The World Café is a process for creating collaborative dialogue around questions that matter in corporate, government and community settings. Café participants – a minimum of 20 people and as many as 100 or more – seated at small tables of four discuss a current problem put before them, its deeper implications and possible actions to take to solve the problem. Outcomes put people on the same page and move a group or organization forward to implementation. For the Town of Prosper, Texas, as part of a strategic visioning project, Conbrio designed and led a World Café-style discussion to ask citizens how they would implement elements of the just-completed strategic vision created by the town’s council. The process was similar to one used for The Staubach Company. All Prosper citizens were invited to attend; flyers went home with students from Prosper schools specifying date and time. More than 50 citizens participated. Perhaps the most important recommendation was to form a not-for-profit “Friends of Prosper” to take charge of community activities falling outside the purview of local government entities. Other recommendations included specifics to build social capital, increase communication, provide more opportunities for youth, take planning deeper, build infrastructure and establish community programming. Many of the participants signed up to lead elements of the implementation. From the city council’s strategic visioning process came this mission/purpose for the town: To be a place where everyone matters. Today, the purpose statement is painted on all city vehicles.
