10 minutes

Your discussion plan

Eight lines for one issue your team is actually carrying: purpose, power, what is open, how people take part, the opening frame, three prepared moves, the record, and who hears what changed.

What you’ll be able to do

Write a discussion plan for one real team issue that names the purpose, the power in the room, what is genuinely open, how people take part, the opening frame, three prepared moves, what is recorded, and the report-back with an owner and a date.
Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What is wrong with the plan, and what replaces it?
Draft a discussion plan for a team issue for your work, including the issue in one sentence and what the conversation is for, who is in the room and what power is in it, what is already decided and what is genuinely open.

A plan, not a script

A discussion plan is short. It is not an agenda with talking points, and it is certainly not a set of prepared answers to the objections you expect, which is a defense plan in better clothes. Its only job is to settle the handful of things that decide a hard conversation before anyone is in the room, so that the conversation itself can be genuinely open.

Eight lines will do it. What the issue is and what the hour is for. Who is in the room and what power is in it. What is already decided and what is genuinely open. How people take part, and what nobody has to disclose. The opening frame and the first question. Three moves for when it goes sideways. What is recorded and what stays in the room. And what happens afterward: an owner, a date, and the sentence people will hear about what changed.

Two of those get written out in full. The opening frame is the ninety seconds that sets every term of the hour, and reading it aloud once in advance is the difference between saying it and improvising it while twelve people watch you work out what you meant. The three moves are what you will reach for under pressure, and if you have not chosen them you will reach for reassurance, because reassurance is always within arm's length.

The last line is the one most often left off, and it decides whether anybody brings you anything next time. Give the report-back a name and a date in the same week you send the invitation, and say the date out loud when you open. Here is what you told us, here is what changed, here is what did not and why. If the answer is that nothing changed, say that too, with the reason. People can live with a no. They cannot live with silence, and they will draw the obvious conclusion from it.

A discussion plan for a team issue

Eight lines you can fill in for one real issue in about half an hour and take into the room exactly as they are. The example shown is a format-accessibility problem in contract and grant materials.

The issue in one sentence and what the conversation is for Contract and grant materials keep reaching partners in formats that people who are blind cannot use. This hour is for understanding where the usable format is lost and what each unit controls. It is not where the template gets redesigned; that decision sits with procurement and comes back at the agreed review point.

Who is in the room and what power is in it Two unit leads, the procurement lead, three staff who assemble the packets, and the paid community reviewer who first raised it. I approved the current template, and a director will read the summary. Both of those get said out loud in the first minute rather than discovered later.

What is already decided and what is genuinely open Decided: the materials have to be usable, which is an obligation rather than a preference, and the next round goes out this quarter. Open: which step loses the format, what each unit changes on its own authority, and whether the template goes back for redesign.

How people take part, and what nobody has to disclose Materials two working days ahead as real text, captions on, a reachable room, and a written route for anyone who would rather not speak in the group. Nobody is asked about their own disability, identity or private experience. Every question is about the process.

The opening frame and the first question Ninety seconds, written out: purpose, what is decided, what is open, what is recorded and who sees it, how to take part, and what nobody is being asked to do. First question: at which step does a usable file stop being usable, and who owns that step?

Three moves for when it goes sideways If somebody names harm, acknowledge and then explain. If somebody becomes defensive, say nobody's character is on the table and return to the step. If the room goes quiet, ask a narrower question and let three seconds pass before I fill it.

What is recorded, and what stays in the room The notes carry decisions, open questions, owners and the disagreement. No individual is named as a cause. The summary goes to the director and to everyone who was in the room, including the reviewer.

What happens afterward: owner, date and report-back Each open question gets a named owner and a date, said aloud before anyone leaves. Within two weeks everyone in the room hears what changed, what did not and why — including the reviewer, whose time is paid.

Copy the eight lines into a document, fill them in for one issue your team is actually carrying, write the opening frame out in full and read it aloud once, and put the report-back on somebody's calendar before you send the invitation.

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Opening lines that do the work in ninety seconds

“This hour is for understanding what the renewal step does to people who move often. It is not where we decide the step.”
“What is already decided: the notice goes out this quarter. What is open: everything about how it reads.”
“Notes carry decisions, open questions and disagreements. Nobody is named. The summary goes to the director and to all of you.”
“Nobody is being asked to agree with me, and nobody is being asked to talk about themselves. The questions are about the process.”
“If you would rather write than speak, here is where it goes and who reads it. Either route counts the same.”
“I approved the step we are about to examine. I would rather hear about it here than read about it in a complaint.”

Three questions to settle before the invitation goes out

Should you be the one facilitating?

