The 10-Week
Program.
This is the version that changes how a group actually operates, and the reason is simple. There is a week of real life between every session. People try something, it works or it does not, and they come back and say so out loud. That is where the change happens, not in the room.
What you
actually need.
Time
One hour a week for ten weeks. Same day, same time, or people will drift by week four.
People
Six to fifteen is the sweet spot. Above fifteen, split into two groups rather than growing one.
The Book
Everyone needs a copy. One chapter a week, read before the session.
A Facilitator
One person to keep time and ask the questions. Not an expert. You are in the group too.
Read This Before Week One
Two things decide whether this works, and neither is the material. The first is that people actually read the chapter, so send a reminder two days before every session. The second is that the group starts each week by reporting back on last week’s action, out loud, including the weeks somebody did not do it. If reporting back is optional, the actions stop happening by week three and this becomes a book discussion.
One hour,
five parts.
That structure never changes across the ten weeks, which is deliberate. Once a group knows the shape, they stop thinking about the format and start thinking about the material. By week three you will not need to explain any of it.
How to fill
ten minutes.
Ten minutes is a long time standing at the front, and this is where most facilitators either run dry at four minutes or talk for twenty. Both are avoidable, and the fix is the same every week.
Remember what is different about this format. Your group has read the chapter. You are not delivering the content, they already have it. Your job is to open it up, which is a much easier job and needs a different shape. Use these five parts in order and the ten minutes takes care of itself.
Use Your Own Stories
Wherever you can, replace the example with something that actually happened here. A story from inside this organization will do more in thirty seconds than anything written down can do in three minutes, and it tells the group that this is about them rather than about a book.
If you want fuller worked examples for each concept, the boot camp guide has a written example for all ten. They work the same way in this format.
Seek truth,
not praise.
Say it in week one and repeat it in week two. This only works if people are honest. The goal is not to impress each other, it is to grow. Make it safe to be real, listen without fixing, and let the hard answers be the ones that matter most. The right people do not flatter you. They sharpen you.
Jump to
any week.
Own It. Every Day.
Chapter One · Responsibility is where growth begins.
The moment you take ownership is the moment your life becomes yours again.
Teach it · 10 minutes · Points to hit
- Ownership is not the same as blame turned inward. It is the decision to look at your part first, because your part is the only part you can act on today.
- There is a difference between a reason that is true and a reason that is useful. Most excuses are genuinely true. That is what makes them effective.
- If the cause of being stuck sits outside you, you have to wait for something else to change. If you own your part, you can start now.
- Chris was let go from a job he had given everything to. The question that moved him was not who did this. It was what could I have done differently.
Reflect alone · 8 minutes
- Where am I blaming instead of owning?
- What situation have I been explaining instead of improving?
- If I removed every excuse, what would I have to admit needs to change?
Discuss · 20 minutes
- When something goes wrong, where does your mind go first, a reason or a way forward?
- Where in your life is “what could I have done differently” the harder but better question?
- Where have you been waiting for a circumstance or a person to change before you act?
- What does ownership look like on a team, as opposed to in one person?
Go deeper · 7 minutes
Name one situation you have been explaining rather than owning. What would full ownership actually look like there?
This week
Pick one area you have been blaming on circumstances. Take one action that is fully within your control, and be ready to say what it was.
Time Is Your Edge
Chapter Two · Your life is built by how you spend your time.
You do not need more time. You need to stop assuming you have it.
Teach it · 10 minutes · Points to hit
- You do not find time. You use it. Every week is a record of what you prioritized, whether or not it felt like choosing.
- Most people who say they have no time have fifteen to thirty hours a week they cannot account for. Not wasted, just unclaimed.
- Busy feels like proof that you matter, which is why it is so hard to give up. Naming that is most of the work.
- Being present is not the same as being available. You can be in the room for two hours and give none of them.
- Life is built out of ordinary days, not milestone ones, and you do not get to make the ordinary ones up later.
Reflect alone · 8 minutes
- Where is my time actually going?
- What am I spending time on that is not helping me grow?
- What is one ordinary moment I would give anything to have back?
