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While discussions of the learning organization (LO) often center on nuances of its definition and application, little attention has been given to the role that organizational leaders play in fostering goals of becoming an LO. Varied research indicates that leaders may play the single most important role in determining the success or failure of LO efforts, with trust, modeled behaviors, and positive reinforcement critical to gaining worker acceptance and support. This paper recommends that, to improve chances of success, organizations should first attend to developing learning leaders before implementing any LO efforts.

The aim of this paper is to report on findings related to the use of a large group intervention method known as The World Café.

The intervention method and its philosophical genesis are described along with lessons learned from observation, personal use, and interviews with café participants.

While The World Café approach has the potential to make significant contributions to large group knowledge exchange and collective meaning making, it has suffered from being used by inexperienced facilitators and for reasons not well suited to the method. Participants, as a result, have failed to achieve the results expected and in some cases formed negative opinions of a lasting nature about the method and its proponents.

The limitations of this paper and its generalizability are framed within the nature of a case study, which is neither a representation of the whole nor a controlled experiment. Every effort has been made to fairly represent all perspectives as they were presented.

The World Café and its many imitations has been employed at numerous conferences, retreats, and gatherings during the last decade. Thousands of individuals around the world have been exposed to this method and many within the LO community have been exposed to it without understanding both its benefits and perils. Organizational leaders and practitioners can better analyze the value of this approach when measured against the learning goals of an event.

The paper makes an objective presentation of experiences with the method and shares lessons learned from the participant and practitioner perspective.

For many, the learning organization (LO) remains something of a mythical concept despite 13 years passing since Peter Senge helped to popularize the subject in his book The Fifth Discipline. But those companies that have taken on the challenge have discovered that there is a critical role to be played by leaders in seeking success. Even today there is still considerable debate about the exact role and definition of a leader. Most parties agree that one of the primary functions of a leader should be to set a path towards a goal and then inspire and motivate others to follow. In this respect, the role of the leader clearly becomes pivotal in any LO initiative.