Samvinas Help For facilitators

Instructions — for facilitators

The Instructions tool shows participants a page of your own Markdown — a brief, a task, or a set of ground rules. It takes no input and produces no items; it's purely for telling people what to do.

Samvinas

  • Add it to a flow, open its ⚙ Settings, and write your Markdown in the editor (with live preview), then Focus it.
  • You can edit the text mid-session — participants see the update live.
  • It's especially useful inside Breakout Groups and Personal Workspaces, where each group needs its own standing instructions while they work.

Instructions consumes nothing and produces nothing — it sits in the flow as a signpost between working tools.

Paper and pen

You need: a flip-chart sheet per brief (or a printed task card per table) and a fat marker.

  • Write the brief before the session: the task in one sentence at the top, the steps below, the timebox at the bottom. Big letters — readable from the back of the room.
  • Post it where the work happens; for table work, a card on each table beats one distant wall.
  • Read it aloud once, then leave it up — the point of a written brief is that nobody has to remember it.
  • Failure mode to avoid: the multi-paragraph brief. If it doesn't fit one sheet in marker pen, the task isn't clear enough yet.

When & why

Reach for Instructions whenever a step needs standing guidance — a task people will re-read mid-work, ground rules for the session, or a brief that differs per group.

  • Use Instructions for this session's task; the tool ? links (these help pages) carry standing guidance that doesn't change.
  • For the event's practical facts — WiFi, schedule, rooms — use Event Info instead: Instructions is for the work, Event Info is for the day.
  • What usually follows: the tool the brief sets up — often the first working step inside a Breakout Group, or a Brainstorm against the task just given.

Editing this page? It lives at content/facilitator/instructions.md.