The Human Edge

Exercises

Eight exercises. Mostly your own work.

Copy the prompts from here and write your answers in the digital workbook; it saves in your browser and exports before you leave. If your own work is confidential, use a scenario card or a decision card instead.

Exercise Session Time
1 Your pass first Judge 25 min
2 Place it Judge 22 min
3 Brief it Brief 25 min
4 Upgrade and save Brief 25 min
5 RetailFlow: Karen needs answers Check 35 min
6 Decide like me Check 24 min
7 Plan one delivery Deliver 35 min
8 Your action plan Deliver 12 min

Can’t use your own work? Scenario cards for Exercises 3, 4 and 7 · Decision cards for Exercise 6. Both are at the bottom of this page.

Exercise 1 · Your pass first

25 min · solo, then tables

  1. Your pass first. Five minutes, no AI: sketch your own plan for the task below, in the workbook.
  2. Then AI’s. Paste the task, unedited, into an AI tool (two tools if you have them; the class chat has two, on course days).
  3. Compare side by side. Where did you beat it? Where did it beat you? What did it get confidently wrong?

I manage a team of 8 in a mid-sized company. One of my team, a strong performer for three years, has been late and missing deadlines for the past month. Others are starting to notice. Write me a plan to address this.

Exercise 2 · Place it

22 min · room, then solo

  1. Blind vote. The facilitator reads a scenario. Decide in silence, then vote on “three”: in ClassPulse (scan the code on screen), or by showing 1 to 4 fingers for corners A to D.
  2. Play the game at trusttool.borck.education. Choose your domain and place all ten cards.
  3. Place three tasks from your own week in the workbook. For each, note the check it needs. Swap with a neighbour: where do you disagree, and why?

Exercise 3 · Brief it

25 min · solo

  1. Pick a real task from your week: one of the three weekly tasks from Before the day. Use a scenario card only if your work is confidential. With a card, Round 1 uses just the short ask at the top; Round 2 adds what’s under “What you know”.
  2. Round 1: write the prompt the way you normally would. Run it. Score the output from 1 (unusable) to 5 (ready to use).
  3. Round 2: rewrite it with RTCF and run it in a fresh chat. Score it again.
  4. Note which part moved the score most.

ROLE: You are a … TASK: Write / summarise / compare … (how much?) CONTEXT: The audience is … The situation is … Good looks like … FORMAT: Length … Structure … Tone …

The prompt builder assembles the four parts for you.

Exercise 4 · Upgrade and save

25 min · solo

  1. Take your best Round 2 prompt from Exercise 3 (on your own task or a scenario card). Add one upgrade and run it: an example, a definition of done, questions first, or steps. Starting fresh? Pick a scenario card and write a quick RTCF prompt first.
  2. Push back with no new evidence: “I don’t think that’s right.” Does it fold or hold? Then try one of the three push-back moves:

GUARDRAIL: Only change your assessment if I give you a new fact. Name the fact that changed it. DEVIL’S ADVOCATE: Don’t flatter me. Give me three reasons this fails, and name the assumption it all rests on. BOARD: Respond as a board: a CFO, a sceptical customer and a frontline manager. One paragraph each, then where they disagree.

  1. Save three prompts to your library: a name, when to use it, the prompt with [blanks], and the check it needs. Use the workbook or the prompt builder.
  2. Stretch: the voice pass. Paste about 100 words you actually wrote (sanitised), then ask: “Rewrite your last output in my voice, leading with the one thing only I would say.” What changed? Optionally, ask it to summarise your style as a short brief and paste that into your tool’s custom instructions. Nothing you can paste? Write 100 words now, to a colleague, on why you came today. It’s your voice, and it’s safe. The full version is Write like me.

Exercise 5 · RetailFlow: Karen needs answers by Monday

35 min · solo or pairs, then blind vote

Karen manages customer service at RetailFlow, an online retailer. She has six months of ticket data and three questions:

  1. What are the top three drivers of customer dissatisfaction?
  2. When do our response times blow out?
  3. What should I do about it?

