Method guide · Work with a structured grid
Personal User Manuals
Let people describe their own conditions for collaboration and control what is shared, withdrawn, and updated.
- People
- 2–20
- Base procedure time
- 45 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Build working relationships; Explore through dialogue.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
A method in which each person writes their conditions for collaboration and decides what to share and when to update it. Use it when people guess one another's working preferences, ask for accommodation only after difficulty occurs, or feel pressure to discuss private life during introductions. Each person records conditions that help them concentrate, how they receive contact, signs that they need help, and responses they want to avoid. The person chooses which fields to share, and listeners obtain permission before asking questions. The outputs are manuals retained by their owners, support conditions that those owners have made public, and the next update time. It is not suitable for diagnosing medical information or personality, or fixing the manual as evidence for performance appraisal. Owners can withdraw or update it at any time.
Phase schedule
Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.
Use the arrow keys, Home or End while these controls have focus. The complete phase schedule remains below, including without JavaScript.
- Draw sharing boundaries0–5 minutes from the start (5 minutes)
Action: Draw. Participation: Everyone.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
- Write individually5–17 minutes from the start (12 minutes)
Action: Write. Participation: Individually.
Individual record
- Show voluntarily17–27 minutes from the start (10 minutes)
Action: Show. Participation: Groups of 2–4.
Shared record
- Exchange support27–37 minutes from the start (10 minutes)
Action: Exchange. Participation: Groups of 2–4.
Shared record
- Agree to update37–45 minutes from the start (8 minutes)
Action: Agree. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
Facilitation steps
- For 5 minutes, confirm that the manual belongs to its owner and that keeping it private, not answering, and withdrawing it later are options.
- For 6 minutes, each person writes one condition that helps them concentrate and one method by which they can readily receive contact.
- For 6 minutes, write one sign that help is needed, one desired form of support, and one response to avoid in separate fields.
- For 10 minutes, read only the fields marked may share within the group; listeners respond with just one question for which they have obtained permission.
- For 10 minutes, each person chooses one form of support they want others to try in the next collaboration and places it on the group support sheet.
- For 8 minutes, move only support that may be made public to the whole-group collection surface, and have the owner record when to update it.
If something changes
If
8 minutes after individual writing begins, at least half the people have 0 completed fields other than private fields.
Then
Choose just one of three areas—working environment, communication, or meetings—rather than private life, and write about it.
If
5 minutes after sharing begins, questions without permission have occurred 2 times within a group.
Then
Stop questions and copy just one line of the owner's text to the group support sheet without rephrasing it.
Preparation
Materials
- One personal manual per person, with public/private boundaries
- 3 sharing-confirmation cards per person: may share, check first, private
- One group support sheet per group, plus one for whole-group collection
- One writing implement per person
Room and setup
- Groups of 2–4, with a size difference of no more than 1 person
- One working table per group where people can talk without looking over one another's papers
- One whole-group collection surface holding only support that its owner has made public
Adjust for people and time
With 2–4 people, share voluntarily in one group. With 5–20, form groups of 2–4 with a size difference of no more than 1 person, providing one support sheet per group and confirmation cards for the number of people. Transfer only support whose owner has chosen to make it public to the single whole-group collection sheet. With 20 people, run five groups simultaneously; retain even the same support on separate lines, without bundling owners' names together.
Safety and non-applicable situations
The manual belongs to its owner. Allow privacy, non-response, withdrawal, and updates at any time; ask permission before questions and share only owner-approved fields and support. Do not use it to diagnose medical information or personality or as fixed performance-appraisal evidence.
Historical translation and source notes
These original notes are retained verbatim with their fixed source versions. This historical label does not resolve a source-specific concern or establish current acceptance.
- Materials specify three confirmation cards per person, while scaling says confirmation cards for the number of people without repeating that multiplier. Both formulations are preserved.
- The branch responding to unpermitted questions orders a line of the owner's text copied to the support sheet, but does not explicitly repeat the guide's owner-selected sharing condition. No new permission to copy private text has been inferred.
Manuscript's recorded references
These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.
- Aidan Cammies: Personal User Manuals
https://openpracticelibrary.com/practice/personal-user-manuals/
Adaptation under CC BY 4.0; changes made
- CC BY 4.0
Current-page licence notice
A Taiwa no Fumen adaptation based on the Open Practice Library practice identified below. The manuscript's recorded references and the source page checked for this notice are shown separately.
Changes: explanations, timings, instructions, materials and branches were edited for this site. The English edition translates that Japanese manuscript; it is not a verbatim translation of the original practice.
The checked source footer names CC BY 4.0 but links to CC BY-SA 4.0. The official site source code contains the same mismatch. This has not been confirmed with the rights holders. This notice does not change the terms of the original material.
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See the linked legal code for its no-warranty and other provisions.
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Credits on the checked source page
- Named contributors on the source page: Aidan Cammies
- Contributors listed in the official practice source (repository handles): @acammies
Source page checked on 2026-10-17: Personal User Manuals.
Source lineage
CC BY-SA 4.0 — this site's adaptation and translation contributions · Legal code · Official source policy
This material-specific notice does not itself establish publication clearance. Preserved manuscript references above remain separate from the current page's credits and licence evidence.
Diagram, print, and video language
Original Japanese guide, diagram, and print view. Their labels and print text have not been translated; an English print edition is not provided here.
English video-library navigation. Original Japanese audio, subtitles and transcripts remain labelled Japanese resources. Their translations are separate later work. No remote player is embedded here.
The manual English phase controls are a navigation aid, not a live facilitation timer. Interactive diagram motion remains pending.
Editorial provenance
Japanese source status and logs are provenance only. They do not mean this English text or interface was field-tested. Historical fixed-text acceptance and hold records remain specific to their recorded versions; displaying them neither asserts current acceptance nor resolves source-specific restrictions.