workshop-facilitation

Purpose

Provide the canonical facilitation pattern for interactive skills: one step at a time, with clear progress, adaptive recommendations at decision points, and predictable interruption handling.

Key Concepts

One-step-at-a-time: Ask a single targeted question per turn.
Session heads-up + entry mode: Start by setting expectations and offering
```
Guided
```
,
```
Context dump
```
, or
```
Best guess
```
mode.
Progress visibility: Show user-facing progress labels like
```
Context Qx/8
```
and
```
Scoring Qx/5
```
.
Decision-point recommendations: Use enumerated options only when a choice is needed, not after every answer.
Quick-select response options: For regular context/scoring questions, provide concise numbered answer options plus
```
Other (specify)
```
when useful.
Flexible selection parsing: Accept
```
#1
```
,
```
1
```
,
```
1 and 3
```
,
```
1,3
```
, or custom text, then synthesize multi-select choices.
Context-aware progression: Build on previous answers and avoid re-asking resolved questions.
Interruption-safe flow: Answer meta questions directly (for example, "how many left?"), restate status, then resume.
Fast path: If the user requests a single-shot output, skip multi-turn facilitation and deliver a condensed result.

Application

Start with a brief heads-up on estimated time and number of questions.
Ask the user to choose an entry mode:
- ```
1
```
  Guided mode (one question at a time)
- ```
2
```
  Context dump (paste known context; skip redundancies)
- ```
3
```
  Best guess mode (infer missing details and label assumptions)
Run one question per turn and wait for an answer before continuing.
Keep questions plain-language; include a short example response format when helpful.
Show progress each turn:
- ```
Context Qx/8
```
  during context collection
- ```
Scoring Qx/5
```
  during assessment/scoring
Ask follow-up clarifications only when they materially improve recommendation quality.
For regular context/scoring questions, offer quick-select numbered response options when practical:
- Keep options concise and mutually exclusive when possible.
- Include
```
Other (specify)
```
  if likely answers are open-ended.
- Accept multi-select responses like
```
1,3
```
  or
```
1 and 3
```
  .
Provide numbered recommendations only at decision points:
- after context synthesis,
- after maturity/profile synthesis,
- during priority/action-plan selection.
Accept numeric or custom choices, synthesize multi-select choices, and continue.
If interrupted by a meta question, answer directly, then restate progress and pending question.
If the user says stop/pause, halt immediately and wait for explicit resume.
End with a clear summary, decisions made, and (if best guess mode was used) an
```
Assumptions to Validate
```
list.

Examples

Opening: "Quick heads-up: this should take about 7-10 minutes and around 10 questions. How do you want to start?

Guided mode
Context dump
Best guess mode"

User: "2"

Facilitator: "Paste what you already know. I’ll skip answered areas and ask only what’s missing."

Decision point after synthesis:

Prioritize Context Design (Recommended)
Prioritize Agent Orchestration
Prioritize Team-AI Facilitation

User: "1 and 3"

Facilitator: "Great. We’ll run Context Design first, with Team-AI Facilitation in parallel."

Common Pitfalls

Asking multiple questions in the same turn.
Offering recommendations after every answer (creates interaction drag).
Using shorthand labels without plain-language questions.
Hiding progress, so users don't know how much remains.
Ignoring the user's chosen option or custom direction.
Failing to label assumptions when running in best-guess mode.

References

Use as the source of truth for interactive facilitation behavior.
Apply alongside workshop skills in
```
skills/*-workshop/SKILL.md
```
and advisor-style interactive skills.