The meeting trap
When trust is low, teams schedule more meetings. When meetings multiply, trust often falls further.
Design for decisions
Replace recurring status with:
- A living decision log
- A single portfolio board
- Asynchronous updates with clear ask/decide/inform labels
The PM's role
Project and product leaders should reduce cognitive load for executives while increasing clarity for delivery teams.
A simple framework
Use Inform / Consult / Decide for every communication. If nobody needs to decide, it probably should not be a meeting.
Closing
Alignment is not agreement on everything. It is agreement on what matters now.