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Board Meeting Protocol

Domain: C-Level Advisory | Skill: board-meeting | Source: c-level-advisor/board-meeting/SKILL.md

Board Meeting Protocol

Structured multi-agent deliberation that prevents groupthink, captures minority views, and produces clean, actionable decisions.

Keywords

board meeting, executive deliberation, strategic decision, C-suite, multi-agent, /cs:board, founder review, decision extraction, independent perspectives

Invoke

/cs:board [topic] — e.g. /cs:board Should we expand to Spain in Q3?

The 6-Phase Protocol

PHASE 1: Context Gathering

  1. Load memory/company-context.md
  2. Load memory/board-meetings/decisions.md (Layer 2 ONLY — never raw transcripts)
  3. Reset session state — no bleed from previous conversations
  4. Present agenda + activated roles → wait for founder confirmation

Chief of Staff selects relevant roles based on topic (not all 9 every time): | Topic | Activate | |-------|----------| | Market expansion | CEO, CMO, CFO, CRO, COO | | Product direction | CEO, CPO, CTO, CMO | | Hiring/org | CEO, CHRO, CFO, COO | | Pricing | CMO, CFO, CRO, CPO | | Technology | CTO, CPO, CFO, CISO |

PHASE 2: Independent Contributions (ISOLATED)

No cross-pollination. Each agent runs before seeing others' outputs.

Order: Research (if needed) → CMO → CFO → CEO → CTO → COO → CHRO → CRO → CISO → CPO

Reasoning techniques: CEO: Tree of Thought (3 futures) | CFO: Chain of Thought (show the math) | CMO: Recursion of Thought (draft→critique→refine) | CPO: First Principles | CRO: Chain of Thought (pipeline math) | COO: Step by Step (process map) | CTO: ReAct (research→analyze→act) | CISO: Risk-Based (P×I) | CHRO: Empathy + Data

Contribution format (max 5 key points, self-verified): 

## [ROLE] — [DATE]

Key points (max 5):
• [Finding] — [VERIFIED/ASSUMED] — 🟢/🟡/🔴
• [Finding] — [VERIFIED/ASSUMED] — 🟢/🟡/🔴

Recommendation: [clear position]
Confidence: High / Medium / Low
Source: [where the data came from]
What would change my mind: [specific condition]

Each agent self-verifies before contributing: source attribution, assumption audit, confidence scoring. No untagged claims.

PHASE 3: Critic Analysis

Executive Mentor receives ALL Phase 2 outputs simultaneously. Role: adversarial reviewer, not synthesizer.

Checklist: - Where did agents agree too easily? (suspicious consensus = red flag) - What assumptions are shared but unvalidated? - Who is missing from the room? (customer voice? front-line ops?) - What risk has nobody mentioned? - Which agent operated outside their domain?

PHASE 4: Synthesis

Chief of Staff delivers using the Board Meeting Output format (defined in agent-protocol/SKILL.md): - Decision Required (one sentence) - Perspectives (one line per contributing role) - Where They Agree / Where They Disagree - Critic's View (the uncomfortable truth) - Recommended Decision + Action Items (owners, deadlines) - Your Call (options if founder disagrees)

PHASE 5: Human in the Loop ⏸️

Full stop. Wait for the founder.

⏸️ FOUNDER REVIEW — [Paste synthesis]

Options: ✅ Approve | ✏️ Modify | ❌ Reject | ❓ Ask follow-up

Rules: - User corrections OVERRIDE agent proposals. No pushback. No "but the CFO said..." - 30-min inactivity → auto-close as "pending review" - Reopen any time with /cs:board resume

PHASE 6: Decision Extraction

After founder approval: - Layer 1: Write full transcript → memory/board-meetings/YYYY-MM-DD-raw.md - Layer 2: Append approved decisions → memory/board-meetings/decisions.md - Mark rejected proposals [DO_NOT_RESURFACE] - Confirm to founder with count of decisions logged, actions tracked, flags added

Memory Structure

memory/board-meetings/
├── decisions.md          # Layer 2 — founder-approved only (Phase 1 loads this)
├── YYYY-MM-DD-raw.md     # Layer 1 — full transcripts (never auto-loaded)
└── archive/YYYY/         # Raw transcripts after 90 days

Future meetings load Layer 2 only. Never Layer 1. This prevents hallucinated consensus.

Failure Mode Quick Reference

Failure Fix
Groupthink (all agree) Re-run Phase 2 isolated; force "strongest argument against"
Analysis paralysis Cap at 5 points; force recommendation even with Low confidence
Bikeshedding Log as async action item; return to main agenda
Role bleed (CFO making product calls) Critic flags; exclude from synthesis
Layer contamination Phase 1 loads decisions.md only — hard rule

References

  • templates/meeting-agenda.md — agenda format
  • templates/meeting-minutes.md — final output format
  • references/meeting-facilitation.md — conflict handling, timing, failure modes