host” and invite the other tablemembers to move to other tables asambassadors of ideas and insights

• ask the table host to share briefly keyinsights, questions and ideas, thenmove on with the next question

• after the rounds, allow some time fora whole-group ‘harvest’ of theconversations.

This material is adapted from CaféTo Go – a resource guide, available atwww.theworldcafe.com


Open SpaceKey concept : diverse groups can dealwith complexity better and quickerthrough self-organising than throughany elaborate detailed plannedprocess.

The goal of an Open SpaceTechnology (the full official name forthe method from its creator) session isto create time and space for people toengage deeply and creatively aroundissues of concern to them. Theremarkable thing is that by followingjust four principles and one law, timeand again, groups find their waythrough the complexity to what needsto be done. Groups can be as large as1,000 people.

The Four Principles of Open Space:

• whoever comes are theright people

• whenever it startsis the right time

• whateverhappens is theonly way thatcould have

• when it’s over,it’s over

Open Space relies onthe passion andresponsibility of participants i.e. thatthe question at stake is somethingpeople have passion about and arewilling to take some responsibility for.

Open Space also relies on thefacilitator not trying to do too much –crafting the invitation, creating thespace, explaining the process andgetting out of the way so that thegroup can get on with it. Facilitators –beware getting too busy andinterfering with the forces of self-organisation.

General flow of an open spacesession (can be anything from a coupleof hours to three days!):

• convening in a circle, welcome andexplanation of process

• participants identify issues fordialogues

• issues are allocated time and placeslots

• sessions happen (they can be anysize) and outputs are posted to a

community noticeboard• if time, action planning

takes place• closing circle

Open Space was‘invented’ when aconference organiser,

Harrison Owen,realised the best

discussions happened inthe coffee breaks, where

people talked about whatmattered to them with other people itmattered to as well.

For more information seewww.openspaceworld.org

The One Law of Open Space -

The Law of Two Feet: If you find yourself in a

situation where you are notcontributing or learning,move somewhere where

you can.


Part 3: In conclusion: over to you

“There is no power greater than a community

discovering what it cares about”

Margaret Wheatley,Turning to One Another

Individualistic thinking, until sorecently the dominant culture, isincreasingly being questioned as weface unprecedented challenges to findways to live sustainably with the planeton which we depend and not only on it(and off it).

We have a window of opportunity toshift our ‘operating systems’ – our waysof thinking, our ways of doing things,the ways we organise and see ourselvesand our future. In order to make theshift, we need to take care of our ‘inner’work as well as the externals – thetechnicalities that make the headlinessuch as carbon reduction, renewableenergy, fair trading systems,cancellation of debt and eradication ofpoverty. We have the information. Wedon’t lack the know-how. What nowwill make the most difference?

One way forward is to start torelocate ourselves in the processes andcontexts of living systems (See Part 1and Resources for more on livingsystems theory and practices).

One of the things that will make themost difference now is learning tocombine the best of our externalknowledge and skills with changing theinner patterns, habits and values, theattitudes and perceptions that keep thestatus quo in place. We can payattention to the natural rhythms of howlife organises and bring it into ourcommunities – our workplaces, ourneighbourhoods, our social andpolitical and spiritual networks. Thenwe can create life-sustaining ways ofbeing for ourselves and ourcommunities.

We have been taught and assessed inindividualised learning systems to entereconomic systems based substantiallyon individual gain. Then, when it allgets too much we reach forindividualised therapies and talk oneon one about an individual self, as if wewere not part of wider systems in awider world. We tend to think andoperate and plan as if we were cut offfrom the systems in which we exist –organisational, social, cultural,ecological, and planetary.

World Café and Open Space aremethods that offer a living, visiblerepresentation of the living systems inquestion, when people come togetherto work in the ways outlined in thisguide.


Ten Top Tips

1. Practice the core methodsbefore getting into variationsand mixing methods andtools.

2. Think it through - whatworks well for what purpose?

3. The invitation matters.4. Diversity supports creativity. 5. Hospitality throughout the

process is integral – not aluxury add-on

6. Set up of the space shapes theoutcomes – think circlewhenever possible.

7. Keep it simple – less is more. 8. Harvesting the fruits is

usually best done by theparticipants themselves.

9. Use different tools andmedia to reach differentpeople as you feed forwardinto the system/s.

10. Above all, trust the people –and the process!

Large group participatory offers waysto both explore and create the potentialfor transformation within the system/swe exist in.

Feeding forward and follow up worksbest when it involves groups and workswith awareness of the dynamicsystem/s in which we all, and the pieceof work in question, are operating.

Different ways to do this that suit adynamic systems approach can include:

• action research and action learning(sets);

• community learning – from sharingtogether what everyone has learnt andthen being ‘assessed’ on what youhave learnt from others’ experiencesas well as your own;

• online collective learning journalsusing blogging;

• group coaching – based on groupwork outdoors in nature;

• communicating via social networkingi.e. ‘open’ systems.

Over to youMay you enjoy handing over ‘the stick’to the people you bring together andsupport on their shared journeys usingthe approaches outlined in this guide.

“Conversation is the practice of freedom.”