Discuss · 20 minutes
- If somebody looked at your calendar from last week, what would they say your priorities are?
- Where are you present versus merely available with the people who matter most?
- What are you telling yourself you will do later, and what changes if later is gone?
- Does being busy carry status where you work? What does that cost the team?
Go deeper · 7 minutes
Is the way you are spending your time moving you toward the person you want to become, or just keeping the current version of you running?
This week
Be fully present for one hour with someone who matters. Phone away, fully there. Notice what changes, and bring that back.
The Comfort Ceiling
Chapter Three · Growth starts where comfort stops.
You did not hit your limit. You just found where it used to be.
Teach it · 10 minutes · Points to hit
- Your comfort ceiling is not your limit. It is where your current version runs out of reasons to stay comfortable.
- It rarely arrives as a dramatic moment. It looks like hesitation, avoidance, and routines that feel safe but no longer ask anything.
- The path runs comfort, fear, learning, growth. Almost everybody turns around in the fear stage and calls it being sensible.
- A bad situation forces you to act. A fine one never does. That is what makes this one so hard to escape.
- Growth becomes comfort again, so this is not solved once. Finding the ceiling again means you are moving.
Reflect alone · 8 minutes
- Where have I been choosing comfort over growth?
- What have I been avoiding because it feels uncomfortable rather than because it is wrong?
- Which of the four stages do I tend to retreat at?
Discuss · 20 minutes
- Where have you mistaken comfort for a strategy, staying busy or safe instead of growing?
- What is a conversation, risk, or step you have been avoiding?
- What does a comfortable team look like from the outside, and what does it cost?
- Where is there more space above the ceiling than you have let yourself believe?
Go deeper · 7 minutes
What would growth actually require from you right now, in specific terms, not general ones?
This week
Do one thing that lives just past your comfort ceiling. The one you would normally talk yourself out of.
Train Your Inner Voice
Chapter Four · It will push you forward or hold you back.
The doubt may still have a voice, but it no longer gets a vote.
Teach it · 10 minutes · Points to hit
- Not every thought you have is true. Your inner voice speaks with total confidence and no evidence.
- It was not built by reasoning. It was assembled from things people said, moments that went badly, and comparisons you never agreed to enter.
- Watch the language. “I did not handle that well” describes a moment. “I am not a leader” becomes a boundary you live inside.
- Four steps: awareness, challenge, replacement, action. Most people never get past the first.
- The goal is not silence. Waiting for the voice to go quiet is how people stay still for years.
Reflect alone · 8 minutes
- What does my inner voice say in the second right before I hesitate?
- What “I am” label have I been repeating that may be a pattern rather than a permanent truth?
- When did it last talk me out of something I should have done?
Discuss · 20 minutes
- Awareness, challenge, replacement, action. Which step is hardest for you?
- Where did your voice learn to say what it says?
- Would you speak to someone you love the way you speak to yourself?
- What do you want that voice to sound like instead?
Go deeper · 7 minutes
Name one belief about yourself you have accepted as fact. What evidence actually argues against it?
This week
Catch your inner voice once, in real time. Pause, challenge it, and act anyway. Bring the story back to the group.
Relentless Improvement
Chapter Five · Reflect, adjust, and keep moving forward.
The past is for lessons, not residence. Visit it. Learn from it. Just do not move in.
Teach it · 10 minutes · Points to hit
- Reflection takes the lesson and puts the thing down. Reliving runs the same footage looking for a different ending. Both feel like processing.
- All or nothing thinking does more damage than any single setback. One missed day becomes proof the whole thing collapsed.
- Everybody drifts. The only thing that separates people is how long they stay drifted before correcting. Days, not months.
- Small corrections beat perfect streaks. A guardrail, not a straight line.
Reflect alone · 8 minutes
- What recent situation can I learn from, and what actually worked in it?
- Where am I reliving something rather than reflecting on it?
- Where have I drifted without correcting?
Discuss · 20 minutes
- Where is the line for you between reflecting on something and reliving it?
- Where have you treated one setback or one missed day as proof you failed completely?
- What does coming back faster look like in your life, practically?
