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- A Brief History of Knowledge 200,000 years of human history
- A Conversation Dinner in Turin Knowledge menu à la carte
- A Knowledge Café in English, French and Russian Knowledge Cafe's can be run in multiple languages
- A Knowledge Café Is a Gathering It is not a meeting
- Actor-network Theory (ANT) Actor-Network Theory
- Adaptive Leadership ** Mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges and thrive
- Admit When We Are Wrong ** We find it difficult to admit when we are wrong
- Al Jazeera Cafe An interesting experiment not to deabate but engage in a global conversation
- Anecdote Circles A narrative technique to guide participants in sharing stories
- Are There Any Questions? Q&A is not interaction
- Artificial Intelligence ** The ability of machines to perform tasks usually associated with human intelligence
- Ask Questions ** Be curious - ask more questions
- Avoid Anonymity Anonymity kills the conversation
- Avoiding Modern-day Colonialism Colonialism: the dominance, control, and exploitation by one group over another
- Banter with Care Banter: the playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks
- Be Open and Transparent ** Key traits of knowledge workers
- Belief Systems Our beliefs are not isolated pieces of data that we can take and discard at will
- Benjamin Franklin’s Junto Club Benjamin Franklin founded the Junto Club - a conversational society in 1727
- Betrayed by Our Laughter Our sense of humor is something we find hard to fake or suppress
- Blog Posts About the Gurteen Knowledge Café A selection of Knowledge Café blog posts, articles and papers
- Brainstorming A group discussion to produce a list of ideas or solutions to a problem.
- Bridging Divides **
- British Gentlemen’s Clubs ** Of the 17th and 18th Centuries
- Building 20 at MIT Innovation Story: A humble wartime lab that sparked a legacy of innovation and collaboration
- C-group Develop your interpersonal and conversational skills
- Café Style Meetings Hold conversations, not meetings
- Carpe Diem – Seize the Day Seize the day everyone
- Changing Minds Through Conversation The role of conversation in Derek Black’s transformation
- Chatbots as Critical Thinking Partners Stimulating critical thinking is one of the most powerful application of chatbots
- Chatbots to Analyze Conversations and Presentations Analysis of transcripts
- Cognitive Diversity Seeing and processing the world differently
- Cognitive Surplus Untapping our human potential
- Collective Sense-making The Knowledge Café is a powerful collective sense-making tool
- Community of Innovation ** A form of community of practice that is dedicated to the support of innovation.
- Community of Practice ** A group of people who share a passion for something they do
- Complex Is Not the Same as Complicated We tend to use "complex" to describe things that are actually just complicated or challenging.
- Complex Responsive Processes Ongoing patterns of interaction between people
- Complex Systems ** Many parts interacting with each other in multiple ways
- Conclusion: Two Pillars of Truth Critical thinking - a civic duty
- Congruence, Coherence, and Contingent Truth Building a framework for understanding
- Connect More Connect more broadly, more deeply
- Connecting Minds Connecting and synchronising minds
- Connection Before Content Without relatedness, no work can occur
- Consensus ** The trouble with consenus
- Contra-conversations **
- Conversare Events Social gatherings which people engage in one-to-one conversation with a stranger
- Conversation Covenant Creating a psychologically safer space for difficult conversations
- Conversation in Ancient Greek Society ** Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
- Conversation in Ancient Roman Society ** ...
- Conversation Is a Dance ** Conversation and dance are both improvisational
- Conversation Is Not a Panacea for All Our Problems ** But it goes a long way
- Conversation Sharpens the Saw It is not a waste of time
- Conversation Through the Lens of the Johari Window Understanding ourselves and others through conversation
- Conversational Awareness The skill of being able to pay attention to various elements of a conversation
- Conversational Capacities Prerequisites to a good conversation
- Conversational Conferences In a conversational conference, the dominant style of presentation is the conversational talk
- Conversational Leadership Framework ** A framework to help understand the concept
- Conversational Leadership Mindset Developing a Conversational Leadership mindset
- Conversational Post-project Reviews **
- Conversational Self-awareness Being aware of our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors during a conversation
- Conversational Talks How to give a conversational talk or presentation
- Conversations Are Complex Responsive Processes Conversations are dynamic, emergent interactions shaping organizational reality
- Conversations Through the Cynefin Lens Unraveling the intricacies of everyday conversations
- Converse in Good Faith Be sincere, fair, open, and honest, regardless of the outcome
- Crafting Writing That Drives Change Larry McEnerney's insights on good writing
- Culture Basic tacit assumptions about how the world works
- Data, Information and Knowledge What's the difference?
