Calibration
Under, just right, over.
| Situation | Under | Just Right | Over |
|---|---|---|---|
| The design review | Sits through the review and saves the real objection for the hallway. The room leaves thinking there is alignment. | Names the specific risk while the owner can still change course, and offers a smaller test or a narrower change. Once the owner decides, writes the recap as a decision, not as another round. | Relitigates last week's same point in every review. People stop sending this person the doc in time, and the design lands later than it needed to. |
| A launch go or no-go | Goes along with the go to keep the call short, even though a known issue is still open. | Holds if the open issue would actually hurt the customer, and says what would flip the vote. After the owner calls it, does the assigned launch work and does not seed doubt in the launch channel. | Blocks the launch on a preference that can wait. The team stays late for a fight that did not have to be tonight. |
| Your proposal lost | Withdraws and does the chosen work at half effort. The team can tell the commit is not real. | Makes the case once with the evidence that mattered, then builds the chosen path as if it were theirs. Flags only new facts, not the same pitch in a new wrapper. | Keeps a side version of the old idea running. Attention splits, and whoever is waiting on one plan gets two half answers. |
| A quiet planning meeting | Lets a weak plan lock because no one else spoke. Next week the team is stuck executing it. | Breaks the silence with the concrete problem and a workable alternative. Stops once the owner has enough to decide, even if the room is still uncomfortable. | Fills every pause with another objection. The meeting never closes, and people leave without knowing what to do on Monday. |
| The hiring debrief | Goes along with a hire they would not staff on their own team. The concern never makes the notes. | States the specific gap and how it would show up in the first month of the job. Votes, then honors the group's call and helps the person land if they join. | Relitigates the candidate after the offer is out. The loop loses a week, and the candidate feels the delay. |
| Presenting a plan you opposed | Reads the slides with visible distance, or sends someone else so they do not have to stand behind it. | Presents the chosen plan as the team's plan and keeps the real risks on the table as watch items. Does not use the stage to reopen the vote. | Uses the presentation to argue the old case one more time. The audience leaves unsure what was decided, and the team loses a day re-explaining the call. |
| The thread after the meeting | Stays silent while others walk the decision back in the thread. By Friday the plan has two versions. | If the facts are unchanged, restates the decision and the next step. If something material changed, asks the owner to reopen it in the right forum, not in the chat. | Argues the same point across three channels. People mute the thread, and the work sits until next week's meeting. |
| A peer's proposal creates work for you | Nods in the meeting and later says the team cannot take it. The proposer has already promised dates. | Challenges the proposal while it is still a proposal, with the real cost and a smaller version that would work. Once it is in, staffs it without a second campaign against it. | Treats every incoming ask as a fight to win. Peers stop bringing work early, and the team learns about commitments after they are already public. |