Board Meeting Protocol

Structured multi-agent deliberation that prevents groupthink, captures minority views, and produces clean, actionable decisions. Every phase has a purpose, a format, and rules that cannot be skipped.

Keywords

board meeting, executive deliberation, strategic decision, C-suite, multi-agent, founder review, decision extraction, independent perspectives, groupthink prevention, synthesis, critic analysis, structured deliberation

The 6-Phase Protocol

PHASE 1: Context Gathering
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PHASE 2: Independent Contributions (ISOLATED)
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PHASE 3: Critic Analysis (Executive Mentor)
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PHASE 4: Synthesis (Chief of Staff)
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PHASE 5: Founder Review (FULL STOP -- human decides)
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PHASE 6: Decision Extraction and Logging

Phase 1: Context Gathering

Purpose: Load all relevant context before anyone contributes.

Step 1: Load company context (if exists)
Step 2: Load decision history (Layer 2 ONLY -- NEVER raw transcripts)
Step 3: Reset session state -- no bleed from previous conversations
Step 4: Present agenda and activated roles
Step 5: Wait for founder confirmation before proceeding

Role Activation Matrix

Not all roles attend every meeting. Select based on topic:

Topic Domain	Activate	Exclude
Market expansion	CEO, CMO, CFO, CRO, COO	CTO (unless tech expansion)
Product direction	CEO, CPO, CTO, CMO	CFO (unless budget question)
Hiring / org	CEO, CHRO, CFO, COO	CMO, CTO (unless their teams)
Pricing	CMO, CFO, CRO, CPO	CTO, CHRO
Technology	CTO, CPO, CFO, CISO	CMO, CRO
Fundraising	CEO, CFO, CRO	CISO, CHRO
Security incident	CEO, CTO, CISO, COO	CMO, CRO
M&A	CEO, CFO, CTO, CHRO, COO	-- (all relevant)

Maximum attendees: 6 roles per meeting. More than 6 creates noise, not insight.

Phase 2: Independent Contributions (ISOLATED)

Critical Rule: No cross-pollination. Each advisor contributes without seeing others' outputs. This is the primary groupthink prevention mechanism.

Contribution Order

1. Research/data gathering (if needed)
2. CMO  -- market perspective
3. CFO  -- financial perspective
4. CEO  -- strategic perspective
5. CTO  -- technical perspective
6. COO  -- operational perspective
7. CHRO -- people perspective
8. CRO  -- revenue perspective
9. CISO -- security/risk perspective
10. CPO -- product perspective

Contribution Format (Strict)

Each advisor's contribution must follow this exact format:

## [ROLE] -- [DATE]

Key Points (maximum 5):
  1. [Finding] -- Confidence: [High/Medium/Low] -- Source: [data source]
  2. [Finding] -- Confidence: [High/Medium/Low] -- Source: [data source]
  3. [Finding] -- Confidence: [High/Medium/Low] -- Source: [data source]

Recommendation: [Clear position statement]
Confidence: [High / Medium / Low]
Key Assumption: [The one assumption this recommendation depends on]
What Would Change My Mind: [Specific condition or data point]

Reasoning Techniques by Role

Role	Technique	How It Works
CEO	Tree of Thought	Explore 3 possible futures, evaluate each
CFO	Chain of Thought	Show the math, step by step
CMO	Recursion of Thought	Draft -> self-critique -> refine
CPO	First Principles	Decompose to fundamental user needs
CRO	Chain of Thought	Pipeline math must be explicit
COO	Step by Step	Map the operational process
CTO	Analyze then Act	Research -> analyze -> recommend
CISO	Risk-Based	Probability x Impact for every option
CHRO	Empathy + Data	Human impact first, then validate with metrics

Phase 3: Critic Analysis

Purpose: The Executive Mentor receives ALL Phase 2 outputs simultaneously and performs adversarial review.

Critic Checklist

Check	Question
Suspicious consensus	Where did agents agree too easily?
Shared assumptions	What assumptions are shared but unvalidated?
Missing voice	Who is not in the room? (customer voice? front-line ops?)
Unmentioned risk	What risk has nobody mentioned?
Domain bleed	Did any agent operate outside their domain?
Data quality	Which claims are backed by data vs. assumption?
Reversibility	Has anyone assessed if this decision can be undone?

Critic Output Format

## CRITIC ANALYSIS

Consensus Assessment:
  [Genuine agreement / Suspicious alignment / Split decision]

Unvalidated Assumptions:
  1. [Assumption shared by multiple advisors but not verified]
  2. [Assumption]

Missing Perspectives:
  - [Voice or data point not represented]

Unmentioned Risks:
  - [Risk nobody raised]

Domain Violations:
  - [If any agent operated outside their domain]

The Uncomfortable Truth:
  [The one thing nobody wants to say but needs to be said]

Phase 4: Synthesis

Purpose: Chief of Staff combines all inputs into a decision-ready format.

