Method guide · Progress through phases
Check-in
Briefly hear each person's present state at the start, with an equally available choice to pass and no record kept.
- People
- 4–100
- Base procedure time
- 5 minutes
- Recording
- No record
Purpose: Build working relationships; Begin together; Explore through dialogue.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
A method for each person briefly sharing their present state at the start of a meeting. Each chooses whether to speak or pass, and reasons for passing are not requested. Use it when many people are meeting for the first time or introductory small talk delays the main topic. Keeping each turn to about 20 seconds prevents one person's story from occupying the whole group and helps speakers and listeners shift attention to the next person. No record remains; instead, people know one another's current state and are ready to move to the main topic. Do not use it on its own where detailed consultation or deeper exploration of emotions is needed.
Phase schedule
Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.
Use the arrow keys, Home or End while these controls have focus. The complete phase schedule remains below, including without JavaScript.
- State the agreement0–1 minutes from the start (1 minute)
Action: State. Participation: Everyone.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
- Pass one comment around1–4 minutes from the start (3 minutes)
Action: Pass. Participation: Everyone.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
- Return attention to the meeting4–5 minutes from the start (1 minute)
Action: Return. Participation: Everyone.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
Facilitation steps
- Invite participants to form a circle and have the facilitator choose the first speaker beforehand.
- For 1 minute, explain the agreement that people may say just one comment or pass, and give a sense of the approximate 20-second guide.
- For 3 minutes, starting with the person indicated by the facilitator, go around the circle as each person offers one comment on their present state or passes to the next person.
- For 1 minute, after the last person finishes, the facilitator gives one comment returning attention to the main topic.
If something changes
If
The person whose turn it is cannot find words for 10 seconds or more.
Then
Explain that they may simply say, ‘I'll pass today’, and have the facilitator move to the next person.
Preparation
Materials
- One clock or timer visible to everyone
- One chair per person, with enough chairs to form circles
Room and setup
- Seats arranged in a circle so everyone can see one another's faces
- One clock or timer placed where everyone can see it
Adjust for people and time
Do not use the method with fewer than 4 people, as there is little sense of passing a comment around. A full round takes longer as numbers increase, so above 15 people use several simultaneous circles of 7–8 to retain the 5-minute frame. With fewer people, the 20-second guide may be extended to about 30 seconds.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Speaking or passing is each person's choice, and no reason for passing is requested. Keep no record. Do not use this brief opening alone for detailed consultation or emotional exploration.
Historical translation and source notes
These original notes are retained verbatim with their fixed source versions. This historical label does not resolve a source-specific concern or establish current acceptance.
- At about 20 seconds per person, 10–15 turns exceed the stated 3-minute round; the source does not give an alternative time allocation below its more-than-15 split threshold. Both the approximate guide and phase remain.
- Some participant totals above 15 cannot be partitioned into circles of only 7–8, and the source gives no remainder rule. No alternate circle size is invented.
Manuscript's recorded references
These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.
- Aidan Cammies, Jeremie Benazra: Check-ins
https://openpracticelibrary.com/practice/check-ins/
Adaptation under CC BY 4.0; changes made
- CC BY 4.0
Current-page licence notice
A Taiwa no Fumen adaptation based on the Open Practice Library practice identified below. The manuscript's recorded references and the source page checked for this notice are shown separately.
Changes: explanations, timings, instructions, materials and branches were edited for this site. The English edition translates that Japanese manuscript; it is not a verbatim translation of the original practice.
The checked source footer names CC BY 4.0 but links to CC BY-SA 4.0. The official site source code contains the same mismatch. This has not been confirmed with the rights holders. This notice does not change the terms of the original material.
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See the linked legal code for its no-warranty and other provisions.
The additional contributor names are handles from the fixed official practice source. They are not inferred real names or a reconstruction of collapsed editor labels. The earlier attribution limits remain recorded.
Credits on the checked source page
- Named contributors on the source page: Aidan Cammies, Jeremie Benazra
- Contributors listed in the official practice source (repository handles): @acammies, @jemjem
Source page checked on 2026-10-17: Check-ins.
Source lineage
CC BY-SA 4.0 — this site's adaptation and translation contributions · Legal code · Official source policy
This material-specific notice does not itself establish publication clearance. Preserved manuscript references above remain separate from the current page's credits and licence evidence.
Diagram, print, and video language
Original Japanese guide, diagram, and print view. Their labels and print text have not been translated; an English print edition is not provided here.
English video-library navigation. Original Japanese audio, subtitles and transcripts remain labelled Japanese resources. Their translations are separate later work. No remote player is embedded here.
The manual English phase controls are a navigation aid, not a live facilitation timer. Interactive diagram motion remains pending.
Editorial provenance
Japanese source status and logs are provenance only. They do not mean this English text or interface was field-tested. Historical fixed-text acceptance and hold records remain specific to their recorded versions; displaying them neither asserts current acceptance nor resolves source-specific restrictions.