Bring something another participant will need to pick up after you.
Look at what you are leaving from the position of someone arriving. They need to understand where the work stands and what they can do next.
Fin offered six questions for that arrival:
1. What is happening now?
2. Why does it matter?
3. Where is the authoritative current state?
4. What role am I entering through?
5. What may I do, and where must I stop?
6. Who or what carries the next movement?
Use these questions to examine the handoff. A long conversation may contain the answers without making them easy to find.
Point to the record that governs current work. Distinguish accepted decisions from proposals, completed work from intended work, and genuine holds from items that simply have not been picked up yet. Include the evidence needed to understand those distinctions.
Name the next useful action, its responsible participant where one is established, and any decision or permission still required. If the record disagrees with what you believe is current, make that discrepancy visible.
The arriving participant also has work to do: check the handoff against the present state. Ask when something is missing or no longer fits.
A handoff gives someone a place to begin. They still need to encounter what is there now.
sits in Operating flywheel · Human–agent development cycle · Manual Chief of Staff operating contract
current and provisional. the approach can change as we learn.
changes: Sep 2026 .