Qualities of a Well-Designed Prompt

Social technology

A well-designed prompt is a piece of social technology — in other words, it is a systemic use of knowledge to achieve practical goals or to affect change in group environments in reproducible, measurable ways. For Arts for Social Cohesion, a prompt’s purpose is generally to invite stories that connect. However small, these are stories that are real, true, and personal; stories that offer windows into what brings the teller to be who they are, see what they see, know what they know, and choose what they choose. Such stories help tunnel beneath surface positions, through interests, and into deeper needs and values, often shared and more relatable. Especially at this level, the curiosity to understand experiences and circumstances underlying someone’s perspectives and choices requires neither agreement nor equivalence. Such stories help us “human” each other: Being moved by a person’s story elevates shared identities above differences and increases empathy.

It is important to note that even the most effective prompt does not work alone: It requires structures — emotional, social, physical — that scaffold participants’ psychological safety, generous listening, agency, curiosity, ease of participation and emotional connection.

These qualities guide prompt design across Arts SoCo’s cohesion processes — for example, Ten Toasts Dinners or Listening Labs.

1. An Invitation Too Good to Pass Up

A well-designed prompt should make you want to participate because it taps something that is alive and real for the teller.

At its best, a prompt works like removing a small plug from a dam: a seemingly small effort that allows what's already happening to flow naturally forth. Whatever is alive — joy, grief, wonder, fears, needs (e.g. to matter, for dignity, agency), love, shame — when the plug is pulled, it gushes through.

The energy might be delight, catharsis, urgency, or simple recognition: This matters to you, and others are listening.

2. Invites Lived Experience

A well-designed prompt invites something a person has lived. Generally, our aim is to resist the natural inclination towards intellectual abstraction, pontification, or moralizing. We start with lived experience. So, for example, a prompt might begin with “Tell us about a time when…” or “Tell us about an experience…” rather than “What do you think about…” or even “What does _____ mean to you?”

We start at street level, then work our way up to meaning.

3. Moves From Street Level to Meaning to Shared Value

A well-designed prompt moves participants through an arc from street level — the personal/idiosyncratic — to meaning and value, which are more general/collective.

     First, tell us what happened. Specific time, specific place, specific person, specific experience. Something you have lived, something that is true and that has happened to you.

     Then, briefly, tell us what it means to you now. How did it change you? What do you take away from it?

     Then, a shared value your story embodies. A value that others can relate to, even if they don’t prioritize it the way you might. You may have had an experience that only you have lived, but the value is something that is relatable and connective. So, for example, at a Ten Toasts Dinner, the toast would be to a value (which many can share), not a person (who is singular and with whom one may or may not have relationship) or even a specific experience (again, singular — am I excluded if I have NOT been through that?)

4. Playable at Various Depths

A well-designed prompt makes it easy to participate at whatever depth level feels right. If a participant wants to dip their toes in the shallow end of the pool, that’s great. If a participant wants to dive into the deep end, that’s also great.

There are many reasons a person may stay at the shallow end — time, embodied presence, perceived psychological safety, where they are that day. This is fine. The prompt works at various depths. Start where you want.

This also means the prompt is open to vicarious experience. It is OK to tell a story about someone you know — someone whose experience has meaning in your own life. Sometimes it’s easier to think about others and draw from their experience into one’s own. Sometimes others play such a major role that their experience is where the story naturally begins.

5. Clear and Concise — Every Word in Service

Each word in a prompt is in service of the invitation. There should be nothing extraneous. A prompt should be as short as possible and balance specificity with “optimum, desirable openness.” Clarity, brevity and accessibility for intended audience are required. Short prompts often require more work than rambling, longer ones — and they often get better results.

6. Invisible in Service of What It Releases

A good prompt should embody high regard for participants and their experience — implicitly honoring the dignity and agency of a complex, multifaceted person. However, it should avoid calling too much attention to itself, e.g., lack of clarity, convolution, big (or, worse, wise)-sounding words devoid of specificity, etc. An effective prompt focuses attention on participants’ lived experience: the water gushing through the opening, not a shiny plug in the dam or the effort of removing it.

7. Embodies Theme; Theme Embodies Purpose

A prompt should clearly relate to and embody the theme. And the theme itself should clearly relate to and embody the purpose or the need that is in the room.

Some prompts apply across situations, groups, themes and purposes because they touch on experiences core to most people’s lives (e.g., we’ve all been shaped by someone in our lives, etc). Other prompts are more bespoke, designed for specific groups of people, at specific times.

Whatever the case, there is a chain: the need that exists in the room shapes the purpose, the purpose shapes the prompt. A well-designed prompt is in direct relationship with the reasons people gather and what matters to them.

8. Well-Tested

Just as it is common-sense practice to test a piece of mechanical technology before public launch, so too do we feel it is important to vet the social technology of prompts. At Arts for Social Cohesion, it is common for us to test prompt iterations with 5-7+ testers, beyond our selves. We look for indications of issues with the qualities above. Where might a prospective storyteller get lost or stumped? What feels confusing? How compelling is the invitation into story? Happily, testing prompts is also often fun: the better the prompt works, the more likely one is to get a story, often a story we as listeners may not have known. This, in turn, coaxes curiosity — and an opportunity for connection.