- How does this team handle a mistake? Does it get learned from or buried?
Go deeper · 7 minutes
Think of a recent setback. What is the lesson, and what is the story you have been telling instead of the lesson?
This week
Choose one area where you have drifted. Make the small correction now rather than waiting until you are in the ditch.
Seek Truth. Not Praise.
Chapter Six · The right people sharpen you rather than flatter you.
You can protect your ego, or you can improve your performance. You do not get both.
Teach it · 10 minutes · Points to hit
- Growth does not come from being told you are doing great. It comes from being shown where you can be better.
- Most of us have somebody who will tell us the truth, and most of us have quietly stopped asking them.
- Comparison and the fear of judgment do more to slow people down than any lack of ability.
- There are two jobs here: be someone who asks for truth, and be someone others can safely give it to.
Reflect alone · 8 minutes
- Who in my life challenges me to grow?
- Where am I avoiding feedback because it might be true?
- Am I willing to hear what I need to hear, not just what I want to hear?
Discuss · 20 minutes
- Who tells you the truth, and are you actually listening?
- Where might you be choosing validation over feedback that would help you grow?
- What is a blind spot someone once named for you that you did not want to hear?
- Is this a team where people can say the hard thing? What would make it more so?
Go deeper · 7 minutes
Is there feedback you have been avoiding because it might be true? What is it?
This week
Ask one person you trust a question you have been hesitant to ask. Listen without defending. Share what you heard.
Unlock Your Hidden Gear
Chapter Seven · There is more available than you think.
The hidden gear is not another level of talent. It is another level of honesty.
Teach it · 10 minutes · Points to hit
- The moment you feel like stopping is usually the moment that matters most, because it is where nearly everyone else stops.
- Most of the time we are not out of capacity. We are at the edge of what is convenient.
- The hidden gear sits on the other side of the comfort ceiling. Weeks three and seven are the same argument at different depths.
- Coasting is quiet. Nobody notices it from the outside, and often not from the inside either.
Reflect alone · 8 minutes
- Where have I been stopping when it gets uncomfortable?
- Where do I already know I have more to give?
- What excuse do I use that sounds reasonable but is comfort asking for the decision back?
Discuss · 20 minutes
- Where have you been coasting, giving what is convenient rather than your best?
- Describe a time you stayed in something longer than you wanted to. What did you find?
- What would it look like for this team to find another gear? What would change on Monday?
- Is there a difference between working harder and finding the hidden gear?
Go deeper · 7 minutes
Where do you already know there is more in you, and what have you been telling yourself instead?
This week
The next time you want to stop, stay in it a little longer. Notice what was still there.
Lead Before You Are Asked
Chapter Eight · Leadership starts with how you lead yourself.
Confidence is not built in big moments. It is built in kept promises.
Teach it · 10 minutes · Points to hit
- No one is coming to lead you. If it happens, it is because you led yourself there first.
- Every small promise you keep to yourself is a deposit. Every one you skip is a withdrawal, and the account is whether you believe your own plans.
- Leadership is not a title. It is a set of behaviors available to anybody in the room today.
- The standard you hold yourself to when nobody is watching is the actual standard.
Reflect alone · 8 minutes
- Where am I waiting for someone else to push me?
- Where do I know what to do but am not doing it?
- What standard do I need to hold myself to?
Discuss · 20 minutes
- Where are you leading well elsewhere but not leading yourself?
- What have you known you should do but keep waiting to feel ready for?
- How is self-trust built or broken by the small promises you keep or do not keep?
- Who on this team leads without a title? What do they actually do?
Go deeper · 7 minutes
What would it look like if you became someone you could fully trust?
This week
Make one promise to yourself and keep it, no matter how small. Tell the group what it was.
Finish What You Start
Chapter Nine · Starting is common. Finishing is rare.
Most people do not fail. They leave too early.
Teach it · 10 minutes · Points to hit
- Starting runs on excitement, and excitement is a feeling. Feelings leave, usually around week four.
- The stonecutter swings a hundred times and nothing visible happens. It splits on the hundred and first, and it looks like that swing was the one that mattered. It was all of them.
