The World Café Builds Bridges in Cultural Department in Norway
by Mara Senese

Not long ago I arranged a World Café for a township outside of Oslo. The owner of the process was the head of the Cultural Department in this township. In the process of writing a plan for the cultural activities of the future, he realized that it would be important to bring in the various volunteers and clubs who were engaged in cultural activities in the area. Each group got some money from the township to do their activity. The money was shrinking in relationship to the increasing needs of the users. Everyone wanted more money for his or her activity.

The Department Head decided it was important to have a town meeting to talk about the needs and to help the users get a more holistic view of the situation. He was given a tip by a younger member of his department that the World Café might be a way to involve everyone and get the input they needed.

The Department Head was very nervous. The Café process was new and untried as far as he was concerned. How would it be to get everyone involved? Would it all turn into chaos? There were only three hours available and the amount of input needed was so great that it was hard to imagine how it would be possible to have a successful meeting.

He was worried about how the people would react since they were used to being passive at town meetings, just expecting to listen to those who had the most to say. Would they resist being asked to participate fully and say what they were thinking in diverse groups?

Most of them didn't know each other outside of their own area of interest. In fact there were rival groups that had vied for money for years. Would they come into conflict with each other? Would they remain stuck in old patterns?

The Department Head didn't say much at the planning meetings. The younger team member told me that he was anxious. I assured the leader that The World Cafe format tends to help polarized groups speak more calmly with each other. There isn't much opportunity for grandstanding in the informal setting which encourages people to be open to listening to each other. I also pointed out that since people don't have to report back in plenum they tend to relax and speak more openly of their needs.

We decided that both the Department Head and the younger team member, who had experience with the Café process, would introduce the evening. The Department Head would explain why he had decided to use this format and the team member would tell about his experiences with me and the method. It turned out that he did that with such enthusiasm that the stage was set with positive expectations.

The big night arrived. People entering the room became wide-eyed at the unusual table arrangement. They knew right away that this was not going to be the usual town meeting. They commented on the music. Most of them stood around the edges waiting until someone they knew showed up. Little by little they were showed to their seats. The groups were arranged in advance to ensure diversity, but it turned out that we had to change them around because some people didn't show up and we wanted to include a member of the Culture Department at each table. We accomplished this by asking people to move around until they were with people who worked in different areas. It only took a moment for people to quickly reshuffle their tables and achieve the diversity we wanted for the conversation. They were accommodating and curious.

After the Department Head and the team member spoke I introduced the World Café as a method to help build shared understanding and to see new possibilities. I explained how informal conversation can help develop self-organizing initiatives and could perhaps give new approach to the cultural activities in the community. Hanging up a large flip chart, I pointed out the process principles that would help make the evening a success. These include having a spirit of collective discovery and curiosity as well as encouraging shared listening and learning. The final principle that I presented was to use symbols and pictures as well as words to capture their ideas on the large paper in the middle of the table. This last part caused a little stir among the participants and some nervous laughter.

To start them off and to help them overcome the barrier of using symbols, I asked each person to draw a simple picture on a letter size paper that would express what they wanted to achieve with culture in their community. This took about five minutes. Using this as a starting point they had 20 minutes to share their ideas and write down their comments, insights and questions on the tablecloth. They were encouraged to continue to draw and soon the whole thing got going. High energy began to fill the room. Laughter bubbled up, heads bowed over the drawings and the diagrams. They shared their world, their problems, their solutions. The room filled with enthusiasm and activity.

After twenty minutes were up, the groups were asked to choose a host who would stay at the table while the others were to leave and go out into the world. Each person was instructed to travel to a different table, establishing a whole new configuration of groups for the next round. The ideas, drawings and questions that were made by the original group, were explained by the host to the new group. Then each new group member shared what had happened at their table. Once again, the energy began to grow, the discussion got deeper. Similarities and differences began to appear. New ideas and associations were added to the tablecloth. The sounds of passionate conversation filled the room.

The bell sounded and everyone as asked to return to their "home " table, in order to share the discoveries from their travels. It is always fun to tell other people about your experiences, so it was easy to relate the ideas and suggestions as well as the conflicting desires that were encountered at the other tables. Now they were to incorporate any new thoughts that expanded their own original ideas. Any new insights or solutions were written down and elaborated on. When it was time for a break, many groups kept talking, finding it hard to pull away from their engaging conversations.

We used several more rounds of questions that were focused on the vision for the future in the community: what would they be proud of, what was the most important thing that might happen, what were the biggest challenges and how could they overcome them. This included traveling and returning back home again which concluded the session.

We did not take any summary in plenum along the way but maintained an informal conversational approach by letting the tables find their own way. The fact that we had members of the cultural department at each table helped in gathering the main ideas that would later be used in the formal cultural plan.

As a final summing up, we asked each table to report how they experienced the evening. The response was overwhelming. They were enthusiastic about how challenging and fun it was to contribute ideas and solutions to common problems. The discovery of their common challenges led to a sympathetic understanding of each other. Ideas that could work for many sectors at the same time bubbled forth. They found ways in which to support each other. They were grateful for the opportunity and thanked the Department Head for initiating such a fun and unusual approach.

The Department Head beamed his satisfaction and took their suggestions to heart. He was willing to change a processes that had been established to incorporate the new ideas. His willingness and openness to the ideas seemed to come from the understanding he had obtained by listening to so many different people at his table during the evening. He promised to go through the ideas that had been collected by the members of the team at each table and find ways to incorporate them in the final plan for the community. He also suggested that a representative group of volunteers look at the draft of the plan to review it. This was a major shift in the approach toward community planning in the Norwegian system.

We ended the evening on a high note of expectation and willingness to work toward new solutions. Of course this is only the beginning of such work, but the enthusiasm that replaced typical negativity and skepticism at such town meetings gave a lot of energy to the team that would continue work on this project. They felt like they were now part of a larger team that would help them and back them with renewed energy.

The volunteers also seemed to be engaged to try new solutions and returned home enriched with new contacts. There was a sense of wholeness in the group. The identity of the individuals had expanded to embrace the entire township and not just their own little sector and own little organization.

At the end of this meeting we realized that it's much more important to find a way to engage the energy and commitment of the people who are involved, then it is to produce a piece of paper. Providing a venue for people to actively think together, and to see how their individual interests are connected to a set of common challenges, led to a level of commitment that had rarely been seen in the Cultural Department of this township before. Additional meetings are needed to follow up and work toward implementing the plans, but will be easier to do because of the initial positive energy generated at this first meeting.

Mara Senese is a senior partner in Senese & Depuis Associates. An American living and working in Norway, she has a background as a visual artist, art therapist and language teacher. Since 1987 she has served as a coach and consultant to executives and their organizations facilitating creative learning environments as well as teaching personal mastery, communication, creativity and innovation development.