Transforming the dialogue process through “move to other tables” in the World Café

Abstract

I analyzed how the “move to other tables” characteristic in the meeting format of the “World Café” affects the dialogue process. By analyzing actual World Café dialogue, I found that “move to other tables” contributes toward diversifying speech and increasing the density of the discourse. This is achieved through the rise of “cross-pollination,” where participants bring shared experiences to the next table, leading to a nurturing of “collective intelligence” through diversity and tolerance in the conversational space.