- Invisible is what progress looks like in the middle. People read that as evidence they picked the wrong thing.
- Most people are not failing at one thing. They are carrying six half-finished things, and nothing has room to move.
Reflect alone · 8 minutes
- What have I started but not followed through on?
- Where exactly did the energy fade?
- What is worth finishing right now?
Discuss · 20 minutes
- What have you started and not finished, and can you name the point where it stalled?
- Where might unseen progress be happening for you right now?
- What is the difference, for you, between motivation and ownership?
- Where does this team stop just before the result would have shown up?
Go deeper · 7 minutes
Are you willing to stay with the thing you named after the excitement is gone? What would that actually take?
This week
Take the next concrete step on something you left unfinished. Just the next step. Report it back.
Leave People Better
Chapter Ten · Significance is who is better because of you.
Success is what you achieve. Significance is who is better because of you.
Teach it · 10 minutes · Points to hit
- Think of the person who had the biggest impact on you. You had them in mind immediately. Now think about what they actually did.
- Almost nobody names a grand gesture. It is usually that somebody took you seriously early, or told you the truth when it was easier not to.
- Which means the bar is lower than we think, and they probably have no idea they did it.
- One question to carry: before an interaction, ask what great would look like for this person, then do that.
Reflect alone · 8 minutes
- Who has had the greatest impact on my life, and what did they do?
- Where could I be more present, honest, or encouraging with the people around me?
- Who needs more from me right now?
Discuss · 20 minutes
- Who made you better, and what specifically did they do?
- What is the difference between the success you have chased and the significance you want to leave?
- Where in this group has someone left you better over these ten weeks? Tell them.
- What would it look like for this team to leave the people around it better?
Go deeper · 7 minutes
If someone described your impact on them a year from now, what would you want them to say?
This week
Ask of one interaction: what would great look like for this person? Then do that. Share what happened.
Week eleven:
closing the book.
Do not end on week ten. The last session is not about reviewing the book, it is about deciding what happens now that it is over, and groups that skip it lose most of what they built.
Reflect together
- Which of the ten concepts hit you hardest, and why that one?
- What is different about how you are showing up now compared to week one?
- Where have you seen someone else in this group grow? Tell them directly.
The one commitment
Do not try to change everything at once. Name one concept, one habit, one commitment you will carry beyond this group. Write it down and say it out loud. Then decide as a group whether you check in on each other in ninety days, and put the date in the calendar before anyone leaves the room.
What actually
goes wrong.
Week four is when you lose people
Attendance drops right about when the novelty does, which is the same pattern the book describes in chapter nine. Name it out loud in week three. Groups that see it coming push through it.
Nobody read the chapter
It happens. Do not cancel and do not shame anyone. The teach section is written so the session still works, and the reading catches up. Send the reminder two days out, not the morning of.
The boss is in the room
People will not be honest about work in front of the person who decides their raise. Either the leader goes first with something genuinely uncomfortable, or the leader is not in that group.
Report back gets skipped
This is the one that quietly kills it. If nobody is asked about last week’s action, the actions stop. Protect the first ten minutes even when it means cutting discussion.
Progress rarely comes from a single breakthrough. It comes from showing up day after day and doing what you know needs to be done.
What to hand
out and when.
All free. Copy them, print them, hand them round.
The 10-Week Workbook
Fifty five pages, five per week. The teaching, the reflection prompts, every discussion question with lines, and the weekly commitment. Built to live in a binder.
Download PDF →The Printable Playbook
One page per concept with room to write. The single best companion to this program. Hand out the matching page each week.
Download PDF →The Book Club Guide
The shorter companion version of these ten sessions, if you would rather have it on paper in the room.
Download PDF →The Comfort Ceiling Assessment
Run it in week one and again after week ten. The change in the number is the clearest measure you will get.
Download PDF →The Goal Reset Worksheet
Useful around week nine, when people are deciding what they will actually finish.
Download PDF →Or bring Chris
into the room.
Everything above works without him, and most groups should just run it. But if you want him to open the program, close it, facilitate the whole thing, or build it around what your organization is actually trying to change, that is a conversation worth having.
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