Toolbox



Overview

The World Cafe is a workshop activity with a two-decade history, designed to foster engaging thematic conversations among participants to explore the general sentiments of participants concerning certain ideas and themes or get feedback. This method, coined by Juanita Brown, is both straightforward and influential, allowing for meaningful discussions guided entirely by the participants and the subjects that hold significance for them. Facilitators establish a cafe-like environment and offer uncomplicated guidelines. Subsequently, participants autonomously organise themselves to delve into a curated set of pertinent topics or questions for discussion.

Implementation

1. Setup small café-style tables in rooms and seat 4 or 5 Participants at each. These are your ‘conversation clusters’.
2. The Facilitator then explains to the group they will now have 3 rounds of conversation of approximately 20-30 minutes each.
3. Questions or issues that genuinely matter to your work, life or community are discussed while other groups explore similar questions at nearby tables.
4. The Facilitator encourages the table members to write, doodle, and draw key ideas on their paper tablecloths or to note key ideas on large index cards or placemats in the centre of the group.
5. After completing the 1st round of conversation, the Facilitator asks each table to agree on a ‘table host’ who remains at the table while the others travel to different tables. (You can also assign table hosts from the beginning, they can be co facilitators in your organisation. This is not a hard rule for running the activity.)
6. The travellers now get up from the table and move to another. They can go to whichever table they prefer carrying with them key ideas, themes and questions from their old table into their new conversations.
7. The Facilitator asks the Table Hosts to welcome their new guests and briefly share the main ideas, themes and questions from the initial conversation (max 2 mins). Encourage guests to link and connect ideas coming from their previous table conversations – listening carefully and building on each other’s contributions.
8. At the end of the 2nd round, all of the tables and conversations will be cross-pollinated with insights from previous conversations.
9. In the 3rd round of conversation, people can return to their home (original) tables to synthesise their discoveries, or they may continue on to new tables, leaving the same or a new host at the table.
10. An optional step is for the Facilitator to pose a new question that helps deepen the exploration for the 3rd round of conversation.
11. After your 3rd round of conversation, initiate a period of sharing discoveries and insights in a whole group conversation.
12. Make sure you have someone flip-chart this plenary conversation so you capture any patterns, knowledge and actions that emerge.

To Consider in Your Activity Design

Define your objectives

Is your objective to develop a number of ideas? Engage more diversity of perspective? Get nuanced feedback through conversations among participants?

This activity is a great opportunity for people to converse but defining your objectives can help approach how you get the best results possible. For example you can:

• In the instructions, include a request for three big ideas from each group at each table.
• Ask participants to frame their response within the scope of their work or expertise to frame responses through specific perspectives

Roles

• Hosts can support a group diligently following a specific line of conversation which might be easier if they stay at a single table throughout the session
• For sharing sessions ask participants at the beginning of the session that they will share their results and might want to assign roles such as:
• Note taker
• Presenter
• Time keeper