World Cafe Design Principles

The following seven World Cafe design principles are an integrated set of ideas and practices that form the basis of the pattern embodied in the World Cafe process.

1. Set the Context
   Pay attention to the reason you are bringing people together, and what you want to achieve. Knowing the purpose and perameters of your meeting enables you to consider and choose the most important elements to realize your goals: e.g. who should be part of the conversation, what themes or questions will be most pertinent, what sorts of harvest will be more useful, etc..
   
   
2. Create Hospitable Space
   Cafe hosts around the world emphasize the power and importance of creating a hospitable space one that feels safe and inviting. When people feel comfortable to be themselves, they do their most creative thinking, speaking, and listening. In particular, consider how your invitation and your physical set-up contribute to creating a welcoming atmosphere.
   
   
3. Explore Questions that Matter
   Knowledge emerges in response to compelling questions. Find questions that are relevant to the real-life concerns of the group. Powerful questions that "travel well" help attract collective energy, insight, and action as they move throughout a system. Depending on the timeframe available and your objectives, your Cafe may explore a single question or use a progressively deeper line of inquiry through several conversational rounds.
   
   
4. Encourage Everyone's Contribution
   As leaders we are increasingly aware of the importance of participation, but most people don't only want to participate, they want to actively contribute to making a difference. It is important to encourage everyone in your meeting to contribute their ideas and perspectives, while also allowing anyone who wants to participate by simply listening to do so.
   
   
5. Connect Diverse Perspectives
   The opportunity to move between tables, meet new people, actively contribute your thinking, and link the essence of your discoveries to ever-widening circles of thought is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Cafe. As participants carry key ideas or themes to new tables, they exchange perspectives, greatly enriching the possibility for surprising new insights.
   
   
6. Listen together for Patterns and Insights
   Listening is a gift we give to one another. The quality of our listening is perhaps the most important factor determining the success of a Cafe. Through practicing shared listening and paying attention to themes, patterns and insights, we begin to sense a connection to the larger whole. Encourage people to listen for what is not being spoken along with what is being shared.
   
   
7. Share Collective Discoveries
   Conversations held at one table reflect a pattern of wholeness that connects with the conversations at the other tables. The last phase of the Cafe, often called the "harvest", involves making this pattern of wholeness visible to everyone in a large group conversation. Invite a few minutes of silent reflection on the patterns, themes and deeper questions experienced in the small group conversations and call them out to share with the larger group. Make sure you have a way to capture the harvest - working with a graphic recorder is recommended.

The World Cafe Process

Drawing on seven integrated design principles, the World Cafe methodology is a simple, effective, and flexible format for hosting large group dialogue.
World Cafe can be modified to meet a wide variety of needs. Specifics of context, numbers, purpose, location, and other circumstances are factored into each event's unique invitation, design, and question choice, but the following five components comprise the basic model:

1. Setting: Create a "special" environment, most often modelled after a cafe, i.e. small round tables covered with a checkered tablecloth, butcher block paper, colored pens, a vase of flowers, and optional "talking stick" item. There should be four chairs at each table.
   
   
2. Welcome and Introduction: The host begins with a warm welcome and an introduction to the World Cafe process, setting the context and putting participants at ease.
   
   
3. Small Group Rounds: The process begins with the first of three or more twenty minute rounds of conversation for the small group seated around a table. At the end of the twenty minutes, each member of the group moves to a different new table. They may or may not choose to leave one person as the "table host" for the next round, who welcomes the next group and briefly fills them in on what happened in the previous round.
   
   
4. Questions: each round is prefaced with a question designed for the specific context and desired purpose of the session. The same questions can be used for more than one round, or they can be built upon each other to focus the conversation or guide its direction.
   
   
5. Harvest: After the small groups (and/or in between rounds, as desired) individuals are invited to share insights or other results from their conversations with the rest of the large group. These results are reflected visually in a variety of ways, most often using graphic recorders in the front of the room.

The basic process is simple and simple to learn, but complexities and nuances of context, numbers, question crafting and purpose can make it optimal to bring in an experienced host to help.