The Lean Coffee Meeting

Lean Coffee is 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. 

Step by Step

• Step 1. Set up a Personal Kanban. 
• It keeps the items to discuss, what we are currently discussing, and the discussed columns. 
• This provides a structure for the conversation. 
• People all get pads of post-it notes and a pen. 
• Step 2. Brainstorm Topics.
• They then start to add their topics for conversation into the "to discuss" column. 
• These can be literally whatever people want to discuss or follow a theme. 
• Right now, we want to encourage as many unique ideas as we can.
• Step 3. Pitch Your Topics.
• When the ideas start to reach a certain point (and you’ll be the best judge of when that is), each topic gets a 1 to 2-sentence introduction. 
• This way people know what to vote for.
• Step 4. Prioritize What to Discuss.
• Each participant gets two votes. 
• You can vote twice for the same thing or for two different topics. 
• Simply put a dot on the sticky you are interested in. Tally the dots. 
• Step 5. Manage the Flow of the Conversation.
• Then you are ready to have a conversation.
• Step 6. Identify Next Steps.
• Record actions, ideas, and next steps.

References

• Leancoffee.org