If the conversation is substantially about decisions you made, your presence changes what can be said and your facilitation changes it further. Consider answering for the part that is yours and handing the facilitation to somebody with no stake in the outcome — a peer from another unit, or an external facilitator. Staying in the room while somebody else runs it is often the strongest available move, and it is almost never the comfortable one.

Who is in the room who is not staff, and are they paid?

People with disabilities, family members, interpreters and culturally specific organizations take part in this work as co-designers, reviewers, storytellers, facilitators and advisors. They are not learners in a staff module and they are not volunteers supplying free expertise. If the hour depends on what they know, arrange the compensation before the invitation goes out, agree how their contribution is described, and tell them afterward what it changed.

What will you do if it ends without agreement?

Decide now, because you will be asked at minute eighty-five. The usable answer: the decision stands or is deferred, the disagreement goes into the record with the reasoning, and anybody may ask once for it to be reopened if something new appears. Write that sentence into the plan and you will not have to invent it while everyone watches.

Book the report-back before you hold the conversation

What you can change

You control whether the follow-up exists before the hour starts: a named owner, a date already on a calendar, and a sentence people will hear whether the answer turns out to be yes or no.

What to watch for

Do not close with “thank you, this was really valuable.” A conversation that produces gratitude and no owner teaches people that the hour itself was the point, and they will price the next invitation accordingly.

Your next step

Put the report-back on somebody's calendar in the same week you send the invitation, and say that date out loud when you open the conversation.

A private reflection, for you alone

Nothing here is collected, scored or seen by anyone else. Take whichever question is useful and leave the rest.

How might my role, authority and language change what people are willing to say in a conversation I lead? Who could be helped, burdened, excluded or misunderstood by the way I have designed this hour? Whose expertise is missing from the room, and what would it take to have it here earlier and properly paid? What might accessibility mean in this conversation beyond the legal minimum? If harm or exclusion happened in something my area decided, what would accountability and repair actually require of me, rather than of the people affected?

One more, if it is useful: what did it cost the last person who told me something I did not want to hear, and how would I know?

Which opening frame gives people what they need in order to speak honestly?

“Thanks for coming, everyone. This is a safe space and we genuinely want to hear whatever you have to say.”

“This hour is for understanding where the usable format is lost. Procurement decides the template and reports back at the review point. Notes carry decisions and open questions with nobody named, and the summary goes to the director and to you. Nobody is being asked to agree or to talk about themselves.”

“We have a lot to get through, so let us cover the background first and leave time for questions at the end.”

Try a situation

You are preparing a ninety-minute conversation about why the division's contract and grant materials keep reaching partners in formats that people who are blind cannot use. Two units point at each other, the procurement lead says the template is fixed, and a paid community reviewer has raised it three times. Your draft plan is a minute-by-minute agenda with prepared talking points for each objection you expect.

What is wrong with the plan, and what replaces it?

Nothing is wrong with it. A tight agenda and prepared answers are what keep a hard conversation from drifting into grievance.

Keep the timing and drop the prepared answers, then add the four things that actually decide the hour: who is in the room and what power is in it, what is already decided and what is open, how people take part and what nobody has to disclose, and what happens afterward.

Send the plan to the two unit leads beforehand and ask them to agree on an account of what happened before the meeting.

Carry this forward

A plan is not a script, and it is certainly not a set of prepared answers to the objections you expect. That is a defense plan wearing a discussion plan's clothes, and everybody in the room can tell.
Two lines get written out in full rather than sketched: the opening frame, which is the ninety seconds that sets every term of the hour, and the three moves you will reach for when it goes sideways.
Read the opening frame aloud once before you use it. The difference between saying it and improvising it while twelve people watch is larger than it looks on paper.
A conversation with no report-back happened once. Name the owner, the date, and the sentence people will hear about what changed and what did not — and say that date out loud at the start.
If the issue needs a facilitator who is not you, or expertise from people who are not staff, that is a design decision rather than a failure. Arrange compensation for external co-designers, reviewers and advisors before the invitation goes out, and tell them afterward what their time changed.

A scenario about a plan that is really a defense plan, a discussion plan you can copy into your own work, a private reflection, and a knowledge check on what an opening frame has to carry.

Fill in the eight lines for one issue your team is really carrying, hold the conversation within the month, and put the report-back on somebody's calendar before you send the invitation.

Your next step

Which issue will you write the eight lines for?

Name the issue and the date the conversation will happen

Write the opening frame out in full, and read it aloud once

Choose the three moves you will make when it goes sideways

Name who hears what changed, and the date they hear it

Decide whether you should be facilitating it at all

Browse and download only. Course notes are not typed or saved on this page.

Mark this lesson complete

Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.