Synthesis Structure

## BOARD MEETING SYNTHESIS
Topic: [topic]
Date: [date]
Attendees: [roles]

### Decision Required
[One sentence: what must be decided]

### Perspectives Summary
| Role | Position | Confidence | Key Concern |
|------|----------|-----------|-------------|
| [Role] | [1-line summary] | [H/M/L] | [Top concern] |
| [Role] | [1-line summary] | [H/M/L] | [Top concern] |

### Where They Agree
[2-3 consensus points]

### Where They Disagree
[Named conflicts with each side's reasoning]
[What the disagreement is really about]

### Critic's View
[The uncomfortable truth from Phase 3]

### Recommended Decision
[Clear recommendation with rationale]

### Action Items (if approved)
1. [Action] -- Owner: [role] -- Deadline: [date]
2. [Action] -- Owner: [role] -- Deadline: [date]
3. [Action] -- Owner: [role] -- Deadline: [date]

### Your Call
[If you disagree with the recommendation, here are alternatives:]
Option A: [description] -- Trade-off: [what you gain/lose]
Option B: [description] -- Trade-off: [what you gain/lose]

Phase 5: Founder Review

FULL STOP. Wait for the founder. No agent acts beyond this point.

FOUNDER REVIEW

[Paste synthesis above]

Options:
  [A] Approve as recommended
  [M] Modify (specify changes)
  [R] Reject (specify reason)
  [Q] Ask follow-up question to specific role
  [D] Defer decision (specify timeline)

Phase 5 Rules

Rule	Rationale
Founder corrections override all agent proposals	Human judgment is final
No pushback on founder decisions	Agents advise, founder decides
30-minute inactivity auto-closes as "pending review"	Prevents zombie meetings
Founder can reopen any time	Decisions are not time-locked
Follow-up questions go to specific role	Keeps discussion focused

Phase 6: Decision Extraction

Purpose: After founder approval, extract and log all decisions.

Step 1: Write full transcript to Layer 1
  --> memory/board-meetings/YYYY-MM-DD-raw.md

Step 2: Run conflict detection against existing decisions
  --> Check for DO_NOT_RESURFACE violations
  --> Check for topic contradictions
  --> Check for owner conflicts

Step 3: Surface any conflicts to founder for resolution

Step 4: Append approved decisions to Layer 2
  --> memory/board-meetings/decisions.md

Step 5: Mark rejected proposals with DO_NOT_RESURFACE

Step 6: Confirm to founder:
  "Meeting concluded. Logged: [N] decisions, [M] action items,
   [K] DO_NOT_RESURFACE flags."

Failure Mode Reference

Failure	Detection	Fix
Groupthink	All advisors agree without tension	Re-run Phase 2 isolated; force "strongest argument against"
Analysis paralysis	Discussion exceeds 5 points per advisor	Cap at 5; force recommendation even with Low confidence
Bikeshedding	Discussion on minor points, major decisions deferred	Log as async action; return to main agenda
Role bleed	CFO making product calls, CTO pricing	Critic flags in Phase 3; exclude from synthesis
Layer contamination	Raw transcripts loaded in Phase 1	Hard rule: decisions.md only. Never raw.
Founder absence	Phase 5 timeout	Auto-close as pending. No decisions without founder.
Stale context	Company context not loaded	Phase 1 mandatory context check
Missing role	Key perspective not activated	Chief of Staff reviews topic against routing matrix

Meeting Cadence

Trigger	Meeting Type	Typical Duration
Scheduled quarterly	Full strategic review	2-3 hours
Complexity score >= 8	On-demand strategic	1-2 hours
Cross-functional conflict	Resolution meeting	1 hour
Crisis or urgent decision	Emergency session	30-60 minutes
Founder request	Any topic	Varies

Red Flags

Board meetings consistently produce no decisions -- meeting is theater
Same topic discussed in 3+ meetings -- decision avoidance
Phase 2 contributions all align perfectly -- isolation was breached or topic is trivial
No Phase 3 (critic) conducted -- groupthink risk
Founder skipping Phase 5 -- decisions without accountability
Decisions logged but never reviewed -- decision logger not functioning
Meeting attendees always include all roles -- topic selection not working

Output Artifacts

Request	Deliverable
"Convene the board on [topic]"	Full 6-phase protocol execution
"Quick advisory meeting"	Abbreviated: Phase 1-2-4-5 (skip critic)
"Review a past meeting"	Load Layer 1 raw transcript (explicit request only)
"What did we decide about [topic]?"	Search Layer 2 decision history
"Resume a pending meeting"	Reload Phase 5 with pending synthesis