Worked example
The wrong pallet
Every prompt in this guide is easier to answer once you have seen someone answer it badly and then better. What follows is one real-shaped story, a warehouse near-miss, taken through all eight tabs, showing what actually gets written at each stop.
The story is used in a supervisor course, in a session about speaking up to someone senior to you.
The moment, written badly and quickly
What happened? One moment, one day, one place.
A Thursday in March, loading bay two. A pallet came off the truck with the wrap already split. Danny, who had run that bay for nineteen years, waved it through. I was three weeks in. I said nothing. Two hours later it dropped a corner in the racking aisle and missed a picker by about a metre.
Note what is not here: no lesson, no moral, no “and that taught me…”. Just the moment, with a day, a place and two named people.
What the story is for
In one line: what should be different in the room after this story?
I want new supervisors to feel the cost of the two seconds where you decide not to say anything to someone more experienced than you.
Not: “safety matters.” Not: “always speak up.” The specific two seconds.
If the intent line needs an “and”, it is two stories. Cut it to one.
Laying the events out in order
Key event, then the events leading to it, then the consequences.
Key event: I see the split wrap and say nothing.
Leading 1: Danny waves the pallet through.
Leading 2: It is my third week; I have already been told twice I ask too many questions.
Consequence 1: The load drops in the racking aisle.
Consequence 2: I report it, and Danny never mentions it again, which is worse.
Mapping showed the real key event was not the drop. It was the silence.
The story spine
Normal → disruption → consequences → resolution → new normal.
Normal: Three weeks in, keeping my head down, learning who runs what.
Disruption: A split wrap goes past me and the man who waved it through has done this for nineteen years.
Consequences: I say nothing. Two hours later a metre is all that is between a picker and a dropped corner.
Resolution: I report it myself, badly, to the shift manager.
New normal: Now I say the thing in the bay, out loud, while there is still a truck in front of me.
Scoring it honestly
Connection, change, relevance, entertainment, performance, 0 to 3 each.
Connection 3, everyone has been the new person.
Change 3, the narrator is different at the end.
Relevance 3, the session is about speaking up.
Entertainment 2, the middle sags where I explain the racking layout.
Performance 1, I rush the silence, which is the whole story.
Total 12 of 15. The fix is the lowest number, not the whole story: slow the silence down.
Always work the lowest score first. Rewriting a 3 is procrastination.
Handing it to the room
What do you ask after the last line?
“When was your two seconds?”
Then nothing. Count to seven. Someone always goes first.
What I used to do: explain that the learning point was psychological safety. That ended the conversation before it started.
Saying it out loud
What changes between the page and the room?
Opening line, fixed: “Third week. Loading bay two.” No preamble, no “so I want to tell you about a time…”.
The pause goes after “I said nothing.” Three full beats. It feels unbearable and it is exactly right.
Cut the racking layout entirely, nobody needs the floor plan.
Runs two minutes ten.
Keeping it
How will you find this story again in eight months?
Filed as: “The wrong pallet, speaking up to experience, supervisor course.”
Tagged with the two seconds, because that is the phrase I will search for.
Noted: works badly with senior leaders in the room; they hear it as a complaint about Danny.
Now do it with yours
Start a story, then work the same eight tabs with your own moment. It takes about an hour the first time and twenty minutes after that.