Pre-session flash card
Use this skill before every session with a recurring coaching or advisory client, when you need one page to run the hour from. Produces the flash card: why this hour matters, the calls you make before the session, the opening move with the words to say, what the client decides today, the development block they asked for, dates and owners, a run sheet, what is already settled, and one closing line on how to be in the room. Built from the transcript of the last session and the recap you sent. Optionally produces a pre-read beside it. Also use for "flash card", "session card", "run sheet", "prep card", "pre-read", "prep me for my next session", "coaching session prep".
Paul MunroFounder, AppliedGTMApplies before every session with a client you coach or advise on a recurring basis. Produces one page, the flash card, that you read while you talk and run the hour from.
The play
- Fix the session date and time, and name the source on the card: the calendar invite, your own words with their date, or inferred from the pattern. An inferred date puts the word "preliminary" in the header.
- Read the transcript of the last session, the recap thread you sent, and the last debrief's notes on how the previous card held up.
- Sort every candidate line with one test: does it need the client's judgment in real time, or only their action? Judgment goes in the room. Action goes in the follow-up email. Confirm any owed item is still owed before it reaches the card. Full rules:
references/line-rules.md. - Write the sections in the fixed order in
references/card-sections.md. Anything you invented goes in "Decide these before you dial", tagged PROPOSED, in plain words: what it is, your recommendation, adopt or kill. The coach rules before the session. - Build the run sheet from the protected block outward. Place the development block first or second, then fit the deadline items around it. The clock times cap your own items. Give the client one labelled slot of at least 20 minutes, placed where the transcripts show their material tends to arrive.
- Branch on what you know going in:
- A line might resolve before the session: write its skip condition in the same line. "If it is in the folder by Thursday, skip."
- A block rests on an event that may not have happened: add one line for that case. "If it did not happen: date it, move on."
- An item has sat on two consecutive cards without being raised: move it to the recap email. It returns only if the client raises it.
- The client sent their own agenda note, and you have agreed the hour is theirs to set: use the client-led order in
references/card-sections.md.
- Check every line against
references/plain-language.md. Then check length: one page preferred, two maximum, about 1,100 words as the ceiling. Cut whole items. Keep the sentence that says what each remaining thing is. - If a pre-read would help, build it after the card. The card still runs the hour alone.
- After the session, record in your debrief how the card held up: held, changed in the room, missed, overtaken, or not on the card. The next card's cuts come from there.
What good looks like
- First thing I check that most people skip: whether each owed item is still owed. Email is an incomplete record of what a client has received, so I check delivery, and ask where that channel is silent. A ledger that logs commitments without logging resolution manufactures fake debt.
- The mediocre version is long and protects its best block with a note. One card ran about 1,900 words and its run sheet did not survive the first ten minutes. On three cards in a row the development block sat after the deadline items with a note to protect it, and ran last and short all three times. The slot is what protects it.
- I know the card is right when I can run the hour from it with nothing else open, and every line needs the client's judgment in the room.
- I know the session went well when the client's material fills the open slot. One ran about two thirds on what the client brought. That is the good outcome, and the card should be shaped for it.
- Red flag: an item riding from card to card. One sat on two consecutive cards without being raised, and reached the client in three sentences of email instead. I was carrying it as a wish.
Rules
- MUST build the card from the transcript of the last session and the sent recap thread.
- MUST give each decision that has to leave the session its own numbered line. Nothing mandatory sits below the decisions block.
- MUST tag every invented item PROPOSED until the coach rules. Then the line states the ruling and its date.
- MUST keep the numbers. Plain language simplifies the words around a number.
- NEVER build the card from a debrief alone.
- NEVER put outstanding admin on the card.
- NEVER place the development block last in the run sheet.
- NEVER add sections, including a "collect before you hang up" list. That list was retired because it repeated the card's decisions as fragments with no context and slipped follow-up requests into the room.
- NEVER show the card to the client.
references/card-sections.md
Card sections
The card has a fixed order. Keep it every time. Rename a section only when the session lacks it, and add no sections.
The standard order
- Why this hour matters. One paragraph: why today, what freezes, what is at stake.
- Decide these before you dial. Your own calls, made before the session starts. Anything invented for this card is tagged PROPOSED and appears here in plain language: what it is, the recommendation, adopt or kill. Once you have ruled, the line states the ruling and its date, and the PROPOSED label comes off.
- First five minutes. The opening move, with the words to say in quotes.
- What the client decides today. Numbered. One line of decision, one line of why. Anything that must leave the session decided has its own numbered line here. A rider attached to another decision becomes its own line or comes off the card. Nothing mandatory sits below this block.
- The block the client asked for. The development or coaching work they want from the hour. This is the protected block. Its place in the run sheet is what protects it.
- Dates and owners. Overdue and unset, including your own.
- Run sheet. Clock time, minutes in parentheses, label, one line each. It holds one labelled slot for the client's items of at least 20 minutes.
- Do not reopen. A short list of what is already settled, so nothing gets argued again.
- Closing posture line. One line, set apart at the bottom: how to be in the room.
The client-led order
Use this only once you and the client have agreed that they set the agenda, and only when they have sent their agenda note: what is decided, what is stuck, and what the hour is for.
- Why this hour matters.
- Decide these before you dial.
- The client's note, in their words. Three lines, quoted or closely paraphrased, and labelled as theirs.
- Reactions. One line per item in their note.
- The one thing they are avoiding. Your single item, capped at ten minutes, with the words to say.
- Dates and owners.
- Do not reopen.
- Closing posture line.