Download the data (CSV)

260 tickets, July to December 2024. Columns: ticket_id, date, day_of_week, month, category, channel, priority, agent, response_time_hours, resolution_time_hours, satisfaction_score (1 to 5), resolved.

  1. Frame. Write Karen’s questions down. Start a fresh chat.
  2. Explore. Upload the CSV (or paste it) and start with:

Describe this dataset: number of rows, columns, date range, and anything that looks incomplete. Don’t analyse it yet.

  1. Shape a first brief for Karen, under 300 words. Don’t send it yet.
  2. Verify. Three claims about the data are doing the rounds, and at least one is wrong. Check each against the data with a spreadsheet filter, recount or pivot table. Not “are you sure?”

Verdicts: Verified (accurate as stated), Overstated (right direction, wrong number), Refuted (the data contradicts it), or Can’t tell yet if you haven’t been able to check it. Is any of them in your brief? Fix it, and end the brief with a line that starts What I checked:

Your own data can’t go into a tool? Describe its shape instead and have the AI write the formulas, a short script, or a single web page that runs on your computer (prompt 14). Try it on the RetailFlow data first, where you now know the answers.

Bonus: Karen’s been sent a proposal. A supplier is offering to take over her weekend and email support. Download the Northbridge proposal. Read it yourself, then upload it to an AI tool and ask: “Summarise this proposal for Karen, including the cost and the risks. Should she sign?” Compare its answer with your own reading. What did it leave out? What’s going on

Exercise 6 · Decide like me

24 min · solo, then tables

Pick one decision you make over and over: small, repeatable, explainable, and nothing from the top-right corner of the trust tool. Get your rules out of your head, then test them blind on your own past calls. Method after Dylan Davis; the full method has its own page. If you followed Before the day, you’ve brought the decision and three past cases. If not, or if your work can’t go into an AI tool, take a decision card.

  1. Get the rules out. Talk the why through, or let it interview you:

Help me write down the rules I use for one decision: [the decision]. Question me one at a time, choosing each question from my last answer. Each time I say “it depends”, dig until it becomes an if-then rule. Stop after ten questions and list my rules, every branch included.

  1. Write down three past cases: the inputs only, and your call on each. Do this before you run anything.
  2. Test it blind. In a new chat, give it the rules and the three cases, inputs only. Have it make each call and name the rule it used.
  3. Fix one mismatch. A mismatch is a rule you’ve never put into words: a threshold you didn’t state, an exception you apply without noticing, or a loose preference the rules made strict. Add it as one if-then line, then re-test that case in a new chat.
  4. Last question: what would you never let it decide, and why? That list is the other half of the output.

Describe your past cases. Don’t paste anything confidential.

Exercise 7 · Plan one delivery

35 min · solo, then tables

You’re writing the plan you’ll judge in 30 days. The gate in step 4 is the test it has to pass, so set it now, before you’re invested.

  1. Map a quick win: a task you do weekly that takes 30 minutes or more, saves real time, and is cheap to check. Five to eight steps, with honest minutes for each. Note the owner, a success measure and today’s baseline.
  2. Assign each step: who leads (AI leads, AI assists, you lead, human only) and its trust corner.
  3. Design the checkpoints. Who checks each amber or red step, and how? Pick someone who knows what right looks like. Who is affected, who has to agree, and who will do the checking?
  4. Test one AI step live with an RTCF brief. Then set your 30-day gate: what result would make you scale, pivot or kill? Make each one a number you could check, for example “scale if it needs two edits or fewer; kill if a figure is wrong twice”. Scale, pivot or kill explains each.

The Map my workflow and Pre-mortem starter prompts help with steps 1 and 3.

Mapping your workflow needs no data, only step names and minutes. If the inputs for the live test can’t go into a tool, invent a few lines in the same shape (rule 2 from the morning: describe it, don’t paste it). Can’t use your own workflow at all? Plan scenario card 3 (the Friday status update) or scenario card 6 (monthly invoicing), and test with the notes on the card.

