Role-on-the-Wall

When to use Role-on-the-Wall

Use when a team needs to write an AI standard for a role but keeps producing vague policy language.

What it solves

Blanket AI policies say "be careful", which operators read as "do not use it for anything important".

How to run Role-on-the-Wall, step by step

1. Pick the one role most affected by AI. Draw its outline, life-size if you can, on paper on the wall (5 min).
2. Inside the outline, write what this role knows, decides, and is accountable for (10 min).
3. Outside the outline, write three columns: AI does, AI should support, AI must never (15 min).
4. Trace the line between inside and outside. Write one sentence describing how the human and AI collaborate. That sentence is the seed of the tiered standard (10 min).

Materials needed

• Large paper roll or flip chart
• Marker pens
• Sticky notes in three colours

Facilitator tips

• Insist the role is a real named role in the organisation, not an abstraction.
• The 'AI must never' column is the most valuable and the one groups rush. Slow it down.
• If people write tasks inside the outline, redirect: inside is judgement and accountability, not activity.

Common pitfalls

• The group describes the role as it is written in the job description rather than as it is actually performed.
• Legal or compliance dominates the 'must never' column and operators go quiet. Have operators write first.

What it produces

A role outline with an explicit human core, an AI boundary, and a first draft of how the two collaborate.

Origin

A drama-education convention, adapted in the VERIFY method (letter E) to draw the line between the human core of a role and the AI boundary.

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