Facilitator Manual

How to run a CEO Hats strategy session

1. Preparation & Setup

Physical Assets

Standard square Post-it notes (different color for each team).
Black Sharpies or heavy felt-tip markers.
Empty walls, windows, or boards labeled with columns.

Digital Assets

A facilitator account on CEO Hats.
A central screen or projector to display the live monitor.
Good internet connections for players' smartphones.

2. The Workshop Flow

Form Teams: Divide the workshop participants into small breakout groups (3-5 people per group). Give each group a stack of Post-its.

Start Session: The facilitator goes to the Dashboard, selects a card deck, and clicks ⚡ Start Live Session. Project the Live Monitor page on the main room screen.

Rush & Claim: Groups scan the QR code on the projector. They type in their team name, scroll/swipe through the available CEOs, and tap Claim CEO.

Note: Only one team can claim a CEO. Once claimed, that CEO card locks out for everyone else in real-time, forcing other teams to pick a different style.

Provocation Storming: Teams flip their claimed card to view their three business model provocations. They spend 10-15 minutes brainstorming ideas applying that specific CEO's style to their company problem.

Harvesting: Teams write their best ideas on physical Post-its and stick them to the wall. The facilitator leads a physical review of the divergent ideas generated.

3. AI-Assisted Card Generation

If the starting set of 8 CEOs doesn't fit your client's industry, you can generate custom decks using ChatGPT or Claude. Copy the template below, replace the bracketed context, and paste it into the LLM.

Master Prompt Template

You are an expert workshop facilitator. I am running a strategy session for [INSERT CLIENT/INDUSTRY CONTEXT HERE].

I need you to generate a CSV file containing 8 Celebrity CEOs. For each CEO, rewrite 'specific_prov_1' and 'specific_prov_2' so they apply the CEO's unique management style directly to my client's specific industry context and challenges.

The CSV MUST have the following exact headers: id,name,company,archetype,background,style_bullets,specific_prov_1,specific_prov_2,specific_prov_3,image_filename

Make sure style_bullets uses | to separate bullets. Do not put markdown styling outside the code block. Output only the raw CSV block.

CEOs to generate:
1. Steve Jobs (Apple) - The Visionary Dictator
2. Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia) - The Purpose-Driven Rebel
3. Satya Nadella (Microsoft) - The Empathetic Transformer
4. Melanie Perkins (Canva) - The Democratizer
5. Mary Barra (General Motors) - The Crisis Manager
6. Reed Hastings (Netflix) - The Radical Candor Champion
7. Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo) - The Design-Thinking Strategist
8. Richard Branson (Virgin) - The Maverick Delegator

Save the AI's output as a .csv file, then go to your dashboard and upload it directly to your custom deck.

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