Facilitation guide template
Two documents. One room. Never the same page.
A facilitation guide that mixes your talking points with their worksheet is how a room watches you read. Split it. You hold the clock, the say-this, the do-this. They hold one prompt and lines. If it is on their paper, they can do it without you. If it is on yours, they should never see it.
What goes where
| Object | Yours (private) | Theirs (paper) |
|---|---|---|
| Clock | Minutes remaining, next segment, overtime in red | Nothing. A wall clock is enough. Do not project a countdown at them unless the activity is a sprint they opted into. |
| Words | First sentence. Last sentence. The one question you will not abandon. | The prompt they write against. Not your jokes. Not the hidden agenda. |
| Moves | Who stands, when you tape, when you stop talking | What they physically do: write, pair, place a card, vote |
| Risk | The person who will derail. The parking sentence you will use. | Never. Putting “watch for hijack” on their page is how you lose the room. |
| After | The follow-up you will send tonight | The commitment they wrote, in their handwriting |
One segment, both sides
Steal this for a 12-minute silent write plus share. Duplicate the pair for every block in your room.
You · private
Write before you skip · 12m
Say: Three minutes of silence. One sentence. The prompt is on your page. I will not fill the quiet. When the clock hits zero we will hear five people, forty-five seconds, no stacking.
Do: Stop talking. Visible timer facing you. Walk the aisles. Do not hover. At 0:00, point, do not ask “who wants to start.”
If it breaks: Someone talks during the write — “write it, we’ll hear it.” Someone speeches — “forty-five, then the next body.”
Them · paper
The next room I run
The one thing that must be true when we walk out is:
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
If we only get one of these, keep:
________________________________
The guide cover (one page, yours)
Room: ________________________________
When / length: ________________________________
Decision or skill: ________________________________
Walk-out proof: ________________________________
Materials: ________________________________
Names that can derail, and the sentence you will use:
________________________________
How to fill the rest
- List segments until the minutes add up. If they do not, cut a row. See how to time a workshop.
- For each segment, write say / do on your side only. Use the facilitator agenda as the one-pager you actually hold.
- For each segment that needs their hands, write one prompt. Not three. See the participant workbook template.
- Write the pre-work letter before you polish slides. Copy from the pre-work email.
Places is this split, as software: a presenter console facing you, a workbook facing them. Steal the 90-minute 1:1s kit and press Start live — not the one-minute demo — when the chairs are full. Paper: print their pages.