Field guide · What goes wrong
Anti-Patterns
The recognizable failures of hosting, named so you can catch them mid-evening. Each has a repair; most are palette moves.
The catalog
Grouped by where in the evening they strike. Naming one — silently, to yourself — is half the repair; the moves do the rest. The eight opening failures live with the opening forms and are listed last.
The opening eight
The first ninety seconds have their own catalog, kept with the opening forms they shadow:
| Anti-pattern | Failure mode | Repair |
|---|
Every anti-pattern is a good instinct running unsupervised: thoroughness becomes the Over-Plan, warmth the Hedge, wit the Deflating Joke. The repair is never less instinct — it is supervision.
The steering failures are treated in depth on Deciding; drill their repair with Give the Order.
On film: McLaughlin repairs a Spotlight Drift, bluntly: “all right, Fred, we got your point” (1:46).
Try it now
Three rounds of Give the Order — the repair for the two most common steering anti-patterns. Out loud.