Knowledge Café: Invitation People should not be coerced to participate in any way

This principle is essential as people need to feel comfortable if they are going to open up and engage in dialogue.

Many Cafés are also explicitly about personal change or transformation, and there is an element of that in almost all Cafés.

Personal change cannot be mandated. It can only be chosen.

It is not a problem for a public Café as people get to choose whether they come along, but it is an issue for an internal corporate event.

People should be invited. They should not be required or coerced to participate in any way.

Making it mandatory for people to take part in a Café is counter-productive.

If someone does not wish to participate, they will likely be lukewarm and not readily engage.

If you try to make them, at worst, they will be cynical and may even subtly sabotage the event.

You can’t make people engage in conversation.

You want people to be there because they see the value and participate enthusiastically.

If people choose not to come, then that is just fine. A little bit like one of the principles of Appreciative Inquiry – “Whoever comes are the right people.”

One of the best forms of invitation is “word of mouth” when someone who has not participated asks a friend or colleague, “How did it go?” and gets a positive endorsement.

So people are invited. But what about the form of the invite itself?

The invite is most likely to be a written one – a web page or an email, but it is most effective when preceded or followed through by a personal face-to-face or telephone invite.

The written invite should be warm and personal, and the intent of the Café and what people should expect should be made clear.

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