5 Steps on How To Run a “Lean Coffee” session
Where meeting participants co-create the agenda.
Lean Coffee is the title for a meeting that doesn’t have a pre-defined agenda. The main purpose of Lean methodology is to eliminate waste, and Lean Coffee eliminates discussions that do not serve those in the meeting, as it's the participants who propose what will be discussed. It’s another inclusive and democratic method which improves workplace culture.
It’s really easy - here’s how to run one…
You’ll need, either in real life or online: a 3 column Kanban board, and for each participant - sticky notes to write one idea per note on, a broad tipped pen like a Sharpie, 3 votes for each person and a timer.
Step 1
Set up the Kanban board with 3 columns titled: ‘To Discuss’, ‘Discussing’ and ‘Discussed’
Step 2
Participants write notes on which subjects they’d like to discuss; there is no limit on the amount of suggestions. These go into the ‘To Discuss’ column.
Step 3
Now it’s time for people to cast their votes on the notes that have been placed by everyone in the ‘To Discuss’ column. Use the allocated 3 stickie or virtual dots to vote on the favourite subjects by placing them on the notes. Suggest 2 min time-box. The notes with the most votes get discussed first then in descending order. You can use all 1, 2 or 3 dots to vote on your own idea or anyone else’s.
Step 4
Pull the top note into the ‘Discussing’ column, set a timer and discuss. If your discussion goes beyond the time-box, run a quick thumbs up or down vote to determine if the majority want to continue the discussion - if so set another timer - or move onto the next discussion point.
Step 5
Once each note has been discussed, they’re moved into the ‘Discussed’ column. You have the option to annotate and take actions, which could go into an optional fourth column.
I’ve included a few assumptions:
You could go into the meeting with either a predefined desired outcome or theme, or that could be part of the co-created agenda.
It’s best to use broad-tipped pens to write on stickie notes, so that the notes don’t get too wordy
Time-boxing is about defining a period of time for each activity, this keeps the pace and energy up and manages your schedule.
Depending on the duration of the meeting, the amount of people in it and the quantity of notes generated in ‘To Discuss’ will determine if people can give a brief introduction to each of their suggested topics.
Lean Coffee can be used as a retrospective or a collective decision making meeting.
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