Owen, Open Space Technology


Resources

If you want to have a browse aroundand get more idea of what’s out there,these are the main websites that relateto the people and organisations thatwe have used as sources for this guide:www.aliainstitute.org – ‘ALIA’ stands

for Authentic Leadership in Actionand “is a resource for those whorecognize that neither the experiencesof the past nor wishful thinking aboutthe future are enough to leadorganizations and communitiesthrough the complex challenges oftoday”

http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu -The amazingly extensive ‘AI’Commons –“a worldwide portaldevoted to the fullest sharing ofacademic resources and practical toolson Appreciative Inquiry and therapidly growing discipline of positivechange”

www.artofhosting.org - “The Art ofHosting and harvesting conversationsthat matter is a new practice ofdemocracy that we really need in theworld now. "

www.berkana.org – “The BerkanaInstitute (co-founded by MargaretWheatley) works in partnership with arich diversity of people around theworld who strengthen theircommunities by working with thewisdom and wealth already present intheir people, traditions andenvironment”

www.chriscorrigan.com – a greatsource of Open Space and widerfacilitation resources

www.co-intelligence.org – “Healthycommunities, institutions and societies-- perhaps even our collective survival -- depend on our ability to organize ourcollective affairs more wisely, in tunewith each other and nature. Thisability to wisely organize our livestogether -- all of us being wisertogether than any of us could be alone-- we call co-intelligence.”

www.dya.ie – “culture work for a worldin transition” – an Irish consultancypartnership who are particularlystrong on communicating livingsystems approaches

www.earth-circles.org – “Earth Circlesare designed to help us move fromfeelings of despair and denial topositive action, using the power wegain from sharing concerns, learningtogether and acting in community.”

www.joannamacy.net - “This web siteopens doors to the new bodies ofthought, time-tested spiritual practices,and pioneering group methods, that Ifind to be powerful inspirations tounderstanding and action. I sharethese resources in service to therevolution of our time: the "GreatTurning" from the industrial growthsociety to a life-sustaining civilization.”

http://managementhelp.org/systems/systems.htm - lots of background todo with systems theory and thinking.


www.margaretwheatley.com – a richsource of interviews, articles andvideos. (She describes her work asopposing "highly controlledmechanistic systems that only createrobotic behaviors."!)

www.openspaceworld.org – a globalcommunity resource in relation toOpen Space Technology

www.peerspirit.com – “PeerSpirit’s co-founders—Christina Baldwin and AnnLinnea—are well-known authors ofbooks and essays on circle process,environmental education, journalwriting, rites of passage, spirituality,and story”

www.peterblock.com – Peter Block isthe author of “Community – astructure of belonging” – described asa book about “Citizens [who] have thepower to change the community storyand bring a new context into being.Block shows us how we can overcomeisolation and anxiety and createcommunities alive with energy andpossibility”

www.presencing.com – website of ‘ThePresencing Institute (PI)’ “a globalaction research community that appliesTheory U to societal transformation byshifting the social field from ego-systemto eco-system awareness. Thepresencing process is a journey thatconnects us more deeply both to whatwants to emerge in the world and toour highest future possibility—ouremerging authentic self.”

www.theworldcafe.com – includesparticularly good resources to helpyou get started

There are also lots of books we couldrecommend too, but we tend to thinkthe best idea is either for you to lookthrough the resources on the websitesto get a flavour of what’s out there andfor what seems right for your specificneeds. And/or talk to us directly - feel veryfree to get in touch!

World Café and Open Space

World Café particularly lends itself to: • For finding out where people are at

and what they care about – overallthemes and topics, collectiveconsciousness, signs of the times,

• Patterns, connections, crosspollination, emergence, andconvergence

Open Space works well when:• There are lot of topics, ideas,

themes, issues that need discussing.• Getting into specifics, details,

action planning. • Issues and topics where not

everyone wishes to or can discusseverything.

• Passion and /or conflict arise.

ReachAbility specialises in thepracticalities and principles of how toengage and involve people in plans,decisions and changes.

We provide training, research andconsultancy services in participation,learning and communication across allsectors and work nationally andinternationally as well as locally.

We work creatively with differentparticipatory approaches and holisticeducation methods to strengthenlearning and innovation for change.

Sally Ramsden founded ReachAbility in response to a growing demand fromdifferent sectors on how to engage people – the nuts and bolts of involvement.

Chris Chapman, who co-authored thisguide, is one of the ReachAbility team andalso runs his own consultancy based inIreland: www.change exploratory.com

ReachAbility, The Old Music Hall, 106-108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JEEmail: [email protected]: 01865 403 129www.reachability.co.uk

This guide offers a conciseintroduction to why and how to use World Café, Open Space and some aspects ofAppreciative Inquiry.

It explores some of the theoriesand practices involved in theselarge group participatory methods,underpinned by a ‘living systems’approach.

As a resource it forms part of‘Creating Conversations forChange’, a group learning eventdesigned for people who want tostrengthen communities in diversecontexts, including: acrossorganisations, within teams, inlocal neighbourhoods, at nationalpolicy level or via social changemovements and global networks.

£3

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