Exercise 8 · Your action plan

12 min · quiet, then pairs

One line each: a specific task, tool and day.

Before you leave, put this week’s line and your day-30 gate in your calendar.

Scenario cards

Use one of these in Exercises 3 and 4 if your own work is confidential, and keep the same card for both. Each card starts with the ask, the way most people would type it. Round 1: prompt with the ask only. Round 2: open “What you know” and put it into your Context with RTCF. In Exercise 4, try the Questions upgrade first (“Before you start, ask me up to five questions”) and see how much of “What you know” it asks for. Scenarios 3 and 6 also work as the workflow for Exercise 7.

Scenario 1

The difficult client email

The ask: “Write a reply to a client who says our latest deliverable is too generic.”

What you know (add it in Round 2)
  • The client is David Chen, VP Operations at GreenLeaf Industries.
  • The relationship is 18 months old and mostly positive.
  • The work is solid. His board changed priorities at a meeting you weren’t in.
  • You want to acknowledge his frustration without conceding the work is poor.
  • The goal is a one-hour alignment meeting, not a rewrite.
  • Under 200 words.

Scenario 2

The policy summary

The ask: “Turn our new flexible work policy into an email for my team.”

What you know (add it in Round 2)
  • The policy is 22 pages. Paste one if you have it, or ask the AI to invent a plausible one first.
  • The team is 12 people in marketing, and most won’t read the policy.
  • They care about: how many days from home, how to request changes, busy periods, and part-time rules.
  • Friendly and practical. Under 400 words.

Scenario 3

The Friday status update

The ask: “Write this week’s status update on our CRM migration.”

What you know (add it in Round 2)
  • Audience: the steering committee (CIO, sponsor, two business leads). They want no surprises.
  • Data batch 2 is done but 3 days late: 2,300 duplicate records, Sarah leading the review.
  • The vendor hasn’t confirmed training dates.
  • UAT is going well: 2 minor bugs.
  • $12K under budget. 68% complete against a 72% target.
  • Format: RAG status, wins, risks, next steps. Under 250 words.

Scenario 4

The interview questions

The ask: “Write interview questions for a marketing coordinator role.”

What you know (add it in Round 2)
  • Mid-level Digital Marketing Coordinator in a 5-person B2B team.
  • The job: social campaigns, Google Analytics and Meta Ads, agency coordination, monthly reports to leadership.
  • 45-minute panel with the Marketing Director.
  • HR’s generic questions won’t show whether they can do the job. You want behavioural and situational questions, with what a good answer sounds like.

Scenario 5

The logistics decision

The ask: “Should we renew our logistics provider?”

What you know (add it in Round 2)
  • Current provider: $1.8M a year, 96.2% on time (benchmark 97%), 2.1% damage (benchmark 1.5%), slow on volume spikes, just raised prices 8%.
  • Competitor: $1.65M a year, promises 97.5% on time.
  • In-house: $2.5M upfront, then $1.2M a year, 12 months to set up.
  • 15,000 orders a month, growing 20% a year.
  • This is a discussion starter for leadership, not the decision.

Scenario 6

The process document

The ask: “Write up how I do our monthly invoicing so someone else can do it.”

What you know (add it in Round 2)
  • You’re the only person who knows it, and you’re going on leave.
  • Export billable hours from Harvest, group by client in Excel, apply the rate card ($250 strategy, $180 execution, $120 support).
  • Create invoices in Xero, add PO numbers from the account managers’ Google Sheet, send them, update the tracker.
  • Email Finance a summary with anything unusual.
  • Written so a colleague can follow it step by step.

Decision cards

For Exercise 6, if you didn’t bring a decision or your work can’t go into an AI tool. The people and figures are invented, so everything here is safe to paste.

Each card hands you someone else’s decision. You’re taking it over from the person who made it, and their record is below.

  1. Read the record. Then write your own call on test cases A to C before you run anything.
  2. Get the rules out. Mine the record with prompt 23, or say the rules you’d use if the job were yours.
  3. Test it blind. In a new chat, give it the rules and the three test cases (prompt 24).
  4. Open the answer key. Compare its calls, your calls and the record-holder’s. One test case turns on a rule they never wrote down.

