Plan it

1. 10 min

   Opening question, in pairs. Let them get there themselves. Give it four minutes before you step in.

   What is it like to work with someone competent, capable, and completely compliant?

2. 10 min

   Pick the thing. Small, personal, real, no correct answer waiting.

   Who is this for, and how will you know it worked?

3. 15 min

   Fill the board. Two kinds of knowing in the first column, marked.

4. 10 min

   Pairs swap boards and check each other's third column.

   How would you know if that came back wrong?

5. 5 min

   One brief read aloud. Name what they are not doing today.

• A tab already open, often around minute fifteen. Worth asking what they were going to check rather than why they opened it; the answer to the first question is useful to both of you.
• Briefs that describe a topic rather than a reader. "A page about the community garden" is a subject; a brief names who is looking and what they leave knowing.
• First columns that fill up fast and second columns that stay empty. That gap is the session; it is worth naming out loud when you see it.
• A board finished in four minutes. Read it before assuming it is done; the entries are often categories rather than specifics.
• Point at one line in anyone's third column and ask how they would know it came back wrong. You want a check you could run yourself, not a promise to be careful.

• Write the opening question's two best answers on the wall. You will point at them for the next three sessions.
• Boards on paper, not screens. The tool staying shut is the design, and a laptop open for note-taking becomes a laptop open.
• If the room is quiet, ask the second question of one person rather than the room.
• The read-aloud goes first if you are losing time, then the opening drops to one round. The board cannot go: session two has nothing to start from without it.

The print pack: this plan and its sheet

• board on its own