A Resource Guide for Hosting Conversations That Matter at the World Cafe

The World Café is an easy-to-use method for creating a living network of collaborative dialogue around questions that matter to the real-life situations of your organizations or community. In this beautifully illustrated booklet, Juanita Brown collaborates with Nancy Margulies and the World Café Community to articulate seven guiding principles for people to use to host their own Café. Learn about the thousands of people on five continents who have experienced the World Café, a model for setting up the ideal Café for your group, the roles of the hosts, crafting powerful questions, Café assumptions and etiquette, and more.

Resource Link: http://www.theworldcafe.com

A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths: Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear & Distrust at Work

Annette Simmons, Group Process Consulting. Amacom, 1999.

Too often, speaking the "truth" is perceived career suicide. Yet truth-telling is desperately needed if we are to move past current levels of frustration and disillusionment. Dialogue is a way for a work group to get "un-stuck" when frustration and apathy threatens forward progress. Annette Simmons will explore some of the dangerous truths currently sabotaging the wordplace, the risks and rewards of truth telling, and the art and practice of creating a place safe enough so that "truths" do not deteriorate into blame sessions, scape-goating, or hopelessness. Genuine dialogue is a way to turn dangerous truths into shared responsibility.

Resource Link: http://www.groupprocessconsulting.com

Action Dialogues: Meaningful Conversations to Accelerate Change

Debbe Kennedy, Global Dialogue Center. Berrett-Koehler Press, 2000.

Meant to be used as a part of Debbe Kennedy's Diversity Breakthrough! Strategic Action series, this is a simple pack of 52 glossy cards, each isolating specific roadblocks that organizations commonly face when looking to launch a diversity initiative. The first, for example, reads, 'Our leadership team does not reflect our stated commitment to inclusion.' Another reads, 'Resistance to change keeps diversity out of reach.'

AiList: Appreciative Inquiry Discussion List

This listserv, hosted by Jack Brittain, is a forum for individuals interested in learning more about the practice of Appreciative Inquiry. The list has nearly 800 subscribers from all over the world. To subscribe, go to http://lists.business.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/ailist or send a message with the word 'help' in the subject or body to [email protected]. To submit, send messages to the list manager at [email protected].

Resource Link: http://lists.business.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/ailist

Alternative Dispute Resolution for Organizations: How to Design a System for Effective Conflict Resolution

Allan J. Stitt. Jossey-Bass, 1998.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is a rapidly growing field, due to its popularity as an alternative to long and expensive lawsuits. ADR involves resolving disputes of any kind outside of the judicial system, through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and other processes. This book is for people who work within organizations and are involved in disputes themselves, or for people who are required to deal with or resolve disputes. It covers how to set up a dispute resolution process in an organization.

Resource Link: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471642959.html

Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is about the coevolutionary search for the best in people, their organizations, and the relevant world around them. In its broadest focus, it involves systematic discovery of what gives "life" to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves, in a central way, the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system's capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential.

Appreciative Inquiry Commons

The AI Commons is devoted to the sharing of academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry and the rapidly growing discipline of positive change. The site is hosted by Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management. Appreciative Inquiry is the coevolutionary search for the best in people, their organizations and the relevant world around them.

Resource Link: http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu

Appreciative Sharing of Knowledge: Leveraging Knowledge Management for Strategic Change

Tojo Thatchenkery. Taos Institute Publishing, 2005.

True knowledge sharing in organizations occurs less regularly than most of us think. What can be done to help create a system in which people share the internal "know-how" unique to each organization? In this contribution to change management, Tojo Thatchenkery describes a brand new methodology called Appreciate Sharing of Knowledge [ASK] and provides a step-by-step tool kit for anyone interested in knowledge management.

Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader: How You and Your Organization Can Manage Conflict Effectively

Craig E. Runde and Tim A. Flanagan. Jossey-Bass, 2006.

Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader combines research, conceptual models, practitioner experience, and stories that highlight the core conflict competencies. The book underscores the importance for leaders to develop the critical skills they need to help them, their colleagues, and their organizations deal more effectively with conflict and move their organizations forward.

Resource Link: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787984701.html

Built to Change: How to Achieve Sustained Organizational Effectiveness

Edward E. Lawler, III and Chris Worley; Foreward by Jerry Porras. Jossey-Bass, 2006.

In this groundbreaking book, organizational effectiveness experts Edward Lawler and Christopher Worley show how organizations can be ?“built to change?” so they can last and succeed in today?’s global economy. Instead of striving to create a highly reliable Swiss watch that consistently produces the same behavior, they argue organizations need to be designed in ways that stimulate and facilitate change. Built to Change focuses on identifying practices and designs that organizations can adopt so that they are able to change.

