TL;DR

• A weekly cadence is an operating system, not a meeting calendar.
• The goal is predictable decisions + ownership, even when you’re not in the room.
• The cadence must produce 3 artifacts every week: Priorities, Decisions, Blockers.

When to use this playbook

Use this when you see:

• reactive weeks with no stable priorities
• decisions stuck in Slack threads
• work starting but not finishing
• founders acting as the default escalation path
• teams blaming “misalignment”

If the company feels “busy but not moving,” cadence is usually the fix.

What success looks like

Within 2–3 weeks of running this cadence, you should see:

• clearer weekly priorities (Top 5, owned)
• fewer repeated escalations
• decisions recorded and followed through
• reduced work-in-progress (WIP)
• improved throughput (more finishing, less starting)

The principle: cadence is about decisions, not updates

Meetings fail when they become status updates.

This cadence enforces:

• decision rights
• ownership
• next actions
• closed loops

If a meeting doesn’t produce decisions and owners, it doesn’t exist.

The minimum viable cadence (MVC)

You need only 3 recurring moments to create control:

1. Weekly Priorities (30 min)
2. Weekly Ops Review (60 min)
3. Async Blockers + Decision Log (ongoing)

Everything else is optional.

Roles (so it runs without you)

Assign these roles as functions, not people.

• Facilitator (Ops owner): runs the meeting, enforces agenda
• Scorekeeper: updates tracker live
• Decision owner: person accountable for each decision follow-through
• Exec sponsor: attends when decisions require authority (not for updates)

If no one can facilitate, cadence collapses.

The 3 required weekly artifacts

These must exist every week, in one shared place:

1) Weekly Priorities (Top 5)

• priority
• owner
• success definition
• due date

2) Blockers list (Top 5)

• blocker
• impact
• owner
• escalation needed (Y/N)

3) Decision log

• decision
• owner
• date
• rationale
• follow-up date

No artifacts = no cadence.

The operating tracker (simple format)

Use a single table (Notion/Sheet/ClickUp—doesn’t matter). Keep it minimal.

Tracker columns

• Priority
• Owner
• Status (Not started / In progress / Done)
• Blocker
• Next action (one sentence)
• Due date
• Notes / link

That’s enough.

Weekly cadence schedule (copy/paste)

Monday — Weekly Priorities (30 minutes)

Purpose: decide what matters this week
Attendees: functional owners + Ops facilitator
Output: Top 5 priorities + owners

Agenda

1. Review last week’s Top 5 (5 min)
2. What shipped vs slipped (5 min)
3. Select this week’s Top 5 (15 min)
4. Confirm owners + due dates + success definition (5 min)

Rules

• max 5 priorities across the business (not per team)
• every priority has one owner
• if it’s not a priority, it goes to backlog

Wednesday — Ops Review (60 minutes)

Purpose: remove blockers + make decisions
Attendees: owners + sponsor only if needed
Output: decisions + blocker resolution + updated tracker

Agenda

1. Metrics (10 min) — only the numbers that drive action
2. Priority progress (15 min) — focus on risks, not status
3. Blockers (20 min) — top 5 blockers only
4. Decisions (10 min) — confirm decisions + owner + date
5. Next actions (5 min) — what changes by Friday

Rules

• no problem discussion without an owner
• no blockers without an escalation path
• if a decision is needed, it must be logged

Friday — Weekly Closeout (15 minutes, async or live)

Purpose: close loops and prepare next week
Output: shipped list + slips + learnings

Format

• What shipped (bullets)
• What didn’t ship (and why)
• What we’ll change next week (1–2 improvements)

This keeps the cadence improving.

Step-by-step: Implementation plan (Week 1–2)

Day 1 — Set the rules

• nominate facilitator + scorekeeper
• define decision rights + escalation ladder
• choose the tracker tool (keep current tool if possible)

Output: cadence charter (1 page)

Day 2 — Build tracker + artifacts

• create tracker
• create decision log
• create blockers list
• create weekly priorities template

Output: shared link + templates

Day 3 — Run Weekly Priorities (first time)

• enforce Top 5
• assign owners
• set success definition

Output: week priorities v1

Day 4–5 — Run Ops Review (first time)

• focus on blockers + decisions
• log decisions live
• assign next actions

Output: decision log + updated tracker

Week 2 — Transfer facilitation

This is the “runs without you” test:

• you shadow
• internal facilitator leads
• you only intervene when rules break

Output: cadence that survives without you

Templates (copy/paste blocks)

Weekly Priorities template

This week’s Top 5 priorities

1. Priority:
   Owner:
   Success looks like:
   Due date:
2. …

Out of scope this week

• …

Blockers template

Top blockers

• Blocker:
  Impact:
  Owner:
  Escalation needed (Y/N):
  Next step:

Decision log template

• Decision:
• Date:
• Owner:
• Rationale:
• Follow-up date:
• Links:

Weekly closeout template

• Shipped:
• Slipped:
• Root cause:
• Improvement next week:

Common failure modes (and fixes)

Failure mode 1: Too many priorities

Fix: enforce Top 5 across the business.

Failure mode 2: Meetings become status updates

Fix: redirect status to async tracker; meeting is for blockers + decisions.

Failure mode 3: No single owner

Fix: one owner per priority; collaborators are not owners.

Failure mode 4: Decisions aren’t recorded

Fix: decision log is mandatory; no logged decision = no decision.

Failure mode 5: Cadence depends on one person

Fix: rotate facilitator after week 2; standardize agenda.

How to expand cadence after it stabilizes (30–60 days)

Only after the MVC cadence works:

• add monthly strategic review (60–90 min)
• add quarterly planning session
• add KPI hygiene + reporting (minimal)

Don’t scale complexity before reliability.

Turn cadence into a fractional Ops offer

This cadence is productizable:

Offer example
“Install a weekly operating cadence that produces priorities, decisions, and throughput — and runs without me by Week 2.”

Build your Ops fractional profile to this standard.
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