A planning session without theatre · From Zero to Goals, lesson 8 of 17
A planning session without theatre
Run the quarterly session: pre-work, agenda, and who actually decides.
A planning session without theatre
The whole quarter gets decided in one meeting, and most versions of that meeting are theatre: a founder monologue, a brainstorm that generates forty sticky notes and zero decisions, or a vote that everyone quietly relitigates by Friday.
You now have everything the session needs: a mission that filters, goals that are checkable, a cascade with arithmetic, and a cut. This lesson is about the meeting where those tools either get used, or performed.
Dana’s draft agenda
Dana books three hours for the Q2 planning session and drafts an agenda:
· 30 min: mission and vision recap (slides).
· 90 min: everyone presents their goal ideas.
· 30 min: vote on which goals make the board.
· 30 min: assign owners.
Something about it produces theatre. The team will leave tired, aligned-ish, and with goals nobody quite chose.
What is the ONE fix that changes the most?
The room splits
Session day. Pre-work went out, capacity is confirmed, the cut is halfway done. And then the win-rate goal (20% → 30%) splits the room.
Priya wants it as one Growth goal she owns end to end. Sam wants it split in two (“proposal quality” under him, “pricing pitch” under Priya), because half the lost deals died on scoping calls his team ran.
Ten minutes of back-and-forth. Energy dropping. Both versions sound reasonable. The room looks at Dana.
How does the win-rate goal get owned?
The room is for conflict and commitment, nothing else
One decision rule, stated before it is needed: who breaks ties. A session that discovers its decision rule during the disagreement will decide by fatigue, and fatigue always votes for the loudest person in the room.
Write your session, one screen long
Draft your next planning session: date, 90 minutes, the pre-work you will send 48 hours before (candidates + which numbers), and the decision rule in one sentence.
Saved in this browser only. Keep it on a free account and it stops depending on this one.
More on planning the quarter
All optional, and none of it is needed for the certificate. Each opens in a new tab, so your place in the lesson is kept.
- Quarterly planning for small teams ↗The quarter as a cycle, with the session you just ran sitting inside it.6 min read