agenda-or-cancel

# Agenda Or Cancel Skill

The agenda isn't paperwork — it's the meeting's existence test. A meeting whose organizer can't write three lines (what this is for, what we'll decide, what to read first) is a meeting that hasn't earned its attendee-hours, and the kindest outcome is its cancellation or conversion to a message. This skill writes the agenda when one can be written, renders the cancel verdict when it can't, and scripts the graceful exits — because "no agenda, no meeting" only works as a norm when declining is socially cheap.

## What This Skill Produces

- **The three-line agenda** — purpose (one sentence), decisions/outcomes sought (listed), pre-reads with time cost
- **The verdict** — happen / shorten / convert-to-async / cancel — from the agenda-writing attempt itself
- **The scripts** — the polite cancel, the convert-to-message, and the decline-without-agenda lines
- **The norm rollout** — how a team installs the rule without a compliance war

## Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:
- **The meeting's claimed purpose** — what the organizer thinks it's for; the agenda attempt tests whether that survives writing down
- **The attendee list and length** — the cost side (people × time), which the purpose must justify
- **What a good outcome looks like** — a decision? alignment? information moved? If the outcome is "information moved," the convert-to-async branch is already winning
- **The recurring-or-oneoff status** — recurring meetings route to [standing-meeting-audit](../standing-meeting-audit/SKILL.md) for the deeper treatment

## Framework: The Test Rules

1. **The agenda is three lines or the meeting is fiction:** *Purpose:* why we're gathering, one sentence. *Outcomes:* the decisions or artifacts this meeting produces (verbs, not topics). *Pre-reads:* what to read and how long it takes. If line two can't list a decision or artifact, the meeting is a broadcast — and broadcasts are messages.
2. **The 24-hour rule:** agenda ships with (or ≥24h before) the invite — attendees who can't prepare attend as audience, and audiences don't decide. Meetings that can't produce an agenda a day out aren't urgent; they're unformed.
3. **The verdict follows the attempt:** agenda writes cleanly → happen (at the length the outcomes justify — most three-line agendas fit 25 minutes). Outcomes are all information-transfer → convert to a message/doc. Purpose exists but no decisions this week → shorten or skip this instance. Nothing survives writing down → cancel, with the script.
4. **Declining needs a cheap script:** "Happy to join — could you share the agenda first so I can prep?" does the enforcement politely; the norm survives only if asking is routine, not confrontational. Organizer-side cancel: "Cancelling — the two items resolved async / aren't ready for decisions yet. Reconvening when [trigger]."
5. **Roll out as a gift, not a law:** the team adopts "agenda-or-cancel" by the leader modeling it on their *own* meetings first (cancelling one publicly is worth ten policy emails), the three-line format pinned where invites happen, and the decline script blessed explicitly so juniors can use it upward.

## Output Format

# Agenda Test: [meeting]

## The Three Lines
**Purpose:** … **Outcomes:** [decisions/artifacts, verbs] **Pre-reads:** [links + minutes]

## The Verdict
[Happen ([N] min) / shorten / convert / cancel — with the reasoning from the attempt]

## Scripts (as needed)
[The cancel · the convert-to-message · the agenda-first decline]

## Rollout (for teams installing the norm)
[Leader models on own meetings · format pinned · decline script blessed downward and upward]

## Quality Checks

- [ ] The outcomes line contains decisions or artifacts, not topic nouns
- [ ] Pre-reads carry their time cost
- [ ] The verdict came from the writing attempt, not from meeting-hating priors
- [ ] Every script is usable by the most junior attendee
- [ ] Recurring meetings were routed to the audit instead of one-off verdicts

## Anti-Patterns

- [ ] Do not write topic agendas — "discuss roadmap" is a location, not a purpose
- [ ] Do not accept "we'll figure it out live" — that's the agenda test failing in real time, at full attendance
- [ ] Do not use the rule as a weapon — the verdict includes "happen"; meeting-zero is not the goal, meeting-earned is
- [ ] Do not ship the agenda at meeting-start — unprepped deciders are attendees
- [ ] Do not install the norm by decree — the leader's own cancelled meeting is the announcement