Ultimate Lean Coffee
The Ultimate Lean Coffe Template you'll ever need.
In 2009 in Seattle, USA Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith wanted to start a group that would discuss Lean techniques in knowledge work – but didn’t want to start a whole new cumbersome organization with steering committees, speakers, and such. They wanted a group that did not rely on anything other than people showing up and wanting to learn or create. That's how the Lean Coffee was born. The format for a Lean Coffee is very simple. This is intentional. It is meant to be the least structure necessary for a coherent and productive meeting. No more, no less. 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. The power here is that you have a list of topics everyone at the table is interested in and is motivated to discuss for real.
Instructions for how to facilitate and what you'll get in Ultimate Lean Coffee Template:
0. Previous Actions 🎯
Optional: Go over the previous action items and mark the ones that are done/achieved with the appropriate sticker
1. Brainstorm Topics 🧠
Silently. Add one topic per sticky note. 3-5 minutes, depending on the number of people. Think about what question you want to ask, and what topics you want to cover. These can be literally whatever you want to discuss or follow a theme. Right now, we want to encourage as many unique ideas as we can.
2. Pitch Your Topic🎤
The author of the topic says 2-3 sentences per topic. To introduce the idea. Be concise. This way people know what to vote for.
3. Prioritise🔝
Optional: Cluster (or delete) similar stickies to avoid confusion before voting.
Each participant gets 2-3 dots for voting (facilitator to decide). You can vote multiple times for the same thing or for different topics. Simply put a dot on the sticky you are interested in. 2 minutes.
Note: Alternatively you can use miro-voting or emojis per sticker if you want to have multiple emoji votes per sticky you have to choose different emojis.
4. Manage the flow🏄♂️🏄♀️🏄
Order stickies by the number of votes into [To Discuss]. Most votes are on top, least at the bottom. Even votes on some stickies - let the team decide which one should follow the other one.
Decide on length of the discussion e.g. 10 minutes for round 1. Halve time for round 2.
Note: Discussion might end up before the time-box, in such case no need to wait till the end of it, just move to the next steps right away.
5. Discuss! 🗣💬
Pull the first topic into [Discussion Round 1]. And start the first discussion round.
At the end of the discussion have a silent Roman vote:
• 👍= Continue discussion
• 👎= No more value in discussion further, move on to the next topic
• ✊/ 👊/ 🫳 = Not sure
If the number of 👍 is lower than the rest of the votes move to Step 6. Otherwise, proceed to [Discussion Round 2]
Have a silent Roman vote again after [Discussion Round 2], if two rounds of discussion were not enough, run one more time the [Discussion Round 2] and if that is still not enough consider having a separate discussion dedicated to the topic.
When completed, move to step 6
6. Close discussion 🤐
Once you pass two rounds of discussion, conclude it and move the sticky note to [Discussed].
Repeat steps 5-6 for the next priority sticky until you are close to the end of time. Leave some room for Step 7.
Note: You can have Step 7 right after concluding the discussion and then repeat steps 5-7 for each topic discussed.
7. Lock in the learning 🔒
Collaborate on the following:
• What are the key takeaways?
• What did we learn?
• What actions can we take?
8. Spice up your Lean Coffee™ 🌶
Optional: Consider spicing up your Lean Coffee™ with the stickers ;)
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