Method guide · Progress through phases
Question Baton
Make questions more concrete through successive handoffs without proposing answers.
- People
- 4–24
- Base procedure time
- 20 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Generate ideas; Explore through dialogue.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
A conversation for passing on only questions, making them concrete without answering them. Use it when an agenda is too broad, the organiser’s conclusion is embedded in the initial question, or fast speakers determine the issues. Pass a question written by one person to a neighbour, who adds just one element: subject, situation, deadline, or decision condition. Taking questions through two rounds turns a privately owned issue into a focus people can examine together. Keep the unpassed card as an individual reserve question and consider it alongside the circulated questions. The result is a next question selected from circulated and reserve questions. Do not use it for urgent judgement or matters that can be settled through fact-checking alone.
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.
- Define the theme0–2 minutes from the start (2 minutes)
Action: Define. Participation: Everyone.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
- Write seed questions2–5 minutes from the start (3 minutes)
Action: Write. Participation: 1 person.
Individual record
- Add a condition5–10 minutes from the start (5 minutes)
Action: Add. Participation: Groups of 3–6.
Shared record
- Narrow the focus10–15 minutes from the start (5 minutes)
Action: Narrow. Participation: Groups of 3–6.
Shared record
- Choose a question15–20 minutes from the start (5 minutes)
Action: Choose. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
Facilitation steps
- For 2 minutes, tell everyone the theme and how many questions will be chosen by the end. Leave proposed answers for later.
- For 3 minutes, each person writes one seed question on each of 2 cards, passes one to the person on their right, and keeps the other as a reserve.
- For 3 minutes, add just one subject, situation, deadline, or decision condition to the question received.
- For 2 minutes, pass the question one person further and add only one condition that does not duplicate the previous addition.
- For 3 minutes, each group reads circulated and unpassed reserve questions, marking leading words and multiple issues with lines.
- For 2 minutes, rewrite circulated questions to give each one a single focus, then display the reserve questions alongside them as unedited alternatives.
- For 5 minutes, compare how concrete the circulated and reserve questions are and choose one per group for the next conversation.
If something changes
If
Two minutes into seed-question writing, at least one third of all cards are blank.
Then
Add “For whom, and in what situation?” to the theme and invite one sentence about the difference people want to understand, not an answer.
If
In the first round, at least half the questions in each group end by asking what should be done.
Then
Change the ending to “What would we need to know to decide?” and add just one condition about the information needed.
If
Two minutes into selection, each group still has 3 or more candidate questions.
Then
Keep only questions for which participants can supply material within the next 60 minutes and narrow them to one per group.
Preparation
Materials
- 2 question cards per person, approximately A6 size
- One dark-coloured pen per person
- One large sheet of paper or whiteboard for display
- One roll of tape per group
Room and setup
- One island table per group of 3–6 seated in a circle; 1–4 tables within the supported participant range
- One whole-group display surface with room for at least 5 questions from each group
Adjust for people and time
With fewer than 4 people, use an individual version in which one person revises their own question twice. With 4–24, divide participants evenly into 1–4 groups of 3–6, with no group above 6, and run two rounds. Above 24, form groups of 3–6 and display only one question per group. Do not select a single whole-group question. The facilitator bundles questions about the same subject and passes each bundle to the next conversation unit.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Keep proposed answers separate from the question-building process and mark leading wording. Retain unedited reserve questions as alternatives. Do not use this method for urgent judgement or matters settled by fact-checking alone.
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 source calls the process two rounds, while its steps specify two successive handoffs. It does not require every participant to edit every question; this draft does not add a full-circle circulation rule.
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.
- Taiwa no Fumen editorial team: Question Baton
Original description and illustrations
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.