Participant workbook template
Their page is not your notes.
A participant workbook is paper for the people in the chairs: outcomes, a prompt, and room to write. It is not a miniature of the facilitator agenda. If they can read your say-this line, you have already lost the move.
Split the kit
On their page
- Session title and the one-sentence purpose
- Outcomes, in words they will recognize at the door
- Clock time and the name of the segment
- The prompt they will answer
- Blank lines. Tables to complete. Boxes to tick
- The 48-hour action block at the back
Facilitator, private
- Talking points and the say-this paragraph
- Do-this: who stands, when the timer starts
- Materials you will hand, not what they packed
- The real goal of the segment, including the trap
- Who you will call on, and who you will not
- Recovery: what you cut if the block runs long
| Item | Theirs | Yours |
|---|---|---|
| Outcomes | Yes — the contract with the room | Yes — plus the outcome you will not say (protect Close) |
| Segment times | Clock and minutes, so they know when to stop writing | Start times, recovery notes, who keeps the clock |
| Prompt | One question. Completeable in the minutes you gave | The follow-up you will ask if the first answer is mush |
| Say-this | Never | Always. First sentence and the landing line |
| Do-this | Only if they must move their body (stand, place a sticky) | The whole blocking: timer, wall labels, photo |
| Breaks | Return time. Nothing to fill | How you stop hallway strategy. Board reset |
| Names you will call | No | Yes, in pencil |
What a workbook page looks like
Steal this spread for a ninety-minute working session. Print one copy per chair. Double-sided if you must; never a stapled novel.
Participant workbook · 90 minutes
Cut the list: three Q3 bets
We leave with three bet sentences, one owner each, and a stop-doing list. If it is not on the wall, it is not a decision.
What this room is for
- Three bets the quarter can actually finish
- A named human on each
- Something that dies this month to pay for them
10:00 · 8m · Open
In one sentence: what needs to be true at 11:30 for this hour to have been worth it?
10:20 · 18m · Silent write
Write one bet: In the next quarter we will ________ for ________ by ________, and we will stop ________ to fund it. If you cannot name the stop, you do not have a bet.
10:55 · 25m · Decide
The three sentences on the board, in the room’s words — not the ones you wish we wrote.
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
- ________________________________
11:20 · 10m · Close
My 48-hour action is: ________. Owner I am counting on: ________. The thing I will stop: ________.
Notice what is missing: your opening speech, the trap about twelve priorities, the instruction to photograph the board, the names you plan to call. They do not need the blocking. They need a place to put a sentence.
Rules that keep the packet from becoming a deck
- One prompt per working segment. If you need two, you have two segments.
- Breaks get no page. A return time on the board is enough.
- Do not print your jokes, your bio, or a values poster.
- Leave more blank paper than you are comfortable with. People write larger than designers think.
- The last page is always the 48-hour action. If they leave that blank, the hour was a conversation.
- Number the pages. When you say “page four, the bet sentence,” they should not hunt.
How Places prints both from one kit
Each segment in a Places kit has talking points, a do-this list, materials, and a participant prompt. Print Facilitator and you get the spine: times, say, do. Print Workbook and you get title, outcomes, prompts, and lines. Change the prompt in the kit and both jobs update. You do not keep a third document that drifts.
Print the 1:1s chair packet · Start live · Facilitator agenda template · Workshop run of show · All guides