Juanita Brown, the founder of Whole Systems Associates,
collaborates as a thinking partner and design advisor to create
and host forums for constructive dialogue on critical
organizational and societal issues. With her partner David
Isaacs, Juanita is the co-originator of the World Café,
an innovative approach to large group dialogue which is rapidly
spreading throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Latin America,
Africa, and the Pacific Rim. The World Café is being used
in a growing number of community, corporate, governmental, health,
educational, NGO and church settings to access a higher collective
intelligence in situations of entrenched conflict.
Juanita served as a Senior Affiliate at the MIT Sloan
School's Organizational Learning Center where she participated
as a member of the Core Team of the Center's Dialogue Project,
one of the early research initiatives in this field. She has
also served as an Associate with the Norwegian Center for
Leadership Development, a Research Affiliate with the Institute
for the Future and as program faculty at the John F. Kennedy
University School of Management, the California Institute of
Integral Studies, Columbia University, and the University of
Monterrey, Mexico. She is a Fellow of the World Business Academy
and has been honored in the World's Who's Who of Business and Professional Women.
selected books
The World Café: Bringing Conversation to Life
(Berrett-Koehler, forthcoming)
selected articles
"The World Café: Living Knowledge Through Conversations That Matter"
with D. Isaacs and the World Café Community in The Systems Thinker, Vol. 12 #5, June/July 2001
"Asking Big Questions: A Catalyst for Strategy Evolution"in Peter M. Senge, et. al., The
Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations (Currency, 1999)
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"The World Café: Catalyzing Large-Scale Collective Learning"with D. Isaacs, N. Margulies, and G. Warhaftig in
Leverage, September 1999
"Mindshift: Strategic Dialogue for Breakthrough Thinking"in S. Chawla and J. Renesch (eds.),
Learning Organizations: Developing Cultures for Tomorrow's Workplace (Productivity Press, 1995)
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"Building Corporations as Communities: Merging the Best of Two Worlds"in P. Senge, et. al. (eds.),
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (Currency, 1994)
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organizational affiliations
Whole Systems Associates, Mill Valley, CA
Founded by Juanita Brown, Whole Systems Associates works with senior corporate leaders to develop knowledge-based organizations and large-scale change initiatives.
World Business AcademyThe World Business Academy explores fundamental paradigm shifts that are underway globally and helps its members integrate this knowledge into their lives and business practices. Its founding principle is to rekindle the human spirit in business.
http://www.worldbusiness.org
The World CaféThe World Café is an easy-to-use method for facilitating collaborative dialogue among large groups of people who want to explore questions relevant to real-life situations in their organizations and communities.
http://www.theworldcafe.com