A story track · bring data to play it
Post-survey leadership readout
The Survey Readout
From participation to the one focus area — without drowning the room in items. This is the track — the ordered card-slots this story needs, laid out as a hypothesis before any data exists. Bring data and the engine confirms each slot, or hands the story off down a branch.
the story · before any data
the hero
An executive sponsor holding a fresh survey and a skeptical room — wants to turn sixty items into one commitment people will feel.
the villain
The buffet — readouts that present everything and change nothing
the problem, felt at three levels
- External · Scores, benchmarks, and comments pull in forty directions; last year's readout produced a poster, not a change.
- Internal · The dread that asking people's opinion and doing nothing visible is worse than not asking.
- Philosophical · If you ask people to speak, you owe them one thing that visibly changes.
the plan
- 1License the read (participation vs norm)
- 2See the few things that moved and who's struggling
- 3Choose ONE focus and cascade it
if nothing changes
Choose everything and you choose nothing: next year's scores ask why nothing changed — with lower participation.
success
One named focus, one owner, a cascade people actually see.
From a company that surveys its people — to one its people believe listens.
the screenplay · the sequence of scenes it needs
Act I — The World
can we trust this read?THE REASSURANCE
participation vs norm
Did enough people answer?
fills with
the handle · License the read.
Act II — The Forces
strengths, gaps, movers, splits— BUT —
THE HIDDEN SPLIT
items vs benchmark
Where do we beat/trail the benchmark?
fills with
or any card of form: one_apart_low
the handle · Name the 3 up, 3 down.
— AND —
THE ALARM
biggest movers
What moved since last wave?
fills with
a computed step (calculator / decision) — not a single card
or any card of form: rising · falling
the handle · Movers outrank levels.
— UNDERNEATH —
THE HIDDEN SPLIT
the tail
Is a group quietly struggling under the average?
fills with
the handle · The tail is the story.
Act III — The Choice
the one focus— SO —
THE BET
driver-ranked focus pick (T2 when bound)
Which single focus moves the most?
fills with
a computed step (calculator / decision) — not a single card
the handle · Choose ONE; companies that pick one succeed.
the resolution · what this story exists to produce
One named focus area, one owner, the cascade plan — chosen over the buffet.
What next? What else?
More certainty is priced, not promised — the next steps, each a known cost against the decision:
- ↗ sub-unit cascades
- ↗ driver analysis (T2)
- ↗ pulse in 90 days
what it needs to be told
told differently by altitude
exec · manager · analyst variants forthcoming
provenance · Cityblock 2022 Cityfolx readout (replayed) — this story, hand-made
The driving question: What did our people tell us — and what's the ONE thing we act on?
One story from the database — assembled from the shared deck of scenes. Browse the stories · browse the deck · bring your own data.