facilitation-scope

name	facilitation-scope
description	Scope a session with the sponsor — Job 1 of Klein & Newman's Six Jobs. Walks the user through outcome definition, out-of-scope naming, participant selection, political-dynamics mapping, and budget questions. Output is a sponsor-aligned scoping brief that names outcomes, decisions already made, what's out of scope, and who must be present. Use this skill BEFORE designing any non-trivial session — scoping is the highest-leverage time spent, and most workshop pain originates from skipping it.
type	skill
project	skills-library
plugin	facilitation
aliases	["facilitation-scope"]
tags	["type/skill","plugin/facilitation","topic/facilitation","topic/scoping","scope/orchestrator"]
status	active

Session scoping (orchestrator)

Use the facilitation-facilitator persona to walk the user through Klein & Newman's first job: scoping. Most workshop pain originates here. Scoping is the most leveraged time you spend on a session — get it right and the design becomes obvious; get it wrong and no agenda will save you.

Reference: book-facilitating-collaboration.md, Chapter 3 (Scoping) and Chapter 4 (Working with Sponsors).

Steps:

1. Establish the baseline. Ask the user:

   • Who's the sponsor? (Title, decision authority, what they own)
   • What's the trigger event — why is this session being requested now?
   • What's been said about it already, to whom, and what got committed?

2. Surface the outcome. Push past topic to outcome:

   • Vague: "discuss strategy" → Specific: "prioritize Q2 initiatives and align on resource trade-offs"
   • Vague: "team alignment" → Specific: "leave the room with named owners on the top 3 stuck initiatives"
   • If the user can't name a measurable outcome, that's the finding — surface it back. The session may not be ready to design.

3. Name what's out of scope. Equally important. What is the sponsor not expecting from this session? What decisions are already made? What topics will inflame and derail?

4. Identify who must be present. Apply Pattern 211 (Get the whole system in the room). Push back on convenience-based attendance — the right people, not the available people.

5. Surface political dynamics. Per Klein & Newman: "Event sponsors will only trust an outside facilitator to shape critical work with a large team if he or she invests the time and care to understand the business issue at hand and the personal and political challenges faced by sponsors." Ask: who has interests in this outcome? Who's pre-aligned? Who's friction? What's the sponsor's relationship with the dissenters?

6. Ask the budget question. Time, money, sponsor energy. If this is a multi-day workshop, is the sponsor committed to a Sponsor Design Team? (See sponsor-design-team-playbook.md.)

7. Produce the scoping brief. A short markdown document with:

   • Outcome (one sentence, measurable)
   • Out of scope (3–5 named items)
   • Participants (with roles and rationale for each)
   • Constraints (time, budget, decisions already made)
   • Political map (who's pre-aligned, who's friction)
   • Open questions for sponsor
   • Recommended session length / format

8. Hand off. Recommend the next step:

   • For a single meeting (≤90 min) → call facilitation-design-session with the scoping brief
   • For multi-day → bring in the workshop-designer to set up the Sponsor Design Team
   • If the scoping conversation revealed the session shouldn't happen → say so plainly

Don't draft the agenda yet. Scoping is its own discipline. Get the outcome right before designing the process.