Yvonne Lagrosen and Stefan Lagrosen
Figure 1: Levels of quality management (Lagrosen and Lagrosen, 2005) The most superficial level contains practical tools for improvement such as statistical tools or decision making tools. They are useful but have a limited influence on the organisation as a whole. The second level consists of overarching models like the standards (e.g. ISO 9000) or the award models (e.g. The European Quality Award model). They have a larger impact on the entire organisation. The third and most profound level contains the values of quality management (sometimes called basic principles (Dale, 2003) or cornerstones (Bergman and Klefsjö, 2001)).
3. Organisational learning Organisational learning has been developed as a means of achieving profound change in organisations. It promotes long term views as a counterweight to the short-sightedness that often prevails in business. An important part of organisational learning concerns the learning of leaders which is related to their emotional intelligence (Goleman et al., 2002; Grewal and Salovey, 2005). Research has shown that learning of leaders is related to their emotional intelligence (Goleman et al., 2002). In organisational learning, profound learning is strived for in order to create a more holistic understanding. Genuine and profound learning can influence the core values of an organisation (Argyris and Schön, 1996; Argyris, 1999). A learning organisation is characterised by the members learning together with the aim to create results that they have a genuine wish to see. This way, new and expansive patterns of thought can be created (Senge, 2006). In this respect, the aims of the World Café are very much in line with the thoughts behind organisational learning and it can be viewed as a method of instigating profound organisational learning in an organisation.
4. The World Café In many cases, organisations need to involve many people in the creation of knowledge. The World Café is a way of creating meaningful dialogues in an organisation. The ambition is to reach an area of collective intelligence that has been forgotten in the individualistic cultures of today. The method is underpinned by a belief that there is a field of wisdom which can be reached in groups but which is inaccessible for individuals (Brown, 2005). A basic tenet of the World Café is that people have within them the wisdom and creativity that is needed for solving even the most difficult of problems. Discussing in small groups and then spreading the insights to larger groups creates a self-enhancing meaning creating network. A sort of wholeness appears in the gap between the participants. World Cafés are supposed to be suitable:
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