Dialogue Made Practical--Conversations that Matter! | The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through...

The Wisdom of The Team | The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter | Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, ...

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	• The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, ... Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005 - 300 pages average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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.

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Dialogue Made Practical--Conversations that Matter!

I have been a student of "dialogue" for at least 15 years. I was first introduced to the concept through the work of Chris Argyris on "inquiry and advocacy." And I even took a course in "The Path of Dialogue" some years ago. Very interesting concept.

"The World Cafe" by Brown & Isaacs is a practical approach to introduce and use the dialogue concepts in business settings to deal with real issues that keep recurring and for which there doesn't seem to be obvious solutions. Cross-pollination of ideas through the "cafe process" builds on small ideas, links them, uncovers affinities and connections, and creates more possibilities to explore and address.

It would be nice to get legislators to use such a process to address the significant issues we face (health care reform, tort reform, etc.) rather than the antiquated win-lose strategies they now employ. Einstein wrote, "The significant problems we face cannot be resolved at the same level of thinking that created them." It's time to employ a more enlighted approach.

The World Cafe approach is a LEAP in that direction!

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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

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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.

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World Cafe

I am enjoying this book. It is most informative. I love the illustrations. They really capture the heart of wht they're writing about. And am IN a cafe conversation process with my organization so it's very timely!

The World Café is a flexible, easy-to-use process for fostering collaborative dialogue, sharing collective knowledge, and discovering new opportunities for action. World Café originators Juanita Brown and David Isaacs outline seven core design principles and provide practical tips and tools for convening and hosting "conversations that matter," even with very large groups. Each chapter features actual stories of Café dialogues from business, education, government, and community organizations across the globe, demonstrating how the World Café approach can be adapted to many different settings and cultures. Based on living systems thinking, this is a proven approach for fostering authentic dialogue and creating dynamic networks of conversation around your organization or community?s real work and critical questions??improving both personal relationships and people?s capacity to shape the future together.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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