- Death Café At a Death Café people drink tea, eat cake and discuss death
- Designing Powerful Questions Questions open the door to dialogue and discovery
- Dialogic Organization Development From a dialogic perspective, change results from transformational conversations
- Difficult Conversations Navigating emotionally challenging conversations
- Disagree Constructively How to disagree well
- Dominant Discourse and Narrative ** Shape the world
- Don’t Discourage Dissent Fear, uncertainty and doubt are good things
- Don’t Give Advice Especially when it is sought
- Eat with Others We should make it a priority to eat with others whenever possible
- Engagement Café Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about.
- Enlightenment 2.0 A New Enlightenment for the 21st century
- Entrained Thinking Blinded to new ways of thinking by perspectives acquired through past experience
- Ericsson Story **
- Etymology of Conversation A history of the word "conversation"
- Everyone Believes They’re the Good Guy The only real way to disarm your enemy is to listen to them
- Everything Is Fragmented ** Fragmentation
- Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups **
- Exploring the Multifaceted Roles of Trust in Relationships and Society Without trust our civilization would collapse
- Facilitator Bias ** A facilitator unwittingly influences a group
- Filter Bubbles, Epistemic Bubbles and Echo Chambers Distort the reality of the world
- Flipped Teaching Speech is a bad medium for communicating information - so watch lectures at home
- Freedom of Speech Freedom of speech is not just another value
- From Enlightenment to Entanglement Adapting to the complexities of an interconnected world
- Future Café Explore trends and issues that shape, influence and impact the future
- Global Consciousness The capacity and disposition to understand and act upon global issues
- Gossip and Lashon Hara Conversation about other people
- Groucho Club Sales Café Ditch the pitch
- Group Polarization The tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members
- Groupthink The desire for harmony in a group can result in irrational decisions
- Gurteen Knowledge Café: Entrenched and Entrained Thinking A blog post by Conrad Taylor
- Hawthorne Effect Myth Being watched affects your behavior
- History of Conversation ** The changing face of conversation through the ages
- Hold Strong Opinions Weakly ** I have no doctrine, I carry on a dialogue
- How Could We Be Wrong? Is a crucial question to ask in a conversation
- Huawei Transforms a Global Conference with a Knowledge Market How to make a conference more participatory
- II. Embrace Complexity We need to understand complexity & its implications
- Impossible Conversations Navigating conversations across ideological divides
- Improving Performance with After-action Reviews Building a culture of improvement
- Influential Power ** You can never not influence
- Interbrain Synchrony When neural activities align between people during social interactions
- Intimate Conversations Conversations with strangers
- Introduction: Conversational Environments ** Designing places and spaces for good conversations
- Introduction: Conversational Leadership Conversational Leadership
- Introduction: Conversational Learning Unleashing knowledge
- Introduction: Conversational Methods Ways of structuring conversations
- Introduction: Conversational Spaces Meeting places for conversations
- Introduction: History and Philosophy of Conversation ** The art of conversation has evolved over thousands of years
- Introduction: Innovation The introduction of something new
- Introduction: Knowledge Café Improving decision-making, innovation, and collaboration
- Introduction: Knowledge Delusion We delude ourselves about what we know and how we make decisions
- Introduction: Two Pillars of Truth The convergence of science and philosophy in the pursuit of knowledge
- Introduction: Virtual Conversations ** Computer-mediated converations
- Is “useless Knowledge” Useless? Maybe not if it makes things taste sweeter
- Jakarta Dutch Cultural Centre 2007 **
- Knowledge Café at Regent’s University February 2024 What Are the Strongest Motives for Creative Endeavour in Your Life?