Resource Link: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787980617.html

Café to Go! A Quick Reference Guide for Putting Conversations to Work

The World Cafe Community Foundation, 2002.

This concise 7-page guide to the World Café covers the basics of the process. It includes brief outlines of each principle, a description of Café Etiquette, an outline of key elements of the World Café conversations, and tips for creating Café ambiance.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/cafetogo.pdf

Can the human being thrive in the work place? Dialogue as a strategy of hope

B. Wesorick and L. Shiparksi. Michigan: Practice Field Publishing, 1997.

An excellent resource for those working with groups which are new to dialogue. It includes strategies and stories that show ways to introduce and go deeper into the use of dialogue in the workplace.

Civic Reflection

Civic reflection is the practice of bringing together a group of people who are engaged in common civic work to read and talk about fundamental questions of civic life. This form of dialogue draws upon the rich resources of the humanities--using readings of literature, philosophy, and history, and the age-old practice of text-based discussion--to help civic leaders think more carefully and talk more comfortably about their values and choices.

Consensus Through Conversation: How to Achieve High-Commitment Decisions

Larry Dressler. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2006.

At a time when organizational hierarchies are flattening, workforces are becoming more geographically dispersed, and workers are demanding a say in what they do, consensus is more needed than ever. Consensus Through Conversation guides leaders and facilitators toward the proper use of consensus and away from applications that create the 'illusion of inclusion' and false agreement. It is a handy, vital reference readers can turn to in their efforts build enthusiasm and commitment on high-stakes issues.

Resource Link: http://www.consensustools.com

Conversation Dinners or Conversation Meetings

The concept of the "Conversation Dinner" seems to have come from Theodore Zeldin. For this simple process, people are split into pairs and given a "conversation menu" from which they can choose their conversation topics. The menu could have a subject area theme such as "intergroup dialogue" or it could be a generic menu listing personal questions designed to help people to get to know each other. Conversation Meetings may or may not happen over meals; sometimes partners are encouraged to take walks together. Whatever the situation, privacy is key.

Corporation for Positive Change

The Corporation for Positive Change (CPC) is dedicated to the design and development of appreciative organizations - those capable of sustaining innovation, financial well-being and market leadership by inspiring the best in human beings. Our workshops are led by CPC principals and offered through the Taos Institute. CPC offers workshops in Appreciative Inquiry foundations, Appreciative Inquiry leadership, and Appreciative Inquiry in Action.

Resource Link: http://www.positivechange.org

Creating a Culture of Collaboration: The International Association of Facilitators Handbook

Sandy Schuman. Jossey-Bass, 2006.

Collaboration is often viewed as a one-time or project-oriented activity. An increasing challenge is to help organizations incorporate collaborative values and practices in their everyday ways of working. In Creating a Culture of Collaboration, an international group of practitioners and researchers ?– from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, and the United States ?– provide proven approaches to creating a culture of collaboration within and among groups, organizations, communities, and societies.

Resource Link: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787981168.html

Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution

Birgitt Williams.

The Genuine Contact program's "Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution" meeting format was designed to create the conditions for the people involved in a conflict to really solve the conflict. In developing this approach to conflict resolution, they followed the philosophy that deep within all persons are some things that are universally the same - although the individuals involved are usually fixed in one perspective and rarely ask each other genuine questions. They also tend to lose contact with their whole selves, rendering a part of themselves voiceless. From this position, they are unable to participate fully and effectively in efforts to resolve the conflict....

Deep Democracy

Myrna Wajsman and Greg Lewis. CAmagazine, January/February.

Using the lessons of "deep democracy," South African workers learned how to manage their company through a non-hierarchical system of self-directed teams. Deep democracy is a concept introduced by Arnold Mindell, a physicist and Jungian analyst. Differing from majority democracy, wherein a majority of votes wins, deep democracy emphasizes not only the importance of respecting the majority vote but also the need to hear the minority voice. This is essential because, if the minority voice is not heard, it will become part of the unconscious "terrorist" processes that will prevent the group from implementing its agreements.

Deliberative Organization Development: Multicultural Organization Competence Through Deliberative Dialogue

Dr. Deborah A. Wilcox & Jacquelyn McCray, M.P.A., AICP, Confluency Consultants & Associates.

Organizations and institutional life are conflicted with hostility, discrimination, discord and tension resulting from the inability to be inclusive and respectful of human differences. The critical question is why is it so hard for different types of people to work together and to be productive? The nature of the problem is couched in society?’s rampant power differential, the stereotypes and the isms of racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, and ableism and other identified elements that dominant organization structures. Deliberative Organization Development purports the use of ?“deliberative dialogue?” groups within organizations.

Resource Link: http://launch.vermontlaw.edu/epp/resources/DeliberativeODArticle.pdf