This order has no run sheet and no "decides today" block, because the agenda is theirs. If the note did not come, the card says so in its header and goes back to the standard order. Log the missed note against the engagement.
The pre-read
The card is the one required piece of prep. A pre-read is an optional companion, never required reading. Build the card first, then the pre-read from the same material. Aim for about 1,000 words.
It opens with one paragraph on what changed since the last card. Then it holds what the card cannot:
- Each PROPOSED item in full: what the thing is, what stands today, what is wrong with it, what is proposed, why, what it costs, and how to stop it.
- The chain of reasoning behind each numbered decision.
- The pre-mortem: how the session or the plan could fail.
- What could not be checked.
The card carries each PROPOSED item in plain words and points to nothing else. You must be able to run the hour from the card alone. When you rule, update both files in place. The card drops the PROPOSED labels. The pre-read keeps the full block as the record, with each item retagged DECIDED and dated.
After the session
Record the card's result in your debrief, item by item: held, changed in the room, missed, overtaken, or not on the card. The next card's cuts come from that record.
references/line-rules.md
Line rules
These rules decide what reaches the card and what leaves it.
Name where the session time came from
Fix the session date and time before anything else, and name the source on the card: the calendar invite, your own words with their date, or inferred from the pattern. A card built on an inferred date carries the word "preliminary" in its header. One card was built for the wrong day because two records of the session time disagreed and neither was named on the card.
The test for every line
Ask: does this need the client's judgment in real time, or does it just need the client's action? Judgment goes in the room. Action goes in the follow-up email.
- A decision that changes what happens next earns a line.
- A reminder that something is outstanding earns no line, however overdue it is.
- Outstanding admin never enters the session, so it never goes on the card. If an item is short of mission critical, it goes in the email after the session. The session is for coaching and deep work.
Confirm an owed item is still owed
Before any owed item reaches a card, confirm the client still owes it. Email is an incomplete record of what a client has received. Check delivery, and where the visible channel is silent, ask the client. A ledger that logs commitments without logging when they were resolved manufactures fake debt.
Protect the block by its position
Write the run sheet from the protected block outward. Place it first or second, then fit the deadline items around it. On three cards in a row the block sat after the deadline items with a note asking to protect it, and it ran last and short all three times. The slot is what protects it.
Give every line that might resolve its skip condition
Any line that might resolve before the session carries its skip condition, written in the same line: "If it is in the folder by Thursday, skip." One line was overtaken two hours after the call, and the card had no instruction for it.
Plan for the event that did not happen
Any block built on an event that may not have happened carries one line for the case that it did not: "If it did not happen: date it, move on." One block was built on a conversation that had not yet taken place.
Two strikes and an item leaves the card
An item that has sat on two consecutive cards without being raised moves to the recap email. It returns to a card only if the client raises it. One item sat on two consecutive cards without being raised, and reached the client in three sentences of email instead. The card was carrying it as a wish.
The run sheet caps your items and leaves room for theirs
The clock times cap your own items. The client's items get the open space. Write one labelled slot for the client's items of at least 20 minutes, placed where the transcripts show their material tends to arrive, for example just after the first five minutes. One session ran about two thirds on material the client brought, and the card had no room for it. That is the good outcome, and the card should be shaped for it. The slot lives inside the run sheet as one of its lines.
Decisions stand on their own lines
Anything that must leave the session decided gets its own numbered line in "What the client decides today." A rider attached to another decision becomes its own line or comes off the card. Nothing mandatory sits below that block.
Nothing invented is settled
Nothing invented enters the card as settled. Every proposed item is tagged PROPOSED and decided by the coach before the session. Once ruled, the line states the ruling and its date.
Length and cuts
One page preferred, two pages maximum, about 1,100 words as the ceiling. One card ran about 1,900 words, and its run sheet did not survive the first ten minutes. When you cut, cut whole items. Keep the sentence that says what each remaining thing is.
The retired list
A "collect before you hang up" list was tried and retired. It repeated the card's decisions as fragments with no context, and it slipped follow-up requests into the room. Leave it off.
references/plain-language.md
Plain language
The test
Read the line out loud. If a smart person outside your field would stop and ask what a word means, replace the word. The card gets read at speed, mid-conversation, while you are also listening to someone else. Every clause it takes to parse is a clause you are missing from the client.
Banned words
pooled · denominator · exact-boundary · classifier · leading indicator · verdict metric · custody · provenance · instrument · arm · cohort · construct · artifact (as a word for a document) · stakeholder · capability · operationalize · pre-registered · counterfactual · directional read
Also banned: any phrase that only makes sense if you already read the underlying analysis.
Translations that set the pattern
| Analyst phrasing | Card phrasing |
|---|---|
| the classifier | the rule that sorts accounts into two types |
| data custody | who keeps the files |
| the middle band of the distribution | the 30 accounts in the middle |
| binding constraint has moved downstream | the broken step moved, so look again |
| run once at nomination freeze, then frozen | run it once when the account list freezes, then leave it alone |
| exact-boundary form | say which side of the line it falls on |
Numbers
Numbers stay, always. They are the decisions. Write them as numerals, including at the start of a sentence. If a number needs context to mean anything, give the context in plain words on the same line. Keep that context out of footnotes.
Sentence shape
- One idea per sentence.
- Bold the lead-in phrase, so the eye can find the item without reading the paragraph.
- Say the decision before the reasoning.
- Put anything you mean to say out loud in quotes.
- Define a thing by stating what it is, in one positive sentence.
When plain and short pull against each other
Comprehension comes before brevity. A hard chain of reasoning gets spelled out in plain words. The order of operations: the format is fixed, plain language always, and length as short as the chain allows.