Knowledge Café: The Host The role of the Knowledge Café host

The role of the Knowledge Café host is an important one. Their job is to lightly facilitate the conversational process that is the core of the Café. The success or failure of a Café to no small degree is in their hands. 

Host not facilitator

The first point is that a Café host does not need to be a professional facilitator. Moreover, although a Knowledge Café host is often referred to as a facilitator or a leader, they actually host the conversations. They do not facilitate or lead them in a traditional sense.

Hospitality refers to the relationship between a guest and a host, wherein the host receives the guest with goodwill, including the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers

Credit: Wikipedia

The Skills of the Host

This distinction between facilitator and host recognizes that the role of a Café host is somewhat different from that of a professional facilitator. The host’s position is closer to that of a host at a dinner party than someone facilitating a workshop.

It is not the host’s job to lead or steer the conversation in a particular direction, help people reach a consensus, or summarize in any way.

This does not mean it requires little skill. It requires skills that reflect the host’s personality and cannot easily be taught.

• The Café host should behave the way they want the participants to behave. They should demonstrate the desired behavior and not try to teach it directly.
• The Café host should do their best to suppress their ego and any biases they may have – to the extent that that is ever actually possible.
• They should be seen to be neutral. So if the Café is being run inside an organization on a sensitive topic, then the host needs to be selected carefully.
• They should be genuinely warm and friendly, speaking the participants’ language.
• They should have a high tolerance for silence and give people space and time to think and reflect.
• They should observe and quieten the more dominating personalities and bring the quieter ones into the conversation sensitively. If they lack the skill to do this, it is best not to try.

I learned not to worry about delivering something new like the Café.

The more relaxed I could make the event, the more likely people are to talk to each other.

I noticed this in David’s videos, so I tried to put it into practice on the day – even though I was quite nervous. And it worked.

I got people engaging with the presentation first, and then they were happy to carry on their discussion in the Knowledge Café session.

Credit: Debra Thornton, Knowledge and Library Services Manager, Blackpool Victoria Hospital, UK

Hosting a Knowledge Café

The section below outlines the role of the Café host in hosting a Knowledge Café.

Welcoming arrivals

People should be greeted at the door and welcomed personally. If the Café has not started and people are networking, they should be introduced to others or helped to find a seat.

Late Arrivals

Late arrivals should be welcomed without humiliating them in any way.

Early Leavers

Sometimes people quietly leave during the small group conversations. This is just fine.

More often than not, they leave during the whole group conversation. As they get up to go, the host should briefly pause the conversation and thank them for their participation.

Small group conversations

The Café host needs to decide to what degree to take part in the small group discussions.

There are broadly three options:

1. Not to take part but only to observe. The host may choose to do this with large groups they do not know and feel their presence would be intimidating, or think their views would bias the conversations. They might also tend not to get involved if the subject is one in which they have no expertise, thus giving them total freedom to observe the session, monitor the timing, and make any changes on the fly as necessary.
2. To join in lightly as a participant. In this case, the host does not sit with any of the groups but wanders around the room, listening in and occasionally joining the conversations. Again, trying not to get too involved in the discussions but standing a little way back from the group to hear, but making it clear with their body language that they do not intend to participate—also, trying to choose their standing position carefully so that everyone in the group can see them and not standing immediately behind someone.
3. To join in fully as a participant. With groups of people the host knows well, or in small groups, the host can participate fully in the conversations by joining a single table for each round or, more often than not, moving independently between the groups within each round.

The decision as to the degree of involvement is up to the host.

The whole group conversation

The embedded page below describes how the host should handle the whole group conversation.

Knowledge Café: Circle Conversation