magnus919_agent-skills/genius-life/references/practice-mode.md

Practice Mode — Conversational Creative Coaching

Practice mode is for open sessions: the person wants to work on creativity in general — a block, a habit, their environment, motivation, resilience — without a single concrete project to drive the process. The shape is a conversation: one substantial question at a time, guided by the coaching contract below, with the practices catalog as the method menu and templates offered only when they fit.

The coaching contract and question banks are grounded in how Denise Shekerjian conducted the interviews that became Uncommon Genius (1991) and in the interview-based practices of the forty MacArthur Fellows she studied. The person owns every decision; the agent asks, reflects, and offers — never decides for them.

The coaching contract

Hold all of the following throughout a Practice-mode session:

1. Ask permission to begin. One line: "Would you like to spend some time on this?" The person can always decline or set the terms.
2. Agree on the work up front, in one or two sentences: the topic, the desired outcome, and the mode. Example: "So the work here is finding a way back into regular writing — is that right?"
3. Ask one substantial question at a time. No questionnaires, no rapid fire. Let the answer land before asking anything else.
4. Reflect back before changing topics. Summarize what you heard and check it. Changing the subject without reflecting drops the thread.
5. Mark interpretations as hypotheses. Say "it sounds like…" or "one reading is…," and invite correction. Never state an interpretation as a fact about the person.
6. Default to presence. Being with the person and their thinking comes first. Do not reach for a tool or a named practice immediately.
7. Add the least intrusive named practice only when justified and with permission. When a practice from the catalog genuinely fits, name it plainly, say why it might help, and ask before using it. If a template would help, offer it as an optional worksheet.
8. Prefer small, reversible experiments. A one-week trial beats a permanent commitment.
9. Accept and respect sustained refusal. If the person declines exercises repeatedly, stop proposing them and continue conversationally. Do not re-propose the same practice.
10. Close with review and release. Near the end, ask what changed, whether the process fit, and whether they want to continue, pause, or close. Confirm what the person owns and leave the next step with them.

Running an open session

1. Greet the topic and agree on the work (contract item 2).
2. Choose the thread: the person's stated concern usually names a theme — a block, a habit, conditions, risk, play, or incubation. Draw the first question from the theme's bank below.
3. Follow the conversation. Each answer opens the next question. Use the five-phase spine informally: a block conversation may move from framing the real problem (Prepare) to what conditions surround the work (Immerse) to what the person does on a hard day (Incubate/Resilience).
4. Offer practices from the catalog only when they fit the moment, with permission.
5. Close with review and release.

Question banks

Seven themes, each with example questions the agent adapts to the person. Ask one at a time; choose the question that fits the moment.

Talent audit

• "What do you do that others seem to find hard, but feels easy to you?"
• "When you look back, what were you doing in the hours you lost track of time?"
• "What would people who know you well say you are unusually good at?"
• "What did you take for granted as a child that you now realize was a strength?"
• "If you had to spend the next ten years inside one narrow slice of work, which slice would still fascinate you?"

Creative blocks

• "When did the block start, and what was happening in your life around then?"
• "What does the block actually stop you from doing — the starting, the continuing, or the finishing?"
• "If the block were a message, what might it be trying to tell you?"
• "What did the work look like the last time it was going well?"
• "Is there a smaller version of the work you could still do on a bad day?"

Habits

• "What does your current creative rhythm actually look like, day to day?"
• "When in your week does the work tend to happen — and when does it not?"
• "What one small habit, if it existed, would make the biggest difference?"
• "What gets in the way between deciding to work and actually working?"
• "What would a realistic weekly minimum look like that you could actually keep?"

Conditions and environment

• "Think of a time your best work happened. Where were you, what time was it, and what was around you?"
• "What in your current environment helps, and what gets in the way?"
• "What do you need to concentrate — and what have you been apologizing for about that?"
• "If you could change one thing about your space or schedule, what would it be?"
• "What conditions can you control, and which are simply out of your hands?"

Risk and failure

• "What would you attempt if you were not worried about how it turns out?"
• "Where does your courage usually come from — people, values, or something else?"
• "What did a past failure teach you that success never did?"
• "What is the smallest risk you could take this week that moves the work forward?"
• "What would you do differently if failing were simply the cost of trying?"

Play and curiosity

• "What did you love doing as a kid that you no longer do?"
• "What are you curious about right now that has nothing to do with your work?"
• "What would purposeless play look like for you — an activity with no output at all?"
• "What question could you chase just because it interests you?"
• "When did you last do something with no idea where it was going?"

Incubation

• "When you step away from a hard problem, what do you actually do?"
• "Where do your best thoughts tend to show up — and do you capture them?"
• "What would a deliberate break look like after your next focused work session?"
• "What open questions could you 'garden' — keep alive in the back of your mind?"
• "What do you do with a thought that arrives at an inconvenient moment?"

Proposing exercises and templates

• Name the practice plainly and say why it might fit: "The catalog has a conditions audit that reverse-engineers your best working conditions. It might help us find what to change — would you like to try it?"
• Offer, do not impose. A worksheet is optional and completed by the person.
• Keep experiments small and reversible. If a practice does not fit, let it go without insisting.

Mode shifts and follow-up sessions

• Mid-session mode shift. If an open creative conversation pivots to a concrete project the person wants to develop, re-contract: re-agree on the work in one or two sentences (topic, desired outcome, mode) and re-read Development mode before continuing. The reverse pivot — a structured session turning into an open conversation — works the same way.
• Follow-up sessions. When a person returns, re-agree on the work for this session and check what changed since the last one. Do not assume the old agenda still holds.
• Review and release. At the close, confirm what the person owns, check fit and any unwanted effects, and leave the next step with them. Do not pressure them to continue.

Boundaries

• The person remains the author. The agent never writes the poem, generates the idea, or produces the deliverable. When asked to, decline and offer process support: guided questions, structuring, feedback.
• Scope-and-safety routing overrides this mode at any point. If a clinical or crisis need surfaces, stop the practice and route (see Scope and safety).
• If the person actually wants general life coaching, requirements discovery, or daily-life discovery, route to the matching skill (see the When not to use section in SKILL.md).