As many of you know, I started running my public Knowledge Cafes in London 10 years ago out of my frustration with death-by-powerpoint type lectures. Very soon I found myself facilitating them privately for clients and discovering they had far greater power than I could ever have imagined.
They can be applied in a wide variety of ways, including:
- transform traditional management training courses where younger managers learn from more experienced ones
- as a powerful sales tool to engage with customers and thus better understand their needs and for them to better understand your product or service
- surface hidden problems and opportunities that exist in the organisation or in a department or project - especially ones caused by lack of communication
- help break down organizational silos and build internal relationships
- give people a voice so that they feel heard and are thus less cynical and more engaged in their work
- bring managers and technologists together after a merger to build relationships, surface new opportunities and address cultural issues
- solicit input and obtain buy-in for a new project or initiative
In the workshop you will learn the fundamental principals and benefits of the Knowledge Café process and how to apply it to different business issues.
You will also participate in a Knowledge Cafe on the role of conversastion in business; experience the benefits first hand and get to reflect on and discuss the experience.
You will find more information here: (watch the first little video and you get an idea of the energy and passion KCafe conversations can generate).
http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/imp-kcafe9
