We have seen it all – great many hours spend on daily meetings, hours together in pre-booked conference rooms, which are so hard to find! Yet there are struggles – people, process, technology, customer, market – what not!
When reviews run on updates and opinions, you add meetings and still don’t move. Switch the center of gravity to evidence and the same calendar starts producing decisions. Like a wise businessman once said:
“If a review ends without a decision, we were missing evidence or the right people.”
What is the REAL Problem? TIME?
Most teams cram status, problem-solving, and escalations into one long call. Slides or discussions multiply. This leads to meeting and decision fatigues. In any organization what are the teams looking for? Guidance (not micro-managed scrutiny) on how to move over the roadblocks and actually ship what must be shipped to the client.
Here are 4 Signals that show that you’re in the trap. Not in a meaningful review:
- “Quick update…” becomes 45 minutes
- Different numbers in different decks
- Owners are unable to say what changed since last week
- “Let’s take this offline” becomes the most frequent outcome
A Quick Vignette of what Happens with Growth Alignment Audit + !2-week Execution Charter (Live Example of a Customer)
Before:
75-min weekly call, 18 attendees
30–40 slide decks; inconsistent numbers
No single owner for release readiness
Decisions deferred; “take it offline” was the norm
After (Week 12):
1. Reviews are 30 minutes and produce decisions
2. On-time releases: 2 of 3 this quarter (up from 0 of 2 last two quarters)
3. Leader meeting load: Down by ~32%
4. Rework at handoffs: Reduced by~41%
5. Prep time: Less by ~60% vs. slide decks
What “Evidence” means in TRICEA
In TRICEA, evidence is not a new step or tool. It’s the review artifact you already use – kept short, stable, and decision-ready. Think of it as a snapshot for each stream of work that answers four simple questions:
- What is the trend versus the target?
- What changed since last time, and why does it matter?
- What is blocked, and who owns clearing it by when?
- Do we need a decision now, and what are the options?
That’s it. No slide decks. No fishing for data mid-call. You can use the same format, week after week, so that the team can spot patterns and act.
The Review Charter: Guardrails that are Useful
A Review Charter is a short note that defines the purpose of the review, who needs to be there, what is in scope to decide in the room, and what input the group expects to see every time. It prevents the meeting from drifting back into updates.
For example, a weekly Product Progress review might be time-boxed at 30 minutes, focused on progress (not escalations), limited to the core team, and run off the TRICEA review artifact for each stream. Scope and priority decisions can be made in the room; other items escalate to a smaller huddle. This needs to be prepared only once in the beginning and it holds good for all reviews until there is a major org restructuring.
Rolling it out over twelve weeks
You don’t need a big change or new tools. A practical way to do this is through a twelve-week sprint based on OKRs.
Weeks 1–2: agree on Review Charters for the few reviews that matter most and standardize the TRICEA review artifact. Hold short orientation sessions so everyone understands the format and the time limits.
Weeks 3–6: hold the reviews the same way every week. Keep the artifact simple and clear. Trim attendance to the people who do the work and the people who can decide. Use a short follow-up huddle only when a blocker truly needs a deeper discussion.
Weeks 7–9: extend the rhythm to adjacent teams and tighten handoffs. Make ownership at the boundaries explicit so work doesn’t leak when it moves between functions.
Weeks 10–12: hold the measures steady, clear the last long-running blockers, and close the quarter with a short look-back. Keep what helped decisions and drop anything that added weight without value.
Across these twelve weeks you will see shorter meetings, more decisions closed in the room, fewer surprises at handoffs, and less preparation time. You are not working harder – you are working with clearer inputs and firmer boundaries.
Avoid the common traps
- Don’t grow the artifact every week.
- Keep the measures stable for the quarter so trends are meaningful.
- Don’t mix purposes. A progress review is not the same as an escalation call or a retrospective.
- Don’t crowd the room with “for awareness” guests.
- Invite the people who own the work and the people who can decide.
- Letting “FYI” guests crowd out the people with decision rights
- Moving the goalposts mid-quarter
What Changes when Evidence Leads
- Fewer Meetings, More Decisions – the calendar gets shorter and sharper
- Consistent Numbers – arguments shrink, action grows
- Ownership Visible – you can point to who moves what, by when
- Leaders get Time back – attendance lists drop; decisions still happen
If you want help
If this is the outcome you want, we can set it up quickly. Start with the Growth Alignment Audit to see where your reviews and handoffs are leaking, then run a focused twelve-week sprint through Strategy Studio to install the cadence.
No heavy ceremony, no parallel tracking – just the discipline to make reviews produce decisions.