Conversation Café
Conversation Café is a prompted conversation exercise for relationship mapping: it helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.
How to run it
- State the theme of the conversation, usually in the form of a question
- Explain there will be four rounds of conversation at every table, two first rounds using a talking object, the third one as open conversation, and a final round with the talking object. Give the duration of each round.
- Read the six Conversation Café agreements. See text in Collateral Material below.
- Ask for someone at each table to volunteer as the host. The host is a full participant whose role is to gently intervene only when a participant visibly fails to observe one of the six agreements, most frequently talking on and on
- First round with the talking object: each person shares what he or she is thinking, feeling, or doing about the theme or topic. 1 min. per person
- Second round with the talking object: each person shares thoughts and feelings after having listened to everybody at the table. 1 min. per person
- Third round: open conversation (option to use talking object). 20-40 min.
- Sitting in a circle with a simple set of agreements and a talking object, small groups will engage in rounds of dialogue with little or no unproductive conflict.
- All methods All authors IAF Library Library Conversation Café 363 171 You can include and engage any number of people in making sense of confusing or shocking events and laying the ground for new strategies to emerge.
- The format of the Conversation Café helps people have calm and profound conversations in which there is less debating and arguing, and more listening.
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Materials:
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Prompts to use +
State the theme of the conversation, usually in the form of a question
Explain there will be four rounds of conversation at every table, two first rounds using a talking object, the third one as open conversation, and a final round with the talking object. Give the duration of each round.
Read the six Conversation Café agreements. See text in Collateral Material below.
Ask for someone at each table to volunteer as the host. The host is a full participant whose role is to gently intervene only when a participant visibly fails to observe one of the six agreements, most frequently talking on and on
First round with the talking object: each person shares what he or she is thinking, feeling, or doing about the theme or topic. 1 min. per person
Second round with the talking object: each person shares thoughts and feelings after having listened to everybody at the table. 1 min. per person
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Conversation Café. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: State the theme of the conversation, usually in the form of a question; Explain there will be four rounds of conversation at every table, two first rounds using a talking object, the third one as open conversation, and a final round with the talking object. Give the duration of each round.; Read the six Conversation Café agreements. See text in Collateral Material below.; Ask for someone at each table to volunteer as the host. The host is a full participant whose role is to gently intervene only when a participant visibly fails to observe one of the six agreements, most frequently talking on and on. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Liberating Structures; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (2 sources observed, including Liberating Structures, SessionLab.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Method lineage: this exercise shares its method name with work attributed to Peter Senge and David Isaacs in our people index. That is a name match, not an origin claim.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.