Method guide · Work with a structured grid
Parking Lot
Set aside an off-topic issue without losing it, then decide how it leaves the holding area before closing.
- People
- 3–30
- Base procedure time
- 10 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Explore through dialogue; Make a decision.
English guide
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How this method works
A method for holding issues that could take discussion off course and deciding their exit at the end. Use it when important matters that cannot be handled now disappear, people fear raising questions because they may derail discussion, or a holding column becomes a graveyard of unresolved issues. Participants write an issue and its relationship to the main topic on one card and place it at their group's entry point. Groups bring similar issues together but do not delete them on their own. At the end, move each card to one of three exits: assign someone to follow it up, send it to the next meeting's agenda, or discard it with a written reason. The output is a table of held issues with dispositions and deadlines. It is not suitable for postponing urgent safety problems or excluding dissent from discussion.
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.
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- Decide entry conditions0–1 minutes from the start (1 minute)
Action: Decide. Participation: Everyone.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
- Park issues1–5 minutes from the start (4 minutes)
Action: Park. Participation: Groups of 3–6.
Shared record
- Bring overlaps together5–7 minutes from the start (2 minutes)
Action: Bring together. Participation: Groups of 3–6.
Shared record
- Choose a disposition7–9 minutes from the start (2 minutes)
Action: Choose. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
- Read the exit arrangements9–10 minutes from the start (1 minute)
Action: Read. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
Facilitation steps
- For 1 minute, show the main topic to be handled now and the entry condition that urgent safety problems must not be held over.
- For 4 minutes, write issues not being handled now, one per card, add their relationship to the main topic, and place them at the group's entry point.
- For 2 minutes, each group brings cards about the same subject together, keeping different questions alongside rather than stacking them.
- For 2 minutes, move each card to one of three exits—owner, next meeting, or discard—and record an owner or a reason.
- For 1 minute, move only unresolved cards to the whole-group collection surface and read out to everyone when they will be checked.
If something changes
If
2 minutes after writing begins, the number of held cards is more than twice the participant count.
Then
Return cards whose relationship to the main topic cannot be stated in one sentence to the people who wrote them, and process only the rest.
If
1 minute after dispositions begin, at least 80% of all cards are at the discard exit.
Then
Read the reason for discarding each card, and return issues whose affected people are absent to the next-meeting exit.
Preparation
Materials
- 2 held-issue cards per person; naming the person who adds a card is optional
- One A3 three-exit sheet per group, plus one for whole-group collection
- 3 disposition labels per group: owner, next meeting, discard
- One writing implement per person
Room and setup
- Groups of 3–6, with a size difference of no more than 1 person
- One working table or wall surface per group for its three-exit sheet
- One whole-group collection surface for unresolved issues from the groups
Adjust for people and time
With 3–6 people, gather around one three-exit sheet. With 7–30, form groups of 3–6 with a size difference of no more than 1 person, placing one sheet and three disposition labels in each group. Transfer only unresolved cards to the single whole-group collection sheet. With 30 people, process five groups simultaneously; bundle cards with the same owner in order of earliest deadline.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Do not defer urgent safety problems or use the holding area to exclude dissent. Do not delete grouped issues without the stated disposition process. When affected people are absent, return issues marked for discard to the next-meeting exit.
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.
- The guide promises a disposition and deadline for held issues, and scaling sorts cards by deadline, but the timed steps explicitly record an owner or reason and a checking time only for unresolved cards. No deadline-entry step has been added.
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.
- Matt Takane: Parking Lot
https://openpracticelibrary.com/practice/parking-lot-car-park/
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.
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Credits on the checked source page
- Named contributors on the source page: Matt Takane
- Contributors listed in the official practice source (repository handles): @mtakane
Source page checked on 2026-10-17: Parking Lot (Car Park).
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.
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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.