Empathy cafes foster warmth and connection within groups, and provide the opportunity for work colleagues and group members to get to know and understand each other better. They are therefore good for team building.
Empathy cafes teach skills like active listening, and encourage individuals to develop understanding for different perspectives and personality types. While the process is simple, empathy cafes are designed to promote a culture of empathy, and for many people they are the first step on a lifelong journey of deep listening and understanding.
Empathy cafes can also be used as a mediation tool. They can help to de-escalate conflict, and are a useful means for people with different viewpoints (for instance different political beliefs) to better understand each other.
They can be used as part of a decision making process, and can be particularly useful when a collaborative decision needs to be made and there are strongly held positions which seem at odds with each other. Following an empathy cafe, participants are far more likely to be willing to adjust their position to take into account the needs and concerns of other parties to the decision, and empathy cafes can help people to move beyond the closed thinking of an ‘either/or’ decision to reach a new and innovative decision that everyone is happy with.