World Cafe • WorkshopBank
You need to harvest the collective intelligence of a large group on a complex question You want to surface diverse perspectives and find common ground across departments, roles, or backgrounds The group is too large for a single productive conversation (20+ people)
How to run it
- You need to harvest the collective intelligence of a large group on a complex question
- You want to surface diverse perspectives and find common ground across departments, roles, or backgrounds
- The group is too large for a single productive conversation (20+ people)
- You want to shift a group from passive listening to active participation
- You need to explore a topic from multiple angles before making decisions
- You are bringing together people who don't normally talk to each other
- You want to create a sense of shared ownership over emerging ideas
- You need to harvest the collective intelligence of a large group on a complex question You want to surface diverse perspectives and find common ground across departments, roles, or backgrounds The group is too large for a single productive conversation (20+ people)
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Prompts to use +
You need to harvest the collective intelligence of a large group on a complex question
You want to create a sense of shared ownership over emerging ideas
You need to harvest the collective intelligence of a large group on a complex question You want to surface diverse perspectives and find common ground across departments, roles, or backgrounds The group is too large for a single productive conversation (20+ people)
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: World Cafe • WorkshopBank. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: You need to harvest the collective intelligence of a large group on a complex question; You want to create a sense of shared ownership over emerging ideas; You need to harvest the collective intelligence of a large group on a complex question You want to surface diverse perspectives and find common ground across departments, roles, or backgrounds The group is too large for a single productive conversation (20+ people). 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 WorkshopBank; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including WorkshopBank.)
- 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.