A GENERATIVE THEORY ON COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

The ideas contained in this paper emerged out of some common experiences of "dialogue with magic" and ongoing long conversations to explore ideas and understandings with Juanita Brown and David Isaacs. The initial sparks for The World Cafe came into being as they where conveining and hosting "The Intellectual Capital Pioneers Group" in their home, starting in may 1994.

1. Call it a cafe, whenever a small group of people meet and magic appears.

2. Magic is the experience of an interaction happening "in the middle of the group" giving the members access to understandings and wisdom that no individual member of the group have access to by themselves. A good talk can be that kind of interaction.

3. There are four conditions sufficient to ensure magic:

• The interaction of the group should have a core in form of a question that matters to all members of the group.
• It must feel safe and secure for all members to take part in the interaction.
• Individual behaviour is guided by "listening for wisdom in the middle" rather than expressing one self.
• There should be a spirit of discovery - a longing for knowing and learning.

4. A cafe is the "unit of changeforce" for a social system.

5. The World Cafe is the understanding, that all cafees could be connected in a coherent way, so that many units of changeforce may build to one overall changeforce.

6. Lifenet is the enabler of connection between cafees. Lifenet might be thought of as a field of intelligence, a field of consciousness or a pool of shared human wisdom.

7. The simplest condition to ensure that the magic of one cafe connects with The World Cafe is that at least one person in the cafe is able to hold the understanding of The World Cafe while engaging in the interaction of the cafe. It takes "one who knows" to connect.

One possible implication of The World Cafe

We can think of The World Cafe as a structure (cafe, lifenet) and set of relations (magic, four conditions, one who knows) by which the field of collective intelligence of a social system operates, ie. remember, think, reason, decide.

The World Cafe is a simple yet rich enough construct to enhance the capability of collective intelligence to hold questions and language too complex for any individual intelligence to hold.

Another possible implication

Say that any process in a social system of working out strategies, visions, goals, images of a desired future etc. really is a process by which the collective intelligence of that social system cognizes it self and become more self aware, then The World Cafe could be considered as the simplest way of strategic thinking in complex social systems.

Notes, comments and questions to deepen the understanding of The World Cafe

• The purpose of The World Cafe is to be an organizing image for creation of generative futures and sourcing new social order.

• Definition 1: The World Cafe is a metaphor that describes connectedness of the social processes by which we in human systems bring forth generative futures.

Definition 2: The World Cafe is enabling formation of a core for the living system collective intelligence, thus supporting collective intelligence in evolving to higher levels of complexity

Definition 3: The World Cafe is a metaphor by which we become able to understand the connectedness, and the importance of the connectedness, of the transformative social processes.

• What is the relationship between the world cafe and social autopoises?

Social autopoises means (?) the selfcreation of higher levels of social order, which implies the idea that any social order can be considered as a living system.

As such it must be selfbound, selfgenerating and self-perpetuating. Its essence must be described by a set of relations forming a network, and it must in someway be "embodied" in a structure. This ongoing embodiment takes place through a lifeproces of cognition.

Maybe we can understand the world cafe as the cognition process of a social system, by which that social system brings forth a world. As such the world cafe has always been there. By becoming aware of The world cafe the ability of bringing forth new worlds is enhanced.

• If we know what cafe hosting is, then what do we want to learn about world cafe hosting?

• George Por: If the world cafe is to be considered as a way of strategic thinking in complex social systems, then the issue of collective memory enabled by an appropriate infrastructure is a vital condition.

Yes, the question of collective memory is important. What infrastructure need to be there to enable collective memory? Could it be that collective intelligence is that infrastructure? Then what is collective intelligence "made of" or structured in?

• George Por: What structural elements of the Cafe do you envision to support collaborative decision making...?

If any, it would be structural elements of the world cafe, not the cafe. But do we need collaborative decision making in the world cafe?

• As collective intelligence "wakes up" to a higher level of selfawareness, it will naturally engage in organizing for sustaining its "hardware". thus the question of sustainability is by the very structure and purpose of The World Cafe always "in the middle of the table".

• On the level of organizations the implication of The World Cafe is: Do what ever you are doing, but add the perspective of connectedness.

• There is room for intentionality as we bring forth a world by cognition. (look for volvo and you will see world of volvos)

• The World Cafe has a fractal structure

• The World Cafe and Capras 3 key conditions for life:

An autopoietic network of relationships: the lifenet used by world cafe hosts (the ones who knows) 
Embodied in a structure: must be structured in consciousness (what else could hold that structure?) on a transpersonal level. 
with a lifeproces, which is cognition: becoming selfaware through a flow of wisdom, magic, awareness, attention, heart (by way of questions that matters) 
• The World Cafe supports and enhances the selforganizing capabililty of collective intelligence by

Give identity by name and story, center and focus individual cafes (by way of the structure of twc) around sustainability 
Makes use of most elegant network: direct, anytime-anywhere, no-distance, no-distortion.....lifenet 
Magic gives access to "the wisdom at the middle of the table", opens to anyone anywhere the most precious information for any question that matters. 
• What phase-space transformation of the movements in The World Cafe could we make, that would reveal its strangeattractors?
- What are the strangeattractors?
- What are the movements of Te World Cafe that could be transformed?
 - What "phases" and "spaces" would it be interesting to transform into. (meaning, flowing, attention, heartfullness.....)?

© 1997 Finn Voldtofte · voldtofte@worldcafe.dk