World café

In my last blog I discussed intercultural dialogue, and I gave you three practical methods to facilitate opportunities for dialogue:

1.    Experiential learning. Get to know your host country. Build traditions together with your team. Highlight cultural aspects of the host country and invite everyone to talk about their cultural backgrounds.

2.    Art & music. Encourage people to provoke expression using cultural symbols or instruments. Create something meaningful together. This opens dialogue and boosts confidence. Especially if there is a language gap, art will speak and be understood.

3.    Skills & interests. Make a bulletin board for skills and interests. This way people can find each other based on a shared skill or interest. This can be anything from cooking to jogging to graphic design. Any activity that is not work related.

In this blog I will discuss the method “world café”. This method makes use of an informal café type setting in which participants can explore for example experiential learning, arts & music of skills & interests in small groups. This set up lets participants discuss in multiple rounds of approximately 20 minutes in café style, which is the prefect ambiance for a relaxed and open conversation. This video will provide you with a great visual explanation of the method:

The world café method is perfect for teambuilding. It’s a method that I personally have been using successfully for over 10 years.

What is so great about world café? Well, the world café approach stimulates innovative thinking by using the collective intelligence of your team. Besides that, it is also a great conversational method that you can use to achieve intercultural dialogue and team cooperation. Why? Because the world café method shows your team members that their contribution is valuable and needed to help shape the positive team future that will help achieving your teams goals.

If this sparks your interest, I would be happy to facilitate an afternoon of world café in you team! Helping you unlock your teams full potential. Contact me if you would like to know the specifics of how this would work.