Decision Meeting Format Skill

Meetings fail to decide for structural reasons, not character ones: the options were never written down (so debate invents them live), the decider was never named (so consensus is assumed and never arrives), and the decision was never recorded (so it gets relitigated by everyone who remembers it differently). The format fixes all three before the room opens: a pre-read with the options steelmanned, the decider and decision rule announced in the invite, a timeboxed sequence that separates clarifying from advocating, and a close where the decision — with its why and its dissent — lands in the log before anyone leaves.

What This Skill Produces

• The pre-read spec — the options doc (each steelmanned, with the recommendation) shipped 24h+ ahead
• The in-room sequence — clarify → advocate → decide, timeboxed, with the facilitator moves per phase
• The decision rule — who decides and how (decider-decides / consent / vote), announced before debate
• The record — decision, why, dissent noted, owner and date — logged before adjourning

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The decision and its options — what's being decided, the real options (the pre-read needs them written; a decision meeting without written options is a brainstorm wearing a suit)
• The decider — one name, or the explicit rule (consent? majority?); "we'll align" is not a rule, and discovering the rule mid-conflict is the classic failure
• The stakes and the reversibility — reversible decisions get lighter process (the decision-journal two-way-door logic); one-way doors earn the full format
• The relitigation history — has this been "decided" before? Then the record section works overtime, and the meeting opens by naming what reopening required