Run the Room

Where are you stuck?

↓

Over the past few months, I've been seeing the same pattern: people trying to solve a problem at the wrong level.

Here's what I mean:

The work of moving anything that matters happens at three levels:

Get in the room. Make your value impossible to miss, so the right people pull you in before you have to push.

Run it. Make it easier for people to move than to stall, so the meeting ends with a decision, not another meeting.

Change what happens after you leave. Design the conditions that make the new practice easier than the status quo, so adoption keeps moving without you in the room.

Most stalled change efforts are stuck at one level and trying to solve it at a different one.

Here's a quick example. Which one of these statements most describes you?

You hear about meetings, after they happen, where decisions you care about got made.
Your meetings end with "let's circle back" more often than with a decision.
The new practice works when you're personally pushing it. It fades when you stop.

Statement 1 is a Get in the room problem. Louder advocacy won't fix it. Positioning will.

Statement 2 is a Run it problem. More agenda items won't fix it. Naming the decision before the meeting will.

Statement 3 is a Change what happens after you leave problem. More meetings won't fix it. Institutional architecture will.

Try this:

I built the full 15-statement version for my own advisory engagements. It takes five minutes and tells you which scale you're stuck at, and the one move to make this week.

Reply "STUCK" and I'll send it to you

🌿 Find the level. Make your move.

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