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?

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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

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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.

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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?

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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)

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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References

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