Three runs on tape

What happened the last three times

Same topic, three different evenings, three different rooms.

Side by side

The numbers

Run	When	Venue	Min	Voices	Film	Film %	Intro→Disc	Facil.
Cohort 1	—	startup hub	77	13	standard	25%	2 → 2.2	40%
Cohort 2	2025-07-09	convention centre used by City Harvest Church	82	18	standard	26%	1.73 → 2.82	45%
Cohort 3	2026-04	condo private dining	77	12	substitute	23%	1.33 → 2.42	60%

This session draws the smallest rooms and the highest facilitator share of the eight. Guard against it becoming a lecture.

Run by run

What each evening was like

Cohort 1. Met in a startup hub for 77 minutes with 13 voices in the room. The standard film was shown, taking 25 per cent of the evening. 7 questions were put. Coded depth rose from 2 in the introduction round to 2.2 in the discussion. The facilitator took 40 per cent of the turns.

Cohort 2 · 2025-07-09. Met in a convention centre used by City Harvest Church for 82 minutes with 18 voices in the room. The standard film was shown, taking 26 per cent of the evening. 4 questions were put. Coded depth rose from 1.73 in the introduction round to 2.82 in the discussion. The facilitator took 45 per cent of the turns.

Cohort 3 · 2026-04. Met in a condo private dining for 77 minutes with 12 voices in the room. A substitute film was shown, taking 23 per cent of the evening. 5 questions were put. Coded depth rose from 1.33 in the introduction round to 2.42 in the discussion. The facilitator took 60 per cent of the turns.

The plan · about 79 minutes

Run of show and what to show

Plan for 12 to 18 people. The sequence is the one feature of the evening with a measurable effect, and it should be run whole.

Run of show

Timing

0:00Arrive and welcomeSay why the room exists. Keep it short.10 min
0:10Introduction roundName, business, what brought them, a fun fact. Visible timer, one minute each.25 min
0:35FilmObserved film share for this session ran 23 to 26 per cent of the evening.15 min
0:50DiscussionThree questions keyed to the film, tables of six to eight, one recorder each.40 min
1:30Commitment and closeOne action each before next month, then pray.10 min

Open with the uncomfortable version: have you been let down by a Christian supplier? The room answers it honestly.

Which film

What to show

Standard

FDE promo, Kaestner intro, the Don Flow / Flow Automotive profile on one-price selling and used-car warranties.

Substitute used

Cohort 3 substituted a first-fruits segment and a profile of Dr Ngozi Onyia of Paelon Memorial, Lagos.

The Flow profile is concrete about pricing and warranty, which gives founders something to answer from their own operations.

A substitute was used in 1 of the three runs. Across all 24 sessions, substitution made no measurable difference to depth (2.10 against 2.19, p = 0.24). What it changes is the subject matter.

What the room actually talks about

Subjects this session produces

Share of the 62 participant contributions carrying each subject, against its share across all 618 contributions in the corpus.

Over-represented

Relative to the corpus

Ethics and excellence45% vs 20% corpus

Community and loneliness31% vs 19% corpus

Faith-journey stories13% vs 10% corpus

Cultural material and who speaks

Frames, stance and gender

Frames raised: Western hustle and VC norms (4), The Singapore state system (3), The multi-faith workplace (3), Expatriate and transnational life (2), Shame and failure (2).

Where the room took a position on that material, it pushed back or negotiated 8 times against 3 endorsements.

Who speaks: 14 contributions from women, 21 from men.

Faith-journey stories0% F · 10% M

Calling and vocation9% F · 18% M

Community and loneliness20% F · 14% M

The church as institution3% F · 8% M

What was asked

Every question put, by cohort

Choose three. No recorded session got through more than about three at any one table, so the rest are a reserve rather than a plan.

Cohort 1 · 7 questions

q0Please introduce yourself and your company (1-minute elevator pitch): tell us about your business, what brought you here, and a fun fact.
q1People are wary of working with Christian businesses because those businesses don't often have the best level of excellence — have you experienced that? Would knowing a business is Christian make you more or less likely to work with it?
q2How crucial is it to do excellent work, and how does it impact — negatively or positively — the people around us? (Boon Kim reframes: what do we define as success?)
q3(Alex's challenge) Government programmes and apps are often slower and less advanced because they don't compete; if we don't want to compete, kill competitors or exploit information, how do we still create excellent products and services?
q4Excellence is measured against our abilities: in what ways does the quality of your recent work reflect the God you serve, and what habits ensure you work for God and not to please others or hit KPIs? (To Vanessa: how do you implement excellence in an agency when you are not the director and the industry is exploitative?)
q5Considering our work is a way of loving and serving others, what could lazy work say about our heart toward God and others? Have you experienced lazy work or shortcuts in your team — where does it come from and how did you deal with it?
q6How can you encourage an employee, business partner or co-worker to be excellent in all they do?

Cohort 2 · 4 questions

q0Please introduce yourself and your company ('elevator' pitch). Tell us about your business and what brought you here! Any fun fact about yourself? [Alex, audio: 'One fact about ourselves and what brought you here? What's your business today?']
q1[Framing the video's Francis Schaeffer quotation - that our opportunity to be heard by the lost world is directly related to how well we do our work] '...We need to be [excellent] in a sense, right? ... [In] what ways have you seen the idea to be true? Right? So the idea of...' [ASR fragmentary; the 117-second gap that follows, 048:42-050:39, has swallowed the rest of Alex's framing and the start of the first answer]
q2So in which ways does our quality [of work] have positive or negative impact on the unbeliev[ers] surrounding[s] [us]? Like employees? ... Ok, so maybe you can ask either how do you let your employees know, be partners or clients?
q3So the third one is, as entrepreneurs, it's easy to want to work hard for recognition by others, but also our lives ought to be lived in a way where people ask about our motivations. So in what ways can working for the Lord have an impact on our desire to be recognized and praised by others? What could working for others for recognition do [to] our example as a Christian?

Cohort 3 · 5 questions

introPlease introduce yourself and your company (“elevator” pitch). Tell us about your business and what brought you here! (10-30 sec) Any fun fact about yourself? (10 sec)
q1A Higher Standard: Dr. Ngozi Onyia, Founder of the Paleon Memorial Hospital, decided to treat patients with Covid-19 at the very onset of the pandemic. She chose to provide a higher standard of care, despite the fear and pushback around her. What is preventing you from pursuing a higher level of excellence in your business? What fears or opinions do you need to let go of? Are there limitations, laws, or legislation that you can work to change? (Audio: the fears part was not asked; legislation reframed as 'Anybody work in government here?')
q2In Colossians 3:23, Paul writes, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” What does it look like for you to work for the Lord and not human masters? How might this perspective change your work? How can working for the Lord with all your heart influence how you approach your work each and every day?
q3J.D. statistics (depression, ADHD, substance abuse), wise risk, and Solomon's four principles in Ecclesiastes (leftover standard-deck questions; not asked).
q4We each have an opportunity to foster our partnerships well, whether we're talking about co-founders, employees, supply chains, investors, churches, governments, or any others. What is your approach to collaboration? Are you looking for creative ways to do great work with others? How might your need for efficiency and perfection prevent you from establishing good partnerships?

Excellence Matters