www.gurteen.com

Blog Post

Going off-topic in a Knowledge Café

Posted to Gurteen Knowledge-Log by David Gurteen on 26 September 2019

 



Title

Going off-topic in a Knowledge Café
WeblogGurteen Knowledge Log
Knowledge LetterAppears in the Gurteen Knowledge Letter issue: 231
Posted DateThursday 26 September 2019 11:59 GDT
Posted ByDavid Gurteen

When I explain my Knowledge Café process to people, I make the point that it's okay to go off-topic and that “the question is only a seed. But I am often asked somthing like this:

“Doesn't that bring the danger of dissipation of the conversation or cause problems after the participants have changed the tables?”

My reply is that the Knowledge Café is not about trying to control people and what they say or talk about. It's about treating them as adults.

Real conversations go off-topic in everyday life – all of the time. That's the intrinsic nature of conversation. If you try to control conversation – you destroy it. If the topic is meaningful to the participants and the right one – they will quickly return to it.

Going off-topic also allows issues to emerge that were not anticipated. This is at the heart of what the Knowledge Café is all about. You need the space to explore stuff and the freedom for people to relax and tell personal stories and share anecdotes. Rather than dissipate the conversation – it keeps it natural and animates it.

And there is not a problem when people change tables. Any sidetracking in an earlier table discussion either dies or if it is important, it is built upon.

I explain this reasoning more fully in my blook on Conversational Leadership.



If you are interested in Knowledge Management, the Knowledge Café or the role of conversation in organizational life then you my be interested in this online book I am writing on Conversational Leadership
David Gurteen


Follow me on Twitter

How to contact me


My Blog

Gurteen Knowledge Community
The Gurteen Knowledge Community
The Gurteen Knowledge Community is a global learning community of over 21,000 people in 160 countries across the world.

The community is for people who are committed to making a difference: people who wish to share and learn from each other and who strive to see the world differently, think differently and act differently.

Membership of the Gurteen Knowledge Community is free.
Knowledge Community



     

home
back
contact
request help
visitor book
Friday 29 March 2024
01:07 PM GMT