Play it out in your head. Heck, play it out in real life.

Let me paint you a perfect nightmare scenario for anyone in the business of bringing together Very Important People for Very Serious and Meaningful Political Conversations.

You've spent weeks and weeks planning. Incredibly, you've managed to get the best thinkers, influencers and political trailblazers in one room at the same time (kudos!). You've also worked tirelessly on a perfect agenda and engagement process.

On the day, your beautiful, elegant, powerful, groundbreaking - yet purely theoretical - process design, instead of creating a tidal wave of new insights and policy ideas, just kind of falls flat as you hide a disappointed sigh from your esteemed guests.

Participants are confused, the complexities of your carefully crafted process have become hurdles that the participants refuse to overcome, instead of clever nudges towards a greater depth of thought and analysis. We've all been there.

In my opinion, here is where the process design industry's most banal and yet valuable trick comes into play.

Follow 'The Devil Is In the Detail' Rule religiously.

DD Rule Part 1: Play out the details. All of them. Run the process through and through as if it were a play. Not just in a theoretical sense, but in a practical sense too.

Who needs to enter when and why, do they enter centre-stage or stage-right? Test your guiding questions with an external audience - do they respond the way you were expecting them to? Do you get the answers you were hoping? Think of whether the pieces of paper on which you are going to write down the table numbers will flop like a lifeless fish in your poor facilitator's hands. Fix that, too.

DD Rule Part 2: One element of a purposeful dialogue which is well-designed and perfectly executed is always better than multiple elements where the details have not been finetuned and the engagement feels laboursome. So always choose to do one thing perfectly well rather than many poorly, and that should give you the time to abide religiously by the 'Devil is in the Detail' Rule Part 1.

Even though I wish it weren't the case, unfortunately, people have a very low tolerance for discomfort. This means that - even if your theoretical process is a thing of beauty, an intellectually flawless design - if there is too much friction in your process, the all-important and all-powerful 'benefit of the doubt' awarded to you by your esteemed colleagues will evaporate all too quickly.

My personal pet peeve: process design and facilitation often get a bad rap precisely because some practitioners do not respect 'The Devil Is In The Detail' Rule and the whole field suffers from it.

Don't be that person! Please, pretty please, don't.

Closing disclaimer: I started this by saying, we've all been there.

None of us are immune to the time pressures and ambition gremlins which encourage us to cut corners and disrespect the DD Rule. I am no different. That said, intellectually - based on my 8 years of experience designing political conversations which routinely gain the approval of members of parliaments from across the continent - I know. I know, deep down, this is our sector's number one rule and the best-kept secret of the best dialogue designers and facilitators out there. Do. Not. Shun. The. Details. (Or they'll take their revenge on you on your big day).

++ What is your #1 rule when designing political conversations that matter?
++ How do you stop yourself from shunning the DD Rule?