Lean coffee
What ?
Lean Coffee is a gathering of a small number of people who want to discuss topics in an informal setting.
Lean Coffee is a structured, but agenda-less meeting.
Participants :
- Gather
- Build an agenda
- Begin talking
Conversations are directed and productive because the agenda for the meeting was democratically generated.
The Lean Coffee format is easy to learn and easy to facilitate.
As you might guess from the name, it combines Lean Thinking (often embodied in Lean Startup) with the idea of meeting in an informal gathering place like a coffee shop, a conference room, or an open space.
Why ?
Lean coffee is a free-space workshop where people can :
- Talk about what is important inside the
- Team
- Organization
- Decide how long we discuss each topic
- Share experiences and challenges
- Solve problems in a collective way
- Collaborate
How ?
- Prepare yourself to facilitate it
- Schedule a session
- Gather your colleagues
- Facilitate the session
- Debrief at the end
How to facilitate a session ?
1) Create a Kanban board
Write the following words/phrases on three separate note cards or sticky notes: “To Do,” “Doing,” “Done” (or alternatively, “To Discuss,” “Discussing,” “Discussed”)
2) Brainstorm topics
Everyone writes down topics they would like to discuss (usually one topic per sticky note) before placing them in the middle of the table or on a nearby wall. This should take only a few minutes.
3) Pitch topics
Once the group and/or facilitator thinks there are enough topics on the table, each idea will have a one or two sentence introduction. The aim is to clarify the topic to the other people; not to discuss them at this stage.
4) Vote
Everyone votes on the topic(s) they would like to discuss by dot voting: each person gets two votes to choose which topic(s) they would like to discuss. People can put both dots on the same topic, or on different ones.
5) Prioritize topics
The dots on each topic are counted, and the topics are sorted into popularity order in the ‘To discuss’ column of the kanban board.
6) Discussion
The most popular topic is then discussed for 8 minutes. As a discussion starts, the sticky note for that topic is moved into the ‘Doing‘/‘Discussing’ column.
7) Continue or not ?
At the end of x minutes, the group votes whether to continue with the same topic or move onto the next.
Voting is usually conducted through a thumbs up versus thumbs down approach (roman vote).
If the topic continues, you continue for another y minutes, then re-vote.
8) Topic is finished
When the topic is finished, the sticky note for that topic is moved into the ‘Discussed’ column and you move onto the next most popular topic.
9) Repeat Repeat above steps on each topics
