Frame the problem

Say what the room will leave with. Then ask: "One word for how you're arriving." Take the words in any order, not round the circle.

Worries per fish: up to three

Hand everyone a sheet with a big fish drawn on it. "Inside your fish, write what worries you about this problem: the things that smell worse the longer we leave them unsaid." Specific beats general: "The deadline was set before anyone scoped the work" is a worry; "timing" isn't. Go first: read your own fish out loud, and make it honest, because the room will match you. Then everyone writes up to three in silence, posts their fish on the wall and reads the wall without talking. Finish by starring any worry that shows up on three or more fish.

The full Stinky Fish exercise

Questions each: one question

Take the starred worries. Everyone turns them into one question starting "How might we…", one per note. Show one first: "The deadline was set before anyone scoped the work" becomes "How might we set dates after we know the size of the work?" A good question is narrower than "make it better" and wider than a solution in disguise. Post the questions and stack duplicates. Then everyone puts one dot on the question they most want answered, and the top one goes forward.

The full How Might We exercise

Who drafts: alone, one draft each

Put the template on the wall: "[Who] needs [what] because [why we believe it]." "Write the problem as one sentence about the people who have it. No solutions in the sentence." Everyone drafts alone, one draft each, working from the winning question. Post every draft. Everyone stars the one closest to true. Read the starred draft out loud and let the room fix it, at most three edits. Then write it at the top of the wall.

The full Point of View Statement exercise

Each result the room produced needs an owner. The owner writes "I will [what] by [when]" on a card, reads it out and sticks it under the result. Only owners speak. If a result has no owner, say so: "Nobody owns this yet." Write that on the wall too, so it leaves the room as an open item rather than a quiet gap.