The Knowledge Café is fundamentally about conversation. Its value lies in the quality of the conversations that take place. The actual outcomes are what people take away in their heads.
The Dilemma
Capturing the outcomes of a Café is often essential. However, it clashes with one of the Café principles that anything that gets in the way of the conversation is should be avoided. Unfortunately, attempting to capture things destroys the conversational dynamics and, hence, the conversations’ value.
It’s a little bit of a dilemma. If you wish to have a free-flowing conversation where real insights are generated, then you don’t want anything to interfere with that. But on the other hand, if you don’t capture those ideas, much of the conversation’s potential value may be lost.
The trick is to figure out when there is a need to record things and when not. Too often, things are captured for no good reason. And when items do need to be recorded – thought needs to be given as to how to impact the free flow of the conversation minimally.
The real value of the Knowledge Café is what people take away in their heads
The Knowledge Café isn’t about decision-making, and it isn’t about reaching a consensus.
The real value of the Knowledge Café is what people take away in their heads.
Everyone will take away something different depending on their interests, context, and current focus.
There isn’t a problem in that – it’s a strength.
If you are looking to reach a consensus – in other words, agreement and documented outcomes then the Knowledge Café is not the right tool though it may form part of a more extensive process.
Personal Notes
Personal notes are OK but should be discouraged. Suggest to people they capture short one or two-word reminders on a card or notebook and write up anything more substantial later.
Table Note Takers
Assigning one person from each group to take notes is a bad idea as:
- they cannot effectively take part in the conversation, and
- they can distract the conversation by, for example, asking people to repeat things so they can write them down.
Dedicated Note Takers
In some circumstances, it may make sense to assign dedicated note-takers to each table. In this case, they should not take part in the conversation. Their job is only to capture the essence of what is discussed.
Bloggers
I often ask people to blog about the event in my public cafes. Usually, one or two do. Matthew Rees, for example, has blogged about several of my London Knowledge Cafés.
Graphic Recording
Graphic recording is the real-time capture of a conversation by a graphic recorder who listens to a conversation and illustrates what they hear using pictures, words, and color. I have written more about it here.
Audio Recording
I know of one organization that ran a Knowledge Café that placed an audio recorder on each table, recorded the conversations, and transcribed them.
Capture during the Circle
At the end end of a Café, I often go around the circle and ask each person to share one lesson learned or one actionable insight that they are taking away from the Café.
An option here is to ask people to write this on a note-it and stick it on a whiteboard. Another option is to ask them to write it on a card, collect them, and collate them as a short report.
Posts that link to this post
- Knowledge Café Principle: Preserve the Flow Conversational flow should not be interrupted
- Knowledge Café in Zurich, Switzerland The Knowledge Café has empowered our staff to speak up and take the initiative
- The Differences Between the Knowledge Café and the World Café There are some significant differences
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