{"id":"lead-skip-level-opening-script","audience":"managers","category":"leadership-work","track":"leadership","level":"beginner","technique":"audience","title":"Write a 30-second spoken opener for a skip-level conversation","free":false,"task":"You are meeting an engineer two levels below you for the first time. Write what you will say in the first 30 seconds: plain text, 4 sentences, under 70 words. Sentence 1 thanks them for their time, sentence 2 says why you are doing these chats, sentence 3 promises what you will and will not do with what you hear, and sentence 4 is an open question. Use the rules from the notes.","materialLabel":"Your notes (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"Skip-level chat rules (mine)\n\n- I'm Gwen, VP of Engineering. I'm meeting people 2 levels down for 25 minutes each, once a quarter.\n- Purpose: hear what's working and what's in the way, directly.\n- What I'll do: share themes (never names) with the leadership team; I will not report anything back to their manager with their name on it.\n- Exception: if I hear about safety or harassment, I have to pass it to HR.\n- Do NOT promise to fix anything.\n- Please start with an open question, like \"What's one thing that would make your week easier?\"\n- Their manager, Colm, knows about the chats.","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":70},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Over-promising","why":"The AI says 'everything stays between us' or 'I'll fix it'.","fix":"Say: \"Share themes without names; do not promise to fix anything.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Wrong order","why":"The AI starts with a long bio.","fix":"Say: \"Sentence 1 thanks them; sentence 2 gives the purpose.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Closed question","why":"The AI asks 'Is everything going OK?'.","fix":"Say: \"End with an open question.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Markdown","why":"The AI uses bullets.","fix":"Say: \"Plain text, spoken sentences.\"","checks":["plainText"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each sentence: \"each sentence under 18 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each part instead, for example: \"each line under 12 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Says it's spoken","patterns":["say","spoken","aloud"]},{"label":"Gives the four jobs","patterns":["thanks","purpose","promise","question"]},{"label":"Sets a length","patterns":["\\d+ words","4 sentences"]},{"label":"No fix promise","patterns":["don'?t promise","won'?t promise","no promises"]},{"label":"Open question","patterns":["open question"]}],"hint":"Give each sentence a job and name what the speaker cannot promise.","rubricLabels":["Exactly four sentences in the order: thanks for their time, why the chats happen, what will and will not be done with what she hears, an open question","Sentence 3 says themes are shared without names and does not promise to fix anything","The final sentence is an open question and the opener does not promise that nothing will be passed on (it keeps the safety and harassment exception or stays silent about promising)"]}