I am in complete agreement about the dangers of getting stuck in a limited point of view, particularly when thinking about questions for World Cafe. While not directly related to your main point, one thing I’d like to add to this conversation is that the decision to focus on a specific number of rounds in a World Cafe could be a habit, or it could also be a direct response to context.

In many cases, even having three rounds is a challenge for a client or in other contexts with time limitations, so given the minimum number of rounds necessary for cross-pollination, there are a lot of World Cafes out there with three rounds. Of course, that need not affect the specifics or number of questions a World Cafe host will choose to use, which will always be driven by purpose and context, whether some or all of them are repeated or not.

Like many of you, I design a LOT of World Cafes. When the topic or purpose is conducive, I love to use a single question to help the group go deeper into a topic. Perhaps just as often, however, I find that two or three questions that build on each other work beautifully for the same purpose, adding the value of breadth and focus to the depth of repetition.

I’m so curious about the design choices that other hosts make … what works for you in which contexts? Share your perspective!