Try Coffee, Try Lean Coffee!!!

You feel your meetings waste time, attendees are disengaged, and the same topics are discussed over and over again with no real progress towards your goal.

Sounds familiar?

What do you do in such case?

Do you drink Water, Juice, Tea or Coffee? Why not Try Lean Coffee!!!

You might say, What is Lean Coffee?

Lean Coffee is a meeting facilitation technique with a simple but effective format. It is structured, with a democratically selected agenda, and the discussion is led by the attendees of the meeting. It is a great way to make better use of the time available in meetings, and make sure everyone is heard.

It is a meeting facilitation technique with a simple but effective format. It is structured, with a democratically selected agenda, and the discussion is led by the attendees of the meeting.

"Lean Coffee?is a structured, but agenda-less meeting.

Participants gather, build an agenda, and begin talking. Conversations are directed and productive because the agenda for the meeting was democratically generated." - leancoffee.org

It does not have a predetermined agenda or a meeting leader. Instead of that, the participants suggest topics they would like to discuss, and then vote on these to create an agenda as per the needs & interests?of the participants.

When to use and when not to use Lean Coffee?

While setting a meeting about an important topic that needs to be discussed with your team and decision need to be made, or when crucial updates that require someone to take the lead and share information, in such cases lean coffee is not an appropriate method as it would dilute the criticality and importance of the topic.??

However, it is a good choice to make your meetings like team engagement sessions, warm-up meetings, get-together, those meetings with open agenda points interesting, engaging and getting the voice of introvert participants also heard.

What is the process / format of Lean Coffee?

Process/format may vary depending on the size, location, and maturity level of the team, however it is very simple.

You would need following Tools:

• People
• Table, Chairs
• Some sticky notes, & Board
• Marker or pen
• Timer device

Action:

1. Setup a Kanban board: It provides a structure for the conversation.?
2. Propose topic you want to discuss: Write your topic on post-it and stick them to board.
3. Vote?on the topic: Each participant gets two votes. You can vote twice for the same thing or for two different topics. Tally the votes. You are good to go.
4. Break into groups and discuss: Once topics are prioritized/finalized, split into small groups of 3-10 people, set a timer for discussion & discuss. Repeat for each topic.
5. Discuss key themes and takeaways: Following the small group discussions, get back together in original group to share their insights and discoveries.

You can use as simple Kanban board as following.

What is the benefit of Lean Coffee?

Small groups, ideally no more than 10, gather together informally to discuss topics of their choice. The goal is to decide on the key takeaways of the meeting and action points.?The Lean Coffee format ensures that the meeting is ‘not just another meeting’, but actually a 'productive use of everyone’s time'.