What is it?

World Café is a structured conversational process where small groups of four or five people sit at café-style tables and explore a question together. After a set period, participants move to different tables, carrying ideas from their previous conversation into a new group. One person stays behind as the "table host" to welcome newcomers and share what came before. Over three or more rounds, ideas cross-pollinate across the room, and patterns start to emerge that no single group could have produced alone. The room feels like a buzzy café, not a formal meeting, and that informality is the point.

Also Known As

• Knowledge Café
• Café Conversations

When to Use It

• You need to harvest the collective intelligence of a large group on a complex question
• You want to surface diverse perspectives and find common ground across departments, roles, or backgrounds
• The group is too large for a single productive conversation (20+ people)
• You want to shift a group from passive listening to active participation
• You need to explore a topic from multiple angles before making decisions
• You are bringing together people who don't normally talk to each other
• You want to create a sense of shared ownership over emerging ideas

When NOT to Use It

• The group is smaller than 12 people (use a fishbowl or circle practice instead; World Café loses its cross-pollination effect with fewer than three tables)
• You need the group to make a binding decision during the session (World Café generates ideas and surfaces themes, but it is not a decision-making process)
• There is deep conflict between factions in the room (the informal format can feel dismissive of serious grievances; use a conflict-specific method first)
• The question is simple or has a clear right answer (World Café works best with questions that benefit from multiple perspectives)
• Senior leaders are likely to dominate every table they join (unless you address this explicitly, the café format won't protect against power dynamics)
• You have less than 60 minutes (three rounds plus harvesting need time to breathe)

World Café was developed by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs in 1995. It emerged accidentally during a leadership retreat at their home in Mill Valley, California, when rain forced a large group indoors and they improvised small table conversations with butcher paper. The results were so striking that Brown and Isaacs went on to study and formalise the method, publishing "The World Café: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter" in 2005. The approach has since been used in over 70 countries and draws on principles of living systems, complexity theory, and the idea that conversation is the core process of human organising.

What You Need

Group size: 12 to 200+ (works best with 20 to 60; minimum of three tables with four or five people each)

Time required: 60 minutes minimum, 90 to 120 minutes typical, half-day for deeper exploration

Space:

• A room large enough for café-style tables with four or five chairs each
• Round tables are ideal but not essential
• The space should feel informal and inviting, not like a boardroom

Materials:

• Café-style tables (one for every four or five participants)
• Large paper tablecloths or flip chart paper on each table
• Markers, coloured pens, and crayons on each table (at least three per table)
• A bell, chime, or other signal to mark round transitions
• A visible timer or clock
• Sticky notes (optional, for harvesting)
• A large wall space, whiteboard, or flip chart for the final harvest
• Background music (optional but recommended for atmosphere)
• Name tags if participants don't know each other
• Printed table host instructions (one per table)

The Process

Setup

1. Arrange the room with café-style tables, each with four or five chairs. If you only have rectangular tables, push two together and cluster chairs around them.
2. Cover each table with paper (flip chart paper or butcher paper works well). Place markers and pens in the centre.
3. Write your café question(s) on a flip chart or slide visible to the whole room. If using different questions per round, have each one ready to display.
4. Set up a "harvest wall" where you will capture themes at the end.
5. Put on background music. Something instrumental and mid-tempo helps create the café atmosphere.
6. Prepare printed table host instructions: "Welcome newcomers. Briefly share the key ideas from the previous round. Encourage drawing and writing on the tablecloth. Make sure everyone speaks."

Step 1: Welcome and Context Setting

Time: 10 minutes

Purpose: To orient participants, set expectations, and establish the informal tone.

1. Welcome the group and explain the format: "Over the next 90 minutes, you'll have a series of conversations at these tables. After each round, you'll move to a new table, carrying your ideas with you. One person will stay as the table host to bridge conversations."
2. Introduce the café etiquette. Say something like: "There are a few principles that make this work. Focus on what matters. Contribute your thinking and experience. Listen to understand. Connect ideas. Doodle, draw, and write on the tablecloths. These aren't decorations; they're your shared notes."
3. Share the first question. Read it aloud, display it, and pause for a moment. Let people sit with it before diving in.
4. Explain the table host role: "At each table, one person will volunteer to stay behind between rounds. Your job is simple: when new people arrive, spend 60 seconds sharing the highlights of what your table discussed. Then let the new conversation build on that."
5. Ask each table to choose their first table host.

