In a Knowledge Café, there are not any table hosts.
Unlike the World Café, where a table host remains at a table for all of the rounds of small group conversation to welcome the new set of people and to carry key ideas, themes, and questions into the new conversations, the Knowledge Café does not have table hosts or facilitators.
There are two main reasons for not having any table hosts.
Everyone should have an equal voice
The main reason for the lack of table hosts is that one of the fundamental principles of the Knowledge Café is that everyone should have an equal voice.
Table hosts, however well-intentioned and however well briefed, tend to dominate and try to control the conversations. They feel it is their job.
I have often seen hosts when they welcome new people to their table – totally take over and dominate the conversation right from the outset by explaining at great length what was discussed in the last round. Such a welcome is not a conversation but a monologue. It also focuses on what the facilitator feels is important, not the group, and can distort the conversation.
People who are not natural facilitators and have been given the task also feel that they need to do something when there is little to do. In worrying about not doing their job correctly, they don’t fully take part in the conversation.
People should talk from passion, not out of obligation, to the process
In the World Café, when people move tables, it is the role of the table host to give a summary of the last group’s conversation.
There are several reasons I don’t do this in a Knowledge Café.
- First, this is not a conversation; it’s a mini report-out. It takes time away from the new conversation.
- Second, many hosts do it at length regardless of its value.
- Third, it channels the new conversation down a path heavy influenced by the table host.
If something of interest was discussed earlier, I want people to bring it up out of passion because they feel it is crucial, not out of obligation, to the process.
I recall one World Café I took part in many years ago, where the new table host went to great length to describe what had been discussed in the last round, and we listened quietly and dutifully. It took up most of the time, and just before we were due to move again, someone in the group pointed out that the previous group had misunderstood the question and had gone down a blind alley. We had effectively wasted our conversational time.
The lack of table hosts makes the Café easier to run
A side benefit of not having table hosts is that it is unnecessary to brief them about their duties. A lack of such a briefing session makes running a Knowledge Café so much easier if it is a one-off informal affair.
In some circumstances, you may choose to adopt the World Café model, but table facilitators or hosts are not needed in most situations and get in the way of the conversation.
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- The Differences Between the Knowledge Café and the World Café There are some significant differences
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