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Run the Room

Why your team stalls (and how to fix it in 4 steps)

Published 8 months ago • 1 min read

Run the Room

Use the follow-through formula

↓

Most leaders aren’t bad at vision.

They’re bad at structuring work.

They say "Can someone take a first pass?" and wonder why nothing happens.

Here's what I learned after years of chasing:

The problem isn't your people.
It's ambiguity.

When responsibility is diffuse, energy dissipates.
When it's clear, people move.

If you don’t structure the work, people won’t magically structure it for you.
​​
The fastest way to move a group is to make contribution easy.

When people know:
• exactly what they’re responsible for
• why it matters
• where to put it
• and when it’s done

Momentum takes care of itself.

Try this:​
Before assigning task or asking for “actions", use the follow-through formula:

  1. Owner​
    Name one person responsible (not "team" or "someone").
  2. Output​
    Define exactly what done looks like (not "thoughts" or "input").
  3. Location​
    Point to one place to contribute (specific doc, slide, or form).
  4. Deadline​
    State when it's due (not "soon" or "when you can").

Do the structuring work once.
Save weeks of chasing later.

🌿 Clarity unlocks contribution.

Want to grow your influence beyond your team?

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Run the Room

Get in the room. Run it. Change what happens when you leave. That's the work I do with senior leaders moving standards from concept to institutional adoption. My work has been featured in The New York Times, TIME, The Lancet, and Foreign Policy. Each Saturday, one short note on making it easy to move decisions that matter—three minutes to read, used in next week's meeting.

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