3.2 The Daily/Weekly Cadence

Establishing a clear, disciplined communication rhythm is mandatory for operational efficiency. A predictable cadence reduces the cognitive load of scheduling and protects the contiguous blocks of time required for focused technical work ("Deep Work"). The organization operates on a tiered meeting structure — Daily, Weekly, and Quarterly — each with a distinct purpose and mandatory standard agenda.

The Standard Agenda Mandate

Recurring meetings must not require a unique agenda for every occurrence. Instead, they must operate on a Standing Agenda — a fixed, repetitive structure that ensures consistency and reduces preparation time.

• The Mandate: Every recurring meeting series must have a defined Standing Agenda pinned in the invite and the documentation notes.
• Deviation: If there are no items for a specific section of the Standing Agenda, that section is skipped. If there are no items at all, the meeting is canceled.

The Meeting Taxonomy

The operational rhythm is defined by six specific interaction types.

The Daily Standup (Tactical)

• Frequency: Daily (Start of day or shift overlap).
• Duration: Strict 15-minute cap.
• Format: Standing (physically or virtually).
• Agenda:
  1. What was completed yesterday?
  2. What is committed for today?
  3. Are there any Blockers? (Critical Path).
• Mandate: Problem-solving is prohibited during the Standup. Issues raised are taken "offline" to a focused sidebar immediately after. Status must reference the Project Tool, not memory.

The Sprint Planning and Review (Operational)

• Frequency: Weekly or Biweekly (depending on team velocity).
• Duration: 60 – 90 minutes.
• Agenda:
  1. Review: Demo or confirmation of output from the previous cycle (Output vs. Plan).
  2. Plan: Commit to specific tasks for the next cycle based on capacity.
  3. Capacity Check: Verify resource availability (holidays, maintenance).

The Retrospective (Continuous Improvement)

• Frequency: Biweekly or Monthly (Post-Sprint or Post-Milestone).
• Focus: Process improvement, not status.
• Agenda:
  1. What went well? (Sustain).
  2. What went wrong? (Correct).
  3. Action Plan: Assign owners to fix the systemic issues identified (linked to CAPA or Kaizen tickets).

Department Syncs (Alignment)

• Frequency: Weekly.
• Focus: Cross-functional alignment between leads (e.g., Engineering Lead + Manufacturing Lead).
• Agenda: Resource de-confliction, timeline risks, and NPI readiness checks.

The Townhall (Strategic)

• Frequency: Monthly.
• Focus: Organizational transparency and "One Dannie" alignment.
• Agenda: Financial health check, major milestone updates, strategic shifts, and open Q&A.

Performance and Strategy (Quarterly)

• Quarterly KPI Review: Deep dive into business metrics (CoPQ, RTY, Margin) with leadership. Focus is on data trends and strategic course correction.
• 1-on-1s: Mandatory quarterly career development sync (separate from weekly tactical syncs). Focus on career growth, feedback, and wellbeing.

Protecting Deep Work

To support the "Precision over Speed" value, the schedule must accommodate the need for uninterrupted concentration.

• Deep Work Blocks: Personnel must schedule and protect blocks of time (minimum 2 – 4 hours) for design, analysis, coding, or documentation.
• Interruption Protocol: During Deep Work blocks, interruptions are restricted to Tier 1 (Critical Stop) alerts only.
• Communication Stagger: Daily Standups should be staggered away from prime Deep Work hours (e.g., schedule standups at the very start or very end of the day) to avoid fragmenting the productive window.

Final Checklist