Why Manuscripts ?!
A new hire’s cursor floats over one box in my intake form. First united state week. Objective for today’s standup: “Sound confident without oversharing.” That solitary sentence is why I stopped creating long modules and began designing manuscripts. In the first 90 days, students don’t require a textbook; they require the best words for the following two mins of their genuine day. My aide, silent, no-code, AI-supported, listens to context, protects the person’s voice, and uses a few lines they can in fact say aloud.
Stronger Conferences With A Manuscript Engine
The Collection
I started with a simple Google Sheet: three tabs, circumstances, rubbing factors, and blocks. Circumstances are the conferences most of us recognize. Rubbing points are the practices that trip individuals up: redundancy vs. brevity, decision-framing, evidence-in-one-breath, timeboxing, and kind directness. Blocks are tiny, reusable lines marked by type (opener, ask, if-pushed, closer) and tone (concise, warm, official). No code. Just framework and language.
The Tiny Graph
I keep one tiny graph influenced by Erin Meyer’s The Society Map — 8 measurements on a 1– 7 range, kept in the exact same sheet. For a learner, I gently note “home” tendencies beside the expectations of the context they’re entering. It’s a compass, not a judgment. When voids surge, state on directness or feedback design, the aide pushes the script: a tighter opener for executives, a more clear request for cross-functional phone calls, a warmer structure for sensitive comments.
Consumption
We maintain the consumption short. Duty. The scene they will enter. Who remains in the area and what those people worth. The outcome they desire– decision, details, or connection. How much time do they really have: thirty, sixty, ninety seconds? And just how they like to sound. If they state “confident yet not defensive,” I maintain that phrase on my shoulder while we work.
Assembly
The engine does light pattern-matching. Client condition with execs? Stress brevity, decision-framing, and proof. Peer feedback? Kind directness and a quick why. The assistant constructs a short manuscript from the library– never to overwrite the person’s voice, just to sharpen it.
In The Area
That design manager that was afraid oversharing prepared to explain the entire sprint. Home builders enjoy backstory; audiences need headings. The manuscript we produced maintained it limited: “High-level: we’re on track for October 10 One danger is latency in the beta; reductions in A/B test now.” The ask followed normally: “To hold October 10, we require a yes/no on increasing the beta by the end of the day.” If pushed: “Two solutions in test; I’ll share the victor on Thursday.” The closer handed ownership and next steps without sounding sudden. No concept dump. Just a clear path through the scene, silently notified by that little chart advising us to lead with outcomes, not chapters.
After The Call
Every manuscript ships with a micro-experiment and a reflection. The experiment is little deliberately: lead with the end result first in 2 meetings today; maintain the opener under thirty-five seconds; make the ask time-bound. The reflection takes a minute: What did you cut that no one missed? What made the area lean in? Those notes feed the collection. With time, blocks hone into wording that takes a trip well throughout groups.
Due to the fact that this resides in a spreadsheet, iteration is pain-free. If a line alters too formal, I revise it. If a better sings with customers but flops with peers, I retag it. The assistant learns, and so do I. Edit distance– how much a learner alters the script– ends up being a proxy for self-confidence. When it drops, we’re closer to their genuine audio.
What I Watch
I track signals with a pulse: time to initial certain conference; decision speed (clear ask, owner, day); manager signal at 30/ 60/ 90; manuscripts produced vs. scripts made use of. No hefty dashboard needed– simply a regular glance to see if the story is relocating.
The “AI” is a personalized chatbot tied to the sheet. Consumption moves via a basic kind. The draft shows up where individuals currently live, Slack or Teams, not a buried LMS tab. Privacy is strict: minimal context, student edits, no raw transcripts. The aide proposes; the learner gets rid of.
I invest much less time describing just how to interact and even more time handing people words that work. The understanding is adaptive, not because a control panel says so, but because every scene creates the next. New employs ramp quicker. Companions hear clearness sooner. The scripts get better with each small edit.
The Line I Keep
A supervisor, French, first month in Boston, composed after a complicated week: “It really did not make me appear American. It made me seem like myself, however in a way individuals below hear.” That rests next to “seem positive without oversharing” in my scrapbook. Customization isn’t regarding altering someone’s voice; it has to do with providing it the shape to carry. The Meyer-inspired chart helps me area which levers issue; the script makes those levers functional in the space.
Start Tiny, Upskill Fast, Stay Confident!
5 usual scenes. A handful of rubbing points. A lots blocks you’re honored to say out loud. Add the simplest Culture-Map graph you can draw, eight sliders in a sheet, and utilize it as a compass, not a rulebook. Ship to one group. Watch what they change. Fold their edits back in. One early morning, you’ll open up the spreadsheet and realize you’re not preserving “content” anymore, you’re directing a living tale. And every single time the 8: 57 a.m. cursor blinks, you’ll recognize precisely just how to obtain your protagonist via the following scene.