Decision card 1

RetailFlow: does this ticket go to a senior agent?

Priya leads Karen’s customer service team. Each morning she sends some open tickets to one of the two senior agents and leaves the rest in the general queue.

# Category Channel Amount Waiting Note Priya’s call
1 Returns & Refunds Email $340 6 h First contact Senior agent
2 Order Tracking Live Chat $45 2 h Customer marked it High priority General queue
3 Delivery Problems Phone $120 30 h First contact Senior agent
4 Billing Queries Email $80 5 h Second contact about the same charge Senior agent
5 Returns & Refunds Live Chat $150 3 h First contact General queue
6 Delivery Problems Email $95 10 h First contact General queue

Test cases, inputs only

Category Channel Amount Waiting Note
A Returns & Refunds Phone $380 4 h First contact
B Order Tracking Email $30 8 h Customer marked it High priority
C Delivery Problems Social Media $90 3 h Public post, 40 replies so far
Answer key: Priya’s calls
  • A · Senior agent. Refunds over $200 go to a senior agent.
  • B · General queue. Priya ignores the priority customers set themselves; it’s on almost every ticket.
  • C · Senior agent. Anything public on social media goes to a senior agent the same morning. It isn’t in the record because it only happens a few times a year. That’s an unstated exception.

Her other rules: anything waiting over 24 hours, and any second contact about the same issue, goes to a senior agent.

Decision card 2

Expense claims: approve, or query first?

Sam manages a small operations team and approves their expense claims. Most go straight through. Some get a query first.

# Claim Amount Receipt Age Sam’s call
1 Taxi to a client site $38 Yes 5 days Approve
2 Team lunch, 4 people $300 ($75 each) Yes 10 days Approve
3 Parking $55 No 3 days Query
4 Dinner with a client, 2 people $190 ($95 each) Yes 7 days Query
5 Train fare $24 No 2 days Approve
6 Conference registration $420 Yes 6 days Approve
7 Taxi home after a late event $32 Yes 75 days Query

Test cases, inputs only

Claim Amount Receipt Age
A Coffee with a supplier, 2 people $14 No 4 days
B Dinner after a site visit, 3 people $330 ($110 each) Yes 12 days
C Laptop stand and keyboard $640 Yes 9 days
Answer key: Sam’s calls
  • A · Approve. No receipt is fine under $50.
  • B · Query. Meals over $80 a head get a query.
  • C · Query. Sam queries anything over $500, receipt or not, because equipment that size should go through IT purchasing. Nothing in the record was over $500, so the rule never showed. That’s a threshold never put into words.

Sam’s other rule: claims more than 60 days old get a query.

Decision card 3

Meeting requests: accept, ask for an agenda, or send a delegate?

Jo runs a team of nine and gets several meeting requests a day.

# Request Length Jo is Agenda Jo’s call
1 Weekly 1:1 with someone in Jo’s team 30 min Required None Accept
2 Product demo from a vendor’s sales rep 60 min Required None Ask for an agenda
3 Quarterly planning 2 hours Optional Attached Send a delegate
4 Budget review with Jo’s manager 45 min Required Attached Accept
5 Cross-team workshop 90 min Required Attached Accept
6 “Quick sync” from a peer in finance 45 min Required None Ask for an agenda

Test cases, inputs only

Request Length Jo is Agenda
A Follow-up from the same vendor 30 min Required None
B All-hands rehearsal 2 hours Optional Attached
C “Quick question on the contract” from a peer in legal 15 min Required None
Answer key: Jo’s calls
  • A · Ask for an agenda. No agenda means Jo asks for one, unless it’s her own team or her manager.
  • B · Send a delegate. Long meetings where she’s optional get a delegate.
  • C · Accept. Jo holds the agenda rule loosely: for anything 15 minutes or shorter she just accepts. The rules made it strict. That’s a loose rule applied strictly.