Many organizations host Knowledge Cafés primarily to facilitate pleasant conversations. Without a clear purpose, these gatherings rarely lead to meaningful change. Use the Café as a practical response to a real issue, design it with intent, and let the conversation drive understanding, connection, and action.
I suggest you avoid running a Knowledge Café solely to convene “interesting conversations.”
What you have in the Café is a powerful generic tool; when you see opportunities to use it for a real purpose, seize them.
Offer the Café as a response to an issue—maybe don’t even call it a Café —and don’t try to “sell it” in a traditional way.
A Café should always have a strong purpose.
If you are a manager, you should not have too much of a problem, as you have the authority and power to do new things. However, even if you are lower down the organizational hierarchy and do not manage people, it is still possible.
Some general points
First, some general points:
- Take the time to familiarize yourself with the Café concept and process.
- Come along to a few of my public Cafés in London if possible. You need to experience the Café to appreciate it fully.
- Sign up for one of my Knowledge Café masterclasses, where I teach how to design and run Cafés, ask for my advice, or invite me to design and run the first one for you.
- Don’t assume that all senior managers will fail to “get” the Café idea; many won’t, but some will take to it enthusiastically.
- One of the best ways to get people interested in the Café is not to try to sell the concept to them academically, but to have them participate in and experience an actual Café.
- Find some accomplices; the more senior, the better. Talk to other people who you think will “get” the concept. Have conversations with them as to how you might get started.
- Take a look at the applications and stories chapters in this blook to see if anything catches your eye that you could run with.
- Start small. Experiment a little and learn as you go.
It’s important to think broadly and long-term about what you are trying to achieve. It is one thing to run a one-off Café, another to run a regular series of them, and an entirely different thing to create a Café culture.
Make an impact
If you want to be taken seriously, consider running a one-off Café or a series of Cafés that will have a lasting impact on the organization, engage people, and prompt them to ask, “Why has no one thought of this before?”
You should always design a Café for a particular business purpose. Think about why you wish to use them and what you are looking to achieve for the business.
Getting started
Start to run them yourself within your circle of influence. If you manage people, you can run them for your team, however small.
If you don’t have permission to run them during working hours, then run them after work.
Find a speaker or speak yourself and run one. Or trigger it with a TED Talk video.
Or create a series of Cafés around a particular theme, such as the impact of technology, culture, or working out loud.
Significant issue Cafés
There are always significant issues or major events in large organizations, such as:
- A significant new HR initiative.
- A merger or acquisition.
- The company may be expanding rapidly or contracting, leading to layoffs.
- A major project may be in difficulties.
- There may be bad press about a customer service issue.
- A significant transformation program may be going on.
- The CEO may be talking about certain things, such as engagement or transparency. CEOs always have a hot topic at any point in time.
So figure out where the fires are, where things are intense, where things are important. Reflect on them and consider how a Knowledge Café could help in these situations by fostering a better understanding of the issue, people’s different perspectives, or breaking down silos.
If it is of help, obtain support from more senior management and capture the outcomes.
Future Cafés
My personal favorite way to get started is to run a series of Future Cafés. It is a low-risk activity that can be highly engaging. Identify:
- Emerging technologies
- Social trends
- New or emerging regulations or standards
- The impact of changing demographics
Identify the questions to ask in your organization’s context, then design and conduct Cafés around these topics.
If you can find good external speakers to trigger the conversations, so much the better—but often it is unnecessary, and a good TED Talk or another video will do.
Ideation Cafes
An Ideation Café is a conversational method used to solicit ideas on a particular issue, problem, or opportunity for which you are looking for creative suggestions. It is an adaptation of the Knowledge Café and avoids many criticisms of the traditional brainstorming process.
Engagement Cafés
An Engagement Café is a form of Knowledge Café designed to help people engage with an issue, such as a new policy or procedure.
According to a 2014 World Bank report, out of approximately 1,500 reports produced from 2008 to 2012, 517 were never downloaded.
Knowledge is the capacity for effective action. There is no capacity for effective action in a report. An Engagement Café can transform a document’s content into actionable knowledge in people’s heads.
Reading Group Cafés
Start a regular Reading Group Café, such as The Huawei Break the Book Community.
Posts that link to this post
- Nurturing a Collaborative Culture Through Knowledge Cafés Using Knowledge Cafés to bridge silos and encourage open dialogue
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I absolutely love how you suggest weaving in cafes as opportunities arise!! And, I agree that it isn’t about trying to sell them, but just to convene them when there is a rich need to do so giving people the experience of being in one without a lot of time spent on convincing them that they need to participate. Well said!!
Thanks for the feedback Linda :-) I think the few words you have said on this has helped sharpen up my own thinking on the subject. We are far too fond of “doing things to people” LOL