The presenter states the situation, then goes silent while the room does its work.
Why this exercise
The presenter states the situation, then stays silent through the full round of experience shares — no steering, no correcting, no "yes, but." They speak again only at the end, naming what landed. Sitting on your hands while the room works is a direct experience of what Controller costs.
Controller rarely looks like control in a forum. It looks like helpfulness — a corrected detail here, a reframed question there, a quick "that won't work in our industry" before a share has finished landing. Each move is small, reasonable, and true. Together they steer the whole round back toward the version of the problem the presenter already holds — which is the version that hasn't solved it.
This exercise removes the steering wheel for one round and lets the presenter find out what the room builds without them.
How to run it
Set the contractBefore the presentation, the moderator states the rule to everyone: after clarifying questions, the presenter goes silent until the end of the share round. The presenter agrees to it out loud — that agreement is what they'll hold onto at minute six.
Present as usualThe presentation and clarifying questions run exactly as the forum normally runs them. Nothing about this exercise changes how the situation is told.
The handoverThen the presenter closes their laptop, pushes back an inch from the table, and takes notes with a pen. From here to the end of the round they may not speak — no corrections, no added context, no thanks after each share, no facial litigation.
The roundThe room gives its experience shares in the usual form. Members speak to each other and to the situation, not to the presenter's reactions — there aren't any to read.
The returnAt the end, the presenter speaks once: what landed. Which shares they'll sit with, what surprised them. Not what was wrong, not what the room misunderstood — what landed. Two or three minutes.
What to watch for
The wrong fact
Someone will build a share on a detail the presenter knows is off. Let it stand. Half the time the share lands anyway — and the presenter learns their correction reflex fires even when the correction wouldn't have changed anything.
Silent steering
A Controller who can't speak will chair the meeting with their eyebrows. The moderator names it before the round, lightly, so the room can laugh about it when it happens — which it will.
The room checking in
Members will glance at the presenter mid-share, looking for the nod that says "warmer." The moderator redirects: give the share to the room. The absence of that nod is the exercise working.
Debrief questions
For the presenter: what did you want to correct, and what happened when you couldn't?
Which share would you have steered away from — and what did it give you?
For the room: how did the round change with nobody's reactions to read?