Watch for: The temptation to over-explain. Keep the opening brief. The method reveals itself through practice.

Step 2: Round One

Time: 20 minutes

Purpose: To begin exploring the question and generate initial thinking.

1. Start the round. Say: "You have 20 minutes. Explore the question together. Write, draw, and capture what feels important on the tablecloth."
2. Let the conversations run. Resist the urge to intervene or circulate with commentary. Your job is to hold the space, not to participate.
3. Give a two-minute warning before the round ends. Ring the bell or chime.
4. At the end of the round, ask table hosts to stay seated and everyone else to move to a different table. Say: "Find a table where you don't know the host. Mix it up."

Watch for:

• Tables where one person is doing most of the talking. If needed, walk by and gently say: "Make sure everyone has had a chance to share their thinking."
• Tables sitting in silence. This is rare but can happen. A quiet prompt like "What's your first reaction to the question?" can get things moving.

Step 3: Round Two

Time: 20 minutes

Purpose: To cross-pollinate ideas and build on previous conversations.

1. Once people have settled, ask table hosts to briefly share the key threads from Round One. Say: "Hosts, you have about 60 seconds to share the essence of what was discussed. Don't try to report everything; just share what felt most alive."
2. Pose the second question (or the same question, depending on your design). If you are deepening the same question, say: "Now take this further. What new connections are you seeing?"
3. Let the round run. Encourage people to keep writing and drawing on the tablecloths, building on what is already there.
4. Give a two-minute warning. Ring the bell.
5. Ask people to move again. Table hosts can stay or swap out. If a host wants to move, someone else at the table volunteers to take over.

Watch for: Hosts giving five-minute summaries. If this happens at one table, it will happen at others. Gently remind the room: "Hosts, keep your bridging to 60 seconds. Hit the highlights."

Step 4: Round Three

Time: 20 minutes

Purpose: To deepen exploration and begin to notice patterns.

1. Repeat the process. Hosts share the threads. Pose the third question or deepen the inquiry.
2. For this final round, you might say: "As you explore this round, start listening for what is emerging across your conversations. What patterns are you noticing? What is the bigger story here?"
3. Let the round run. Watch the energy. By this point, conversations are usually animated and people are leaning in.
4. Give a two-minute warning.

Step 5: Harvesting

Time: 20 to 30 minutes

Purpose: To make the collective intelligence visible and identify shared themes.

1. Bring the whole group's attention back together. Say: "We've had three rounds of rich conversation. Now it's time to find out what the room knows."
2. Choose a harvesting method that fits your group size:
   • For groups under 30: Ask each table to share one key insight or pattern (not a full report). Capture these on the harvest wall.
   • For groups of 30 to 60: Use a "gallery walk" where each table posts their tablecloth on the wall. Give people 10 minutes to walk around and read. Then ask the group: "What patterns do you see across these tablecloths?"
   • For groups over 60: Have each table write their top three themes on large sticky notes. Cluster these on a wall and facilitate a brief whole-group reflection on the patterns.
3. As themes emerge, name them and write them where everyone can see. Ask: "Does this capture it? What am I missing?"

Watch for: The urge to rush harvesting because you are running low on time. The harvest is where the magic becomes visible. If you need to cut time, shorten the rounds by two minutes each rather than cutting the harvest short.

Closing

Time: 5 to 10 minutes

1. Reflect on what has emerged. Say: "Take a moment to look at what this room has produced together. None of us could have arrived at this alone."
2. Ask one closing question: "What is one thing from today's conversations that you want to carry forward?" Allow 30 seconds of silence, then invite two or three people to share aloud.
3. Explain what will happen with the outputs. Will you photograph the tablecloths? Type up the themes? Send a summary? Be specific.
4. Thank the group and close.