- Knowledge Café Debate Debate sharpens up the important aspects of the issue under discussion
- Knowledge Café History It began on September 5th, 2002 at the Strand Palace Hotel in London
- Knowledge Café Principle: Conversation Is Sovereign It's all about the conversation
- Knowledge Café Principle: Create a Safe Space Where conversation can flourish
- Knowledge Café Principle: Engage in Small Groups Real conversation takes place in small groups
- Knowledge Café: Capturing Outcomes The outcomes are what you take away in your head - note taking is a distraction
- Knowledge Café: Conversational Topics Some examples
- Knowledge Café: Design Checklist Knowledge Cafés should be thoughtfully designed
- Knowledge Café: Getting Started Make an impact
- Knowledge Café: Invitation People should not be coerced to participate in any way
- Knowledge Café: Measuring Success The outcomes are what you take away in your head - note taking is a distraction
- Knowledge Café: No Flip Charts or Butcher Paper They get in the way of the conversation - avoid them
- Knowledge Café: No Report-outs There is nothing more boring than a report-out
- Knowledge Café: Small Group Conversations The small group conversations are the heart of the Café
- Knowledge Café: the Host The role of the Knowledge Café host
- Knowledge Cafés ** Include one or more Knowledge Cafés
- Knowledge Cafés and Communities of Practice ** There is a difference
- Knowledge Cafés at ING Bank, Netherlands Connect, connect, connect
- Knowledge Cafés at NASA Identifying risk issues, and meaningful mitigation approaches
- Knowledge Cafés at PSMA Australia Using the Knowledge Café process to run a Knowledge Management Forum
- Knowledge Cafés at the European Patent Office The Personal Growth Community
- Knowledge Cafés at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Give people a voice
- Knowledge Is Communal Most of our knowledge resides in other people
- Knowledge Is Not Power Our ability to influence people is power
- Knowledge Only Exists in the Mind Everything else is information
- Knowledge Sharing ** A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle
- Lashon Hara Jewish religious term for derogatory speech
- Leadership Is a Practice Not a Position of Authority Anyone can practice leadership
- Learn by Talking When speaking we organize cognitively what we know
- Learn to Listen and to Tell the Truth Do we listen, to confirm what we already think or do we listen in order to reply?
- Learning **
- Let’s Get Rid of Lecterns The lectern is a barrier to connecting with your audience
- Levels of Conversation ** Four levels of conversation
- Listen Empathically ** Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply
- Listen with the Intent to Understand Don't listen with the intent to reply
- Losing and Giving Face The fear of losing face is a significant barrier to open conversation in many cultures
- Make Big Talk Make big talk not small talk
- Make Time to Talk The lack of time for conversation is just an excuse
- Marketing Café ** Holding marketing conversations
- Measures, Targets, Rewards and Punishments When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure
- Mirror Neurons The key to social cognition
- Motivation ** Motivation is a fire from within
- Multipolar Traps or Moloch Traps Acting against our collective interests
- Narrative and Story ** Narrative provides a way of looking at and interpreting the world.
- Navigating Complexity with Safe-to-fail Probes The power of safe-to-fail probes
- Nurturing a Collaborative Culture Through Knowledge Cafés Using Knowledge Cafés to bridge silos and encourage open dialogue
- Obliquity in a Complex World In a complex world, goals are often best achieved indirectly
- On Conversation An essay by Benjamin Franklin, the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1730
- Open Mindedness ** Willingness to seek and weigh evidence that challenges our beliefs, plans, or objectives
- Open Space Technology ** No formal agenda
- Open, Adaptive Strategy Make employees partners in the strategy process
- Oracy The ability to express oneself in and understand spoken language
- Oral Public Discourse Verbal expression aimed at a public audience
- Our Brains Are Designed for Conversation That is why we find conversation so easy
- Our Old Ways of Thinking and Working Are Failing The outcome
- Our Tribal Nature The human brain is hardwired to be tribal
- Our World Is a Mess The metacrisis
- Our World Is Complex It is a VUCA world
- Our World Is Hyperconnected The world is an increasingly connected place
- Ownership, Not Buy-in We need to move from buy-in to ownership
- Passion at the Gurteen Knowledge Café Blog post by Mathew Rees
- Peer Assist Learn from your peers; someone has already done it
- Peer Instruction Where students learn from each other
- Peer Learning Unlocking collective wisdom
- Personal Power ** We hold more potential today than ever to transform the world
- Philosophy of Conversation ** Conversation is fundamental to the human experience
- Pitching by Conversation ** Ditch the pitch
- Politics Is Life We can't escape it
- Pollution of the Global Information Ecosystem The contamination of information with false and misleading material
- Post-biological Evolution ** Evolution is not limited to biological evolution
- Pseudoscience and Its Dangers Misinformation and its impact on society
- Psychological Safety ** A shared belief that within your team it is safe to take risks
- Punished by Rewards Loving what you do is a more powerful motivator than any goody
