Most meetings fail because they mix three different modes. Each needs different prep, different participants, different decision rights. --- ## Review **Purpose:** Track progress against plan. Identify variance. Decide: keep course or intervene. **Cadence:** Regular (weekly/monthly) **Participants:** Owner + stakeholders with decision rights **Prep required:** - Metrics vs targets (variance highlighted) - Root cause if off-track - Proposed corrective action **Decision mode:** Binary - stay course or intervene. No debate on the plan itself. **Red flags:** - Re-explaining the strategy - Debating whether targets are right - Long context-setting before showing numbers --- ## Tactics **Purpose:** Coordinate execution. Remove blockers. Sequence work. **Cadence:** Frequent (daily standups to weekly) **Participants:** Execution team + dependencies **Prep required:** - Status: done, doing, blocked - Specific asks (who needs what from whom) - Capacity reality (WIP visibility) **Decision mode:** Fast - unblock, sequence, commit to next actions. **Red flags:** - Long updates with no asks - Strategic debates ("should we even be doing this?") - Status updates that lead nowhere --- ## Strategy **Purpose:** Set direction. Test choices. Allocate resources to big bets. **Cadence:** Infrequent (quarterly to annually) **Participants:** Leadership team + domain experts **Prep required:** - Hypothesis being tested - Evidence for/against (not just "for") - What we'd need to believe for this to work - Rational opposite (what would we do instead?) **Decision mode:** Rigorous - two-way door decisions need scrutiny. Debate the logic, not the people. **Red flags:** - Operational details drowning out strategic choice - No clear alternatives considered - Consensus-seeking without testing assumptions --- ## How to use this **Diagnosis:** Look at your calendar. What's labeled "strategy session" but feels like status updates? What's labeled "standup" but turns into 90-minute debates? **Fix:** Name the mode explicitly. "This is a review - we're not debating the plan, we're checking progress." Prep, participants, and decision rights follow from that. **Test:** After the meeting, can you clearly state what was decided and what mode you were in? If not, you mixed modes.