Playbook

Weekly prompts that actually work

A good weekly prompt is half the work of hosting. A bad one is why most circles slowly go quiet. The difference between the two is smaller than you'd think.

What makes a prompt work

• It asks for something specific that happened this week. Not "what do you think about X" — "what did you try, and what happened?"
• It's answerable in 3–5 sentences. If it needs a blog post, members won't reply.
• It has stakes. The answer should reveal something — a decision, a doubt, a stuck point.
• It builds on last week. A circle is a series, not a set of one-offs.

Templates that travel

• "What's the one thing you avoided this week, and why?"
• "Where did you change your mind in the last seven days?"
• "What would you do differently if you had to start this week over?"
• "What's a decision you're sitting on that you wish someone would help you make?"

Prompts that quietly kill circles

• "Introduce yourself!" — week after week.
• "What are your goals for Q3?" — too big, too abstract.
• "Share a win!" — turns into a humblebrag thread.
• "Any questions?" — invites silence.

The host's job around the prompt

Post first. Reply to every answer in the first 24 hours. Ask one follow-up question per member. At the end of the week, write a short synthesis — what the room noticed together. That's the moment a circle stops being a thread and starts being a room.