- Raising the Ships on the Sea The comedy or cornucopia of the commons
- Randomised Coffee Trials It is just a coffee, but at the same time it is much more
- Reading Group Café A reading group, reading circle or book discussion club
- Recognising New Age Mumbo Jumbo Understanding and avoiding deceptive New Age ideas
- Reframing Questions Shifting perspective changes the conversation
- Rethinking Our Beliefs It is not easy to change our beliefs
- Retrospective Coherence in a Complex World How oversimplified narratives distort the past and hinder decision-making
- Reversing Cause and Effect The conversation creates the speakers
- Rhetoric To influence people through speech or writing
- Ritual Dissent ** A structured way for a group of peers to criticize proposals or ideas
- Sales Café Ditch the pitch - create sales conversations
- Salons A gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host
- Say So, If We Don’t Have an Opinion It's perfectly OK to say ‘Sorry, I don’t know’
- Science Curiosity A desire to seek out and consume scientific information for pleasure
- Shared Meaning To understand each other's perspectives well enough to accept them
- Sharing Knowledge Through Conversation Knowledge isn't there the way ore is buried
- Show Respect Failing to respect one another negatively impacts the future for all of us
- Silicon Valley Versus Route 128 Innovation Story: How Silicon Valley's open culture outpaced Route 128's closed network
- Speak Last Learn to be the last to speak
- Speak Up Express our opinions frankly and openly
- Speak with Less Conviction Speaking with conviction inhibits learning
- Speed Consulting Drawing on the experience of others
- Spirituality A deep appreciation, respect, and love for the universe, the world, all life, and humanity
- Stammtisch Tables Tables in pubs or restaurants reserved for regulars
- Strategic Conversations Have the potential to influence the future direction of an organization
- Strategy in a Complex World ** Strategy is much more than a plan
- Street Epistemology Exploring deeply held beliefs
- Talk More The essence of Conversational Leadership is to talk with people more
- Talk with Strangers Why and how should you talk with strangers?
- Telepresence – Beaming Into a Knowledge Café ** Being present virtually
- Tell the Truth Lies distort the world
- The Allure of Simple Stories We tend to readily accept uncomplicated narratives without verification
- The Anthropocene The age of humans
- The Argumentative Theory of Human Reason We did not evolve to reason individually but to reason socially
- The Art of Navigating Conversations Choosing our repsonses carefully
- The Cognitive Benefits of Doodling ** Doodling can help you stay focused, grasp new concepts and retain information
- The Conversible World ** The sphere of human interaction and exchange of ideas
- The Cynefin Framework A conceptual framework to help make decisions
- The Dérive An unplanned journey through a urban landscape
- The Difference Between Dialogue and Debate ** In dialogue, finding common ground is the goal while in debate, winning is the goal
- The Difference Between Responsibility and Accountability We take responsibility but are held accountable
- The Difference Between Sense-making and Meaning-making The terms have distinct meanings
- The Differences Between the Knowledge Café and the World Café There are some significant differences
- The DIKW (data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom) Pyramid The DIKW model
- The Emergence of Conversation in Early Cultures ** Conversation stretches far back into prehistory
- The Enlightenment The Age of Reason
- The Extended Mind The power of distributed cognition
- The Fallibility of Science Understanding the limits and strengths of science
- The Four Levels of Knowledge Management The relation between Conversational Leadership and Knowledge Management
- The Fourth Industrial Revolution A new era of connectedness and complexity
- The Global Information Ecosystem We live in a vast sea of information
- The Google 20% Free Time Policy Innovation Story: A catalyst for innovation
- The Great Conversation – the Evolving Dialogue of Ideas Exploring the exchange of ideas across cultures and eras
- The History of Conversational Leadership 1985 to today
- The History of the Socratic Method The evolution and impact of Socratic dialogue
- The House of Wisdom Innovation Story: An Islamic beacon of innovation and collaboration
- The Huawei Break the Book Community A powerful example of peer learning
- The Impact of Cognitive Biases in Conversation Cognitive biases can lead to flawed or irrational conclusions in a conversation
- The Innovation Café Network Sparking everyday innovation
- The Knowledge Delusion We know far less than we think we do
- The London Coffeehouses of the Enlightenment Centers of Enlightenment thinking
- The Mehrabian Myth It is not true that 93% of our communication is nonverbal
- The Mind Is a Fire to Be Kindled Not a vessel to be filled
- The Myth of Thamus and Theuth Does writing allow the pretense of understanding, rather than true understanding?
- The Narrative Paradigm All meaningful communication occurs via storytelling or reporting of event
- The Neuroscience of Conversation Conversations trigger changes in the brain
- The New Science of Building Great Teams ** 35% of variation in team performance is accounted for by the amount of face-to-face communication
- The Oracy Lab An experimental space for exploring the power and possibilities of conversations
- The Origin of Language ** ...
