Who would have imagined that a meeting style, known as the Lean Coffee Format, born in Seattle over a coffee (credit to Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith), would transform discussions across various sectors?

The Lean Coffee Format offers a structured but agenda-free way to hold meetings, where participants decide the agenda in real-time and engage in focused, time-boxed conversations about topics that matter most. Think of it as the espresso of meetings: brief, potent, and loaded with purpose.

The Lean Coffee format is simple to facilitate:

1. Decide on the topics – ask everyone to add a few sticky notes with items they’d like to discuss.
2. Prioritise the topics. You could use dot voting to do this. Give everyone 3 dots (votes) and ask them to vote on what they’d like to talk about.
3. Pick the top voted topic and set a timer (e.g. for 5 minutes)
4. Once the time is up ask people to roman vote (thumbs up to keep discussing, thumbs down to move to the next topic or thumbs sideways to go with the flow.
5. Repeat steps 3-4 until you run out of time,
   
   

I use the Lean Coffee format to facilitate sessions with teams and leaders, and the aspect I treasure most is not just the exchange of ideas but the camaraderie it builds. These gatherings go beyond being just meetings; they create mini-communities that encourage sustainability, foster empathy, and allow participants to share their successes and challenges.

Here are a few examples of how Lean Coffee works in practice:

🟢 Post-Course Learning and Support
The Lean Coffee format was introduced to help participants of our Product, Delivery, and Practitioner courses continue their learning journey. Many attendees sought a platform to share their experiences, gain insights, and tackle practical challenges together. These sessions have become a space to address common obstacles like leadership issues, managing team dynamics, prioritisation hurdles, and the ever-important question: what truly adds value?

This ongoing dialogue empowers individuals, enabling them to build skills and offer mutual support as they grow.

🟢 New Engagements
When kicking off a new engagement, the Lean Coffee format helps me quickly get a sense of the organisational dynamics, uncover pressing challenges, and identify areas where I can have the greatest impact.

🟢 Inclusive Facilitation Training
These sessions also allow participants to develop facilitation skills they can apply within their own teams, promoting inclusivity and collaboration.

What makes Lean Coffee so impactful is its simplicity. It connects people, fosters understanding, and sparks those “lightbulb moments” that drive meaningful progress. As a facilitator, it’s rewarding to see participants leave feeling inspired and equipped to take on their challenges.

If you are interested in hosting a session using the Lean Coffee Format in your organisation (and let’s face it, an external facilitator adds an objective perspective and keeps things on track), please get in touch with us for a free consultation.

You might be surprised at just how transformative a conversation over a cup of coffee can be!