I was honored to be asked by the TriAgile 2018 planning committee to facilitate a World Cafe event at the end of  the conference. I meant to get to this post sooner, but I am glad I waited because I just got a hold of a digital copy of the live illustration board that Kimberly Dornisch crafted while floating around the room during the session!

You can find more information about the World Cafe method on the website. The whole idea for the event was to replace the traditional closing keynote with a more collaborative event that allowed space for folks to reflect on what they learned during the day.  Devin Hedge facilitated the event with me.  Here is an excerpt from the slides we used as a facilitation guide.

We are going to do a World Cafe-style structured exercise to reflect on your experiences today at your tables. We will pose a series of questions for you to discuss.  The goal is to capture some of these ideas on the flip chart paper at your table.

We will do 3 rounds, roughly 10 minutes each.  One person from each table will be an anchor.  The anchor will capture, in some form, the key ideas from the conversation.  Keep it simple and visual! It is the responsibility of the whole table to facilitate (try to capture every voice) and keep the conversation going.  

At the end of each round, the anchor will remain at the table to carry forward the ideas. Everyone else will find a new table.  

Round 1:

• What surprised you today?
• From what you learned today, what is the ONE THING you are going to start/stop?

Round 2:

• How are you different walking out the door?
• What is next on your Agile journey?

Round 3:

• How will you pay this forward or spread the message?
• How will you build a better community of practitioners?

We asked everyone to capture their conversations at each table on a single flipchart, and encouraged them to draw and be creative with their ideas.  At the end of the session, we asked everyone to take their posters outside and place them next to Kimberly’s boards. 

This was a really neat event to close out the day. I look forward to my next World Cafe!

 

Until the next Iteration . . .

Jason