- The Perils of Binary Bias ** Simplifying complex issues into two extreme and opposing categories
- The Postproduction Paradigm – AI and the Art of Remixing LLMs as catalysts for a remix revolution
- The Power of Curiosity ** Driving human progress
- The Power of Serendipity Discover how chance encounters can lead to insights and new opportunities
- The Power of Talking with Enemies Özlem Cekic’s story of transforming hostility through conversation
- The Power of Team Huddles How brief team gatherings can align, motivate, and connect
- The Provisional Nature of Scientific Knowledge Understanding science as an ongoing process
- The Role of the Knowledge Café in Open/adaptive Strategy An ideal tool to help implement open strategy
- The Roots of the Scientific Method Exploring the history of the scientific method
- The Science and Benefits of Walking ** We are more creative when walking than sitting down
- The Scientific Method The backbone of modern science
- The Socratic Elenchus A tool for intellectual discovery
- The Socratic Method A powerful tool for critical thinking
- The Two Pillars of Truth How the scientific method and Socratic elenchus underpin civilization
- The Unconference A conference organized, structured and led by the people attending it
- The Value of Conversation ** Why are conversations so valuable?
- The Value of Hallway Conversations The magic of the hallway conversation lies in its spontaneity
- The Vector of Great Conversations A parallel between the vector theory of change and conversational leadership
- The Vector Theory of Change Navigating change in a complex world
- The Virtual Random Café Informal conversations and networking ... from home
- Theodore Zeldin’s Conversation Dinners Dinner and a stimulating conversation with a stranger
- Thinking Together Talking with each other beats talking to ourselves
- Three Questions for Meaningful Conversations Clarify focus, approach, and community-building in discussions
- Tolerance Is A Social Contract, Not a Moral Absolute The paradox of tolerance
- Town Hall Meeting ** A meeting in which a report is made and participants have an opportunity to ask questions
- Tribal Thinking Tribe before truth
- Turn-taking in Conversation When we talk we take turns
- Two Realms of Intellectual Discourse ** The learned and the conversible
- Two Worlds Learning to live in an entangled world
- Understanding Debates Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it
- Understanding Scientific Terms Clarifying common misconceptions
- Unintended Consequences In a complex system, every purposeful action produces unintended consequences
- Use of Self Using who we are to be more effective in life
- Values Values are beliefs we hold that something is good or desirable
- Verbal Judo ** Using one's words to prevent, de-escalate, or end an attempted assault.
- Videos: Knowledge Cafés A selection of videos from past Knowledge Cafés
- Viennese Coffeehouses ** An institution of Vienna that played an important role in shaping Viennese culture
- Virtual Knowledge Café Process On the Zoom video conferencing platform
- Ways of Knowing Ways of acquiring knowledge
- We All Have the Freedom to Choose If We Choose To The last of human freedoms
- We Are Not Enemies but Friends—mostly Finding understanding by conversing with those who think differently
- We Humans Are Complex Human socio-technical systems are complex
- We Know So Much but Understand So Little It is through conversation we make sense of the world
- Weaponizing Public Discourse **
- What Are Cognitive Biases? Mistakes in reasoning, evaluating or remembering
- What Is a Real Conversation? There is more to conversation than just talking or exchanging messages
- What Is a System? ** An interconnected set of elements organized in a way that achieves something
- What Is Communityship? Where everyone in a community practices leadership
- What Is the Difference Between Rhetoric and Oracy? Rhetoric is monologue, oracy is dialogue
- What Is the Optimum Group Size for a Conversation? More than five people and it is not a conversation
- What Makes a Real Community? Members of a community care about each other
- What Would Make a Better World? Many things
- What’s New About the Knowledge Café? In some ways it is not new but in others it isn't
- Why Chatbots Can’t Have Real Human Conversations The limits of artificial chatting
- Why Does Human Life Exist? ** Why are we here?
- Why the Generative AI Intelligence Argument Is Irrelevant Redefining intelligence in the age of GenAI
- Wisdom of Crowds of Crowds Crowds within a crowd outperform 'wisdom of the crowd'
- World Café A conversational process intended to facilitate open and intimate discussion
- Zoom Virtual Knowledge Café On the Zoom video conferencing platform
- Zoom Virtual Knowledge Cafés **
Book Purchased: 14 August, 2022
Tags: collaboration (11) | curiosity (23) | humankind (1) | Johan Norberg (1) | open-mindedness (9) | openness (6)
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Gurteen Knowledge Café Workshop
Thursday 27th February 2025, 15:00 to 19:00 London time (GMT)
Learn how to design & run a Gurteen Knowledge Café, both face-to-face and online.
Information and Registration
Thursday 27th February 2025, 15:00 to 19:00 London time (GMT)
Learn how to design & run a Gurteen Knowledge Café, both face-to-face and online.
Information and Registration