​​1/29 World Cafe Design
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​Context/Purpose

​​What is the Cafe for, and what is our current sense of the larger context of DandTrans as we move toward "completion?"
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​Ben's suggestions
​​I see the primary purpose for the Cafe being to identify things we learned, individually, and as a group, that had value to us, and what new possibilities and inquiries this learning implies. This is set within the larger context of the "ending" phase of DandDTrans, which will also include Harvesting hackpads, as well as the possibility that one or more groups will work post 1/31 to make meaning out of what has occurred, particularly by mining the hackpad notes.
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​​The overall framing and energy that I wish to put forth is of harvesting,  closing and celebration.
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​​I offer this analogy of fungi in a forest ecosystem as a way of understanding and appreciating our collective work as a "community of inquiry and action" (and would like to present this to set the context for the group on World Cafe call): 
  • ​​The primary, ongoing manifestation of fungi, which have been called "the wood-wide-web", is mycelium: the network of tiny filaments that interconnect beneath the ground, often with the roots of living plants as well as in dead matter that is being digested. Information and nutrients pass through the forest system through this network in highly complex ways that are only now just beginning to be understood. 
  • ​​Then, there are the mushrooms. They are what get most of our attention. They are beautiful, often nourishing, and sometimes medicinal, poisonous, and even mind-blowing. They are also temporary and fragile. And they are somewhat mysterious, emerging only when conditions are right, and not necessarily with consistency or predictability. Their main function is to produce billions of spores, each of which is capable of bringing forth an entire mycelial mat, if the wind carries it to a fertile spot.
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​​My suggestion is that we view DandDTrans as both a blooming of mushrooms, and as a strengthening of the mycelial mat of the DandD community of practice.  
  • ​​DandDTrans as a blooming of mushrooms, casting spores to the wind. The ideas, questions, and insights we harvest are like spores. We want to identify them in tiny, light-weight packages that can be carried far and wide, and that do not require our tending and management, or even knowledge of where they have gone and what they have seeded. Meanwhile, the mushrooms that produced them (the team, people, structures and processes) can break down, having served their purpose (though the hackpads can remain indefinitely). More mushrooms may emerge soon, or they may not. We don't know right now, and that is fine. We are not mushroom farmers (i.e. we did not promise, nor do we have a current intention of, convening a DandDTrans 2, 3, 4 etc.).
  • ​​The larger community of practice as the mycelial mat. The mat is what continues to live, and to do work that serves the forest ecosystem. By connecting the field to more of itself, DandDTrans has strengthened this mat and helped it to be more energized and engaged. The complexity of this structure, and of the larger "forest" in which it lives, may make it hard for that impact to be fully visible. It is mostly below ground. It operates mostly in the fine filaments of personal connections. We might try to measure this impact, but the best approach is likely to be to tell stories that are fractals of the larger work that has occurred.
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​The Questions

​​This is the heart of a World Cafe. Three rounds, and one, two or three powerful questions.
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​Ben's suggestions:
​​Note: these emerged out of a conversation with David Isaacs last night (1/27)
  • ​​Rounds 1 and 2 focus on what we have learned. I like the idea of asking this question twice:
  • ​​What have you learned--and what have we learned-- that has real value to our work?
  • ​​suggestion for round 2: what haven't you/we learned that you are really hungry to explore?
  • ​​Round 3 focuses on moving forward, by identifying the inquiries and possibilities that we see as having value and importance. The question might be something like this:
  • ​​Given our learning, what "what if I..." and "what if we..." questions do we have?
  • ​​Given where we are now, what possibilities do you see that you'd love to see someones of us pursue?
  • ​​Here's an alternative with less "edgy" language: Given our learning, what next steps might you take in your work, and what next steps might you wish to take with other members of the D&D community of practice?
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​​More options:
  • ​​Q1: As you consider Tom's original calling question, how has your sense of what we have to be and do shifted or developed?
  • ​​Q2: What else have you learned--and what else have we learned-- that you feel adds real value to our work? [minor edits in italics - to which i am unattached - tom]
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​​Make this the third question? What haven't you/we learned that you are really hungry to explore?
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​​The three questions immediately above are fine for me, although the last seems to not satisfy your own desires for the final question.  So I'd be fine with replacing that third question (which I love) with Given our learnings, what next steps might you take in your work, and what next steps might you wish to take with other members of the D&D community of practice?  Either one would be fine for me.
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​​A comment/distinction re "next steps." David Isaacs pointed out, and I agree, that it is crucial to spend time on the learning piece as the primary outcome of value, and only after giving that its due, to proactively open space for "next steps" planning. It is not that we don't want to support next steps. I most certainly do want to make space for people to share their inspirations, extend invitations, etc. This makes sense to me as part of the individual harvest we invite via hackpad, along much the same lines as what Nancy just proposed here: Closing Q's ncgg 1-28-15.docx
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