What’s New About the Knowledge Café? In some ways it is not new but in others it isn't

There is nothing new about the Knowledge Café, or is there?

When people say that something is not new, they usually mean that they are familiar with the concept and it’s in everyday practice.

To my mind, when this objection is leveled at the Knowledge Café – it means that they do not fully understand it.

When I look at how organizations operate and the behaviors of people in organizations – it is quite apparent that people are either not aware of the fundamental principles and the power of good conversation or they understand them but do not to change their way of doing things either out of habit, laziness or choice.

Why in meetings and presentations are we still so dependent on Powerpoint? Why is the dominant format of a talk a lengthy presentation with lots of Powerpoint slides and a short time for Q&A? Why is there no time for reflection and no time for conversations amongst the participants to engage with the topic or issue? Why do we insist on talking at each other rather than with each other?

Why is our meeting rooms’ dominant layout: either lecture style or large tables, when we know from experience and observation that these layouts are not conducive to a good conversation? The research shows that good conversations occur in small groups of 3 or 4 people sitting around a small round table or even no table at all.

Why in meetings, especially those where the people do not know each other well, do we not allow time for socialization and relationship building before getting down to business when again the research shows that such socialization improves people’s cognitive skills. Why are circles rarely used in meetings when the research and our personal experience demonstrates their power?

Why do managers and facilitators seek to control meetings so tightly and are afraid of negative talk or dissent? By suppressing people’s fears, doubts, and uncertainties – you do not eliminate them – you drive them underground. Peter Block says, “Yes” has no meaning if there is no option to say “No.” You need to bring people’s doubts and fears into the open and talk about them at length.

And why when we know from research that group intelligence relates to how members of a team talk to each other, that it depends on the social sensitivity of the group members and on the readiness of the group to allow members to take equal turns in the conversation. And that groups, where one person dominates, are less collectively intelligent than in groups where the conversational turns are more evenly distributed, do we allow the same people to dominate the conversations in our meetings and do nothing to encourage the quieter ones to engage and speak up.

The Knowledge Café may not be entirely new, but it addresses all these issues and more, but as a conversational method is still sadly poorly adopted.

In fact, in many organizations, conversation is seen as wasting time. But slowly, this is changing. More and more people are starting to understand the power of conversation and take a conversational approach to how they connect, relate, and work with each other. They see themselves as Conversational Leaders.

[Status: work in progress]

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