Workshop run of show template
Ninety minutes. Three decisions. Then you sit down.
A workshop run of show is not a slide outline. It is a clock with words attached. Below is a full timed agenda for a working session — product and engineering leads, six to ten people, one quarter of work that currently has twelve names.
Session. Cut the list: three Q3 bets, and what dies to pay for them.
Length. 90 minutes. Doors at :55. End at :30, even if the wall is messy.
Audience. People who can kill work, not people who can only add it.
Outcomes. Three bet sentences. One owner each. A stop-doing list with a name beside every kill. A 48-hour action per person.
Materials. Board labeled BETS / NOT NOW / STOPS. Stickies. Sharpies. Visible timer. One laptop for the scribe. Phones down.
Timed agenda
Start times assume 10:00. Shift the column, not the lengths. If you start late, you still end at 90. You do not grow the last segment.
| Clock | Min | Mode | Segment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 | 8 | Talk |
Open the contract Why this hour exists. What “done” looks like. Phones away. |
| 10:08 | 12 | Talk |
Name the decision Read the current list out loud. Name the cost of keeping all of it. |
| 10:20 | 18 | Activity |
Silent write, then wall One bet per sticky. Then stand and place. No pitching while people write. |
| 10:38 | 12 | Discussion |
Cluster and cut Name the clusters. Move duplicates. Get to a shortlist of six or fewer. |
| 10:50 | 5 | Break |
Stand up Water. Air. No hallway strategy. Back in the chairs at :55. |
| 10:55 | 25 | Discussion |
Decide three Dot vote. Fight. Write the three sentences on a clean board. Read them. |
| 11:20 | 10 | Talk |
Owners and 48 hours One human per bet. Stops with killers. Photograph. End. |
8 + 12 + 18 + 12 + 5 + 25 + 10 = 90. If a row does not add, the room will not either.
Say and do, segment by segment
10:00 · Open the contract · 8 min
Say. You are not here to workshop a nicer list. You are here because twelve named bets is zero bets. In ninety minutes we leave with three sentences, one owner each, and a stop-doing list. If we cannot say it on this board, we do not get to say it in Slack on Monday. I will keep time. You will write before you talk.
Do. Write three words on the board: THREE / OWNERS / STOPS. Start a visible timer. Fifteen-second round: what must be true at minute 90. Scribe on a side list. No stacking speeches.
On their page. In one sentence: what needs to be true at 11:30 for this hour to have been worth the chairs.
10:08 · Name the decision · 12 min
Say. Here is the current list, in the words we already used, not the words we wish we used. I am going to read it once. If something is missing, you have thirty seconds after I finish — a name, not a speech. Then I want the cost: what slips if we keep all of this.
Do. Tape the existing list on the wall. Read it. Capture adds on a parking strip. Two minutes on cost, then sit down. Do not start ranking yet.
10:20 · Silent write, then wall · 18 min
Say. A bet is a sentence: who we serve, what will be in market or in the company by the end of the quarter, and what we starve to pay for it. One sticky, one bet. If you need a second sentence, you do not have the bet yet. Six minutes of silence. Then we stand.
Do. Hand a sharpie to each person. Silent write. Place on BETS. Cluster with the room. Kill anything that is a theme (“be more customer-centric”) rather than a bet. Photograph before anyone sits.
10:38 · Cluster and cut · 12 min
Say. We need a shortlist of six or fewer. Duplicates stack. Themes that cannot name an owner go to NOT NOW. You may argue facts. You may not add a seventh “just in case.”
Do. Name each cluster in three to five words. Move the rest. Count out loud. If you still have nine, you are not cutting — you are arranging.
10:50 · Break · 5 min
Say. Five minutes. Be in the chairs at :55. Do not start the decide conversation by the coffee. That is how the last block dies.
Do. Write the return time in large numbers. Reset a clean board: THREE SENTENCES. Do not recap for late people.
10:55 · Decide three · 25 min
Say. Two dots each. You cannot stack both on your own sticky. Then we fight. The test is: if we only did these three, would we still recognize the quarter in October. When we have three, I write the sentences. We read them. We sit in the silence for ten seconds.
Do. Dot vote. Authors get 45 seconds, no sales pitch. Debate. Write the three winners on a clean board. Ask: does anyone need to resign from this out loud.
11:20 · Owners and 48 hours · 10 min
Say. A bet without an owner is a wish. One human — not a function. Then each of you names, in one breath, the thing you are doing in the next 48 hours. If you cannot name it, you were a spectator. We photograph. We do not add a fourth bet in the hallway.
Do. Fill BET / OWNER / FIRST PROOF / DATE at the board. Twenty-second round of 48-hour actions. Photo. End on time.
If Open runs long, you do not steal from Decide. You steal from Name the decision, or you cut Cluster to ten. The last ten minutes are not a buffer. They are the record.
How Places runs that clock live
Build the session as a kit: title, audience, outcomes, the seven timed segments above. Under each segment: the say-this line, the do-this list, materials, and the prompt on their page.
Stand up with the presenter console facing you, not the room. You see Now, the countdown, Say this, Do this, and Next up. Last minute, the clock goes amber. Land the line. Do not open a new topic. When you overrun, the clock goes red. Next-up holds in the wings. End the segment, shorten the next talk, or eat the break. The remaining kit will not grow.
Print a facilitator run of show from the same kit. Print a participant workbook that has only the prompts and space to write. Copy the pre-work before the day. The paper and the clock read from one source.
Places home · Print this run of show (one page) · Run a 90-minute kit live · How to time a workshop · Facilitator agenda template