The Measurement of Dialogue: From a Case Study of the Workshop Using World Café as a Collective Dialogue Method

In this paper, we will present the results and implications of analyses of the dialogue process and its consequences by conducting a case study of the workshop using the World Café as a collective dialogue method. The workshop addresses a new way of working in a Japanese company after the earthquake on March 11, 2011. We investigated both dialogue processes quantitatively and qualitatively, the level of recognition of the workshop theme, and participants’ actions and their effects after the workshop. The results indicate that the more active the quantitative dialogue process is, the more positively the participants feel about the quality of the dialogue process and the more actions the participant takes. To understand the dialogue process in a workshop could be useful for practitioners and researchers to develop a facilitation method or supporting system that could promote better dialogues leading to better actions and effects.

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