The World Cafe

Comment

Comment by Amy Lenzo on March 12, 2011 at 4:05pm

Welcome, Loretta! It's good to see you here in the BK community!

Comment by Amy Lenzo on June 11, 2010 at 1:16pm

Hi Tom, and Peggy and Debbie and Paul and Andrew and Kristen!

It's wonderful to have you new members in the group as well as those of you who came a little earlier - thanks for being here! I hope you'll weigh in on one of the conversations I've started, or begin one on something you're interested in exploring. There's a lot of wisdom here ... let's share it!

Comment by Amy Lenzo on June 10, 2010 at 9:42am

Thanks, Bonnie! It's an amazing community of practice - we're all learning from each other, eh?

Comment by Bonnie Kaufman on June 9, 2010 at 12:46pm

Just saw that The World Cafe community site linked to above has over 2,000 members. Amazing! Here's crossing my fingers that BK Community can learn from that success.

Comment by Amy Lenzo on May 5, 2010 at 5:39pm

I was recently part of the tech support team producing an online "Maestro Cafe" at the Shift Network's recent "Inspiring Women's Summit". Juanita Brown co-presented a session on Inter-generational women's wisdom, and after a short introduction by Juanita and her co-host, everyone on the call (approx. 350 of them) had the chance to talk in rounds of small group conversations that went on for a good part of the hour and a half allotted to the session.

From my vantage point running the tech console, I was able to drop in and silently listen to the voices of these women as they addressed a simple question - I think it was "When have you experienced learning something from a woman of another generation?" - and I was touched to hear how eagerly they used every second of the time available. The comments made during the "harvest", too, reflected a group of women that were profoundly grateful to have had the chance to speak, to be heard by their peers.

I hear this eagerness and gratitude over and over while hosting World Cafes, and each time I am touched by how powerful an experience simple conversation can be.

I'm curious about other people's views and experiences - has a conversation ever impacted you powerfully? Do you feel that your voice is heard in the ways you would like it to be?