Personal operating manual template
Exec coach Alisa Cohn circulated a 'personal operating manual' template that codifies communication cadence, feedback style, decision roles, and how you like to be worked with — a tool to eliminate guesswork and speed alignment. Making this visible to peers and managers is pitched as a trust accelerator for leaders. (x.com)
Alisa Cohn distributes a downloadable “Personal Operating Manual” PDF from her website and delivers the file via email after newsletter signup (alisacohn.com). (alisacohn.com) In a March 4, 2023 Inc. column she outlined a meeting flow — leaders model first, each person takes roughly 10 minutes to share highlights, and facilitators set safety rules — as the tactical sequence for running a POM session (inc.com). (inc.com) Future Forum publishes a 5‑page Personal Operating Manual template that includes brainstorm checklists (work-style descriptors, catchphrases, values) and step prompts for “My Work Style” and “My Values,” presented as a fillable handout for team workshops (futureforum.com). (futureforum.com) Slack’s Workforce Lab found in a survey of 455 desk workers across Canada and the U.S. that only 5% had used written guides to get to know colleagues, yet Slack reports that many who try POMs become advocates and publishes a template that lists concrete prompts like preferred contact mode and video on/off (slack.com). (slack.com) Atlassian’s Team Playbook lists a “My User Manual” play with prep time 30 minutes, run time 90 minutes, and recommended party size 3–10 people, positioning the exercise as an onboarding/offsite ritual (atlassian.com). (atlassian.com) Multiple practitioner repositories and templates used by engineering teams — including a GitHub Personal User Manual template and Reforge artifacts — recommend leaders complete their manuals first and treat the document as living onboarding material for new hires ( ). (github.com)