Facilitator Guidance

What Makes This Work

World Café works because it mirrors how ideas actually spread: through informal conversation, personal connection, and building on what others have said. The rotation mechanic means that ideas travel across the room without anyone having to present or perform. The tablecloths create a shared visual memory that grounds each round's conversation in what came before. The small group size (four or five) means there is nowhere to hide; everyone contributes. And the café atmosphere lowers defences in a way that formal meetings cannot. The method rests on a simple insight: people already know how to have good conversations. Your job is to create the conditions and get out of the way.

Common Pitfalls

• Weak questions: The single biggest determinant of a good World Café is the quality of the questions. A question like "How can we improve communication?" is too vague. Try: "What would need to change for information to flow freely between our teams?" Spend serious time crafting your questions before the session.
• Skipping the table host briefing: If table hosts don't understand their role, the bridging between rounds falls apart. Brief them clearly and give them printed instructions.
• Over-reporting during harvest: When every table gives a five-minute summary, the energy dies. Insist on one insight per table, or use a gallery walk. The harvest should feel like discovery, not a conference panel.
• Too many people per table: With six or more at a table, side conversations split the group and quieter voices disappear. Stick to four or five.
• Not enough rounds: Two rounds is not a World Café. The cross-pollination needs at least three rounds to produce emergent patterns.
• Ignoring power dynamics: If the CEO sits at a table, everyone defers to the CEO. Brief senior leaders beforehand: "Your job is to listen more than you speak. Ask questions. Be curious." You can also ask leaders to move first and sit with people they don't normally interact with.
• Forgetting to document: Photograph every tablecloth before they get cleared away. These are your raw data.

Adaptations

• Virtual delivery: Use breakout rooms with a shared digital whiteboard (Miro, Mural, or Google Jamboard). Assign a table host to each room. Rotate participants between rooms manually or with a breakout room plugin. Allow extra time (25 minutes per round) because online conversations take longer to warm up. Use a shared document for harvesting.
• Smaller groups (12 to 16): Run with three tables of four. You can still get cross-pollination, but keep rounds to 15 minutes and do three or four rounds so people visit most tables.
• Larger groups (100+): You will need a team of facilitators. Assign one facilitator to every five or six tables to manage the rotation and support hosts. Use a structured harvest (sticky note clustering) rather than open reporting.
• Shorter timeframe (60 minutes): Run three rounds of 12 minutes each with a 10-minute harvest. This works but produces less depth. Use one question across all rounds.
• Progressive questions: Use a sequence of questions that builds across rounds. Round 1: "What do we know about this challenge?" Round 2: "What are we not seeing?" Round 3: "What would a bold response look like?"

Real-World Applications

Healthcare waiting times: A regional health authority used World Café to bring together 80 clinicians, administrators, and patient advocates to explore how to reduce emergency department waiting times. Each round explored a different aspect: patient experience, staff workflow, and system constraints. The harvest revealed three themes that no single group had identified alone, and two of these became the basis for a six-month improvement programme.

Post-launch debrief: A technology company ran a World Café with 40 engineers and product managers after a failed product launch. The question was: "What did we know but not say?" The café format gave people permission to be honest in a way that a formal post-mortem had not. The tablecloths were photographed and turned into a visual timeline that the leadership team used to redesign their decision-making process.

Community consultation: An urban planning team used World Café as part of a community consultation, bringing together 120 residents to discuss a proposed development. Progressive questions moved from "What makes this neighbourhood special?" to "What would we need to see in this development to feel proud of it?" The harvest produced a clear set of community priorities that shaped the planning application.

University away day: A university department used a 60-minute World Café during an away day to explore how to better support postgraduate students. Three rounds with 16 staff members produced eight concrete recommendations, four of which were implemented within the following term.

International conference: An international NGO used World Café at its annual conference with 200 delegates from 30 countries. Each table had participants from at least three different countries. The format surfaced local solutions that had global applicability, and several cross-country partnerships formed directly from the table conversations.