Breakout 3 · 3:30 to 4:30

Prioritizing Directions

This is the session everything else is built from. What leaves this room, complete and consistent, is what all of Day 2 works from.

Five fields per priority: name · description · why · units · tier. An entry missing one cannot be used tomorrow.

In the break, before this session: write the identified priorities from Breakout 2 onto blank cards, one per card. Four to eight cards, three minutes. Without them you are clustering physical cards against a list in your head.

SUPPORT/CONCERN cards out · numbered folders 1 to 5, plus a spare · backup slip on the table.

Press T now and read the six tags and three tiers once before anyone sits down. T works from any slide, all session.

Press D now and read the instructions for keeping the discussion moving. D works from any slide. all session.

Press → when the session starts. The clock starts itself.

Opening

Set it up0 → 1

“This morning we mapped the landscape, found the overlaps and gaps, and imagined some solutions. This session is where we narrow.The goal isn’t to solve everything. It’s to land on a small number of directions this table thinks are worth carrying into tomorrow.”

Bridge

From Breakout 21 → 3

Read out the full priority list from Breakout 2, from the cards you wrote in the break, and lay them on the table as you go.Coordination only first, then light lift, then the bigger asks.

Tier order matters. The group hears a shaped list rather than a flat one, and the clustering that follows goes much faster.

Name your priority3 → 8

“Take out your Breakout 3 card. On the front, write the one thing from today you think is a genuine priority, as a short phrase.Then turn it over and write one other thing you’d be happy to work on tomorrow. Two and a half minutes, then put it face up in the middle, front side showing.”

Numbers: Pre-printed. Nothing to police.
The back: Never clustered, never discussed. Sandra and Nick read it tonight.

If anyone uses a blank spare, get their number on it before it goes in the middle.

Clustering8 → 23

“Let’s sort these. What goes together?”

On the table: 11 to 15 cards: the ones you wrote in the break, plus the seven the group just wrote. All physical, all movable.
Format: You move the cards into piles. The group tells you where.
Critical: Number each pile out loud as it forms. 1, 2, 3…
Aim for: Three to five piles. More than five and tomorrow gets diluted.
Say aloud: “Pile two is ___”“Let’s tag that as ___”

If a pile gets renamed, say so: “pile two is now X.” The notetaker’s entries and the folders both hang off those numbers. A sixth pile that will not merge gets a hand-numbered spare folder; never merge two piles to stay at five.

If it stalls

Q2 · Clustering

Put two cards side by side and ask: “same thing, or different things?”

Faster than asking the room to sort in the abstract. Watch for the card sitting alone; don’t resolve it here, Q4 does that.

Pressure-test23 → 45

For each pile in turn, biggest first: “What would a real first step for this look like? And what would it take to get there?”

Order: Biggest pile first. If you run short, the least-supported one is what gets cut.
Per pile: ~5 minutes
Say aloud: “That one’s ___”“So that’s ___ and ___”“This one’s a recurring problem / a knowledge gap / genuine interest”

Needing real backing does not weaken a priority: that is what tomorrow is for. Losing its energy under questioning does. If that happens, let it drop.

If it stalls

Q3 · Pressure-test

“If this existed tomorrow morning, who would use it first?”

By the end of Q3 every surviving priority needs all five fields. Ask the notetaker if any are thin.

Consensus45 → 53

“Which of these go forward to tomorrow? For one to move, the table needs to be behind it. If one person thinks it matters and nobody else does, it doesn’t go.”“Green if you support it, red if you have a real concern.”

Format: Cards up, one pile at a time
Mostly green: Moves forward. No discussion needed.
One or two red: Stop. “What’s the concern?” Thirty seconds.
Say aloud: Confirm out loud which ones are moving

Quiet indifference is not disagreement; green without enthusiasm still counts. If a real objection doesn’t resolve in thirty seconds, it doesn’t move. That is the rule working.

Wrap · 1 of 2

Close it out53 → 58

Accomplishment first: “This table is sending [X] priorities to tomorrow. Things this room actually believes in.”

Then: Check every forwarded entry has all five fields
Cards: Pile 1 → folder 1, pile 2 → folder 2. Never merge piles.

Say the accomplishment before you check the data. Energy first, admin second. This is the only moment the group hears its own day named as work that mattered.

Wrap · 2 of 2 · do not skip

Fill in the backup slip58 → 60

The small printed form on your table. Group letter, and one line per priority you are sending forward.Thirty seconds. Then hand it to Nick or Sandra before you leave the room.

Why: If your notetaker’s capture is thin or their laptop died, Nick and Sandra find out at 7pm, when this room is long gone
This is the only: handwritten record in the whole event. Breakout 3 is the only session whose output has to survive overnight
Your window: Participants leave at 4:30; the plenary wrap-up starts at 4:35. Arriving there a few minutes late is expected of you
Do not: Put it in a folder or your bag. Hand it over.

If everything worked, nobody will ever read it. Fill it in anyway.

T or esc to close

The six tags

A tag names the subject, not the problem. So a gap and an overlap take the same tag: “nobody owns the handoff” and “we both do it and never compare notes” are both ownership and referral. Same question, opposite answer.

Ownership and referral	whose job is it, and where does someone go first
Training and awareness	they don’t know it exists, or don’t know how
Capacity and staffing	nobody has the time or the position
Infrastructure and tools	storage, platforms, software, documentation and deposit
Policy and compliance	Tri-Agency, institutional policy, ethics and sensitive data
Regional community	shared resources, contacts, community of practice
Other	say it, the notetaker writes it in

Unsure? Say “other”, or say nothing. A blank is honest; a wrong tag is worse, because nobody downstream can tell.

The three tiers

“Could we start this next month, with the people in this room, and no new money?”

Yes	coordination only
No, but a unit head could say yes	light lift
No: budget, a position, or a decision from above	needs real backing

Say these out loud

“Let’s tag that as ___”
“That one’s ___” tier
“So that’s ___ and ___” units

Never a name in the capture. Units only. Asked to be quoted by name? “Let me follow up after the session.”

D or esc to close

Someone is taking up too much room

“That’s useful, and I want to hear how that lands for a smaller shop.”

Thank them specifically, then redirect. The cleanest move there is.

Someone hasn’t spoken

“Number 5, you’ve been thinking about something.”

Numbers are less exposing than names. And after any card write, go round in order: nobody has to volunteer, and the quiet people have already written their answer.

Keep a round short

“Just read them out, no explaining yet. The next question is where we dig in.”

A constraint with a promise attached reads as a plan, not a brush-off.

Big-institution voices

Seat them sixth or seventh in any go-around. Give them one planned moment:

“I’ll come to number 6 near the end, for the view from a bigger shop.”

Yellow card is up

“Hold that thought a second.”

The notetaker is losing content. Fifteen seconds now saves the capture.

Gone somewhere difficult

If it drifts from the Code of Conduct, step in. Unsure, or it continues? Catch Nick or Sandra at the next transition; they are walking the rooms. You will not be second-guessed for flagging.