Who, What, When

Who, What, When

What is the Who, What, When workshop tactic?

This workshop tactic is great for ensuring you leave your meeting with a clear plan of goals and deadlines.

Don’t you just love meetings? Of course you don’t, but they don’t have to be a waste of time. One of the most important things you can do is leave the room knowing who’s committing to what, and by when. Using this neat tactic to encourage the group to define their own actions and deadlines is the meeting cheat-code you need.


Who What When Miro Template


How to use the Who, What, When tactic in your workshop

1. Draw three columns on a large surface, preferably a whiteboard. From left to right, write 'Who', 'What' and 'When' at the top of each column.

Who, What, When

2. Starting with the 'Who' column, write down the participants who will be taking an action.

3. Ask each participant what actual steps they can commit to. Write these in the 'What' column.

Fun fact: people are more likely to commit to actions when they are declared in front of a group.

4. For each row, ask that person for a time and date they will have that item done by, and write it in its respective row. 'Next week' is too vague, and doesn’t create concrete commitment.

5. At this point, there might be a lot to do. Encourage those who have not contributed so far to either come up with an action, or assist another person.

Origin: Dave Grey & Mike Berman

Not sure if this is the right approach for your team at the moment? Try a different decision-making tactic. Once you know which direction your team should take, use a discussion tactic to help facilitate your team’s progress together.

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Who, What, When is one of 54 workshop recipe cards inside the Workshop Tactics card deck.

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