05 · Uplink & Downlink
Direction flows down on Monday. Signal flows up on Friday.
Mission control sends commands on the uplink and reads telemetry on the downlink, never both on one channel at once. In between, the craft simply flies. The same week shape gives every meeting a direction, and a meeting with no direction is noise.
The three phases
One job per meeting.
- ↓ UplinkMonday · leadership owns it · 30 min per level
Set the trajectory. Declare the week's gravity, the three to five outcomes that matter most. Announce decisions already made, including Lift decisions from last week's Downlink. Name the constraints, and name what is not a priority this week.
No status reporting. Questions are for clarity, not debate; debate becomes a working session. Leadership sends the Uplink packet beforehand.
- ↔ Quiet OrbitTuesday to Thursday midday · teams own it
Fly. Protect long blocks of execution time. Working sessions are allowed: problem-solving, design, pairing and reviews that end in an artifact or a decision. Short written check-ins replace the status part of the standup.
No recurring status meetings. No new direction from above; if direction changes midweek, the Uplink was wrong, so call a Mayday and say so.
- ↑ DownlinkThursday to Friday · teams own it · leadership listens
Report telemetry. Glide against the gravity declared on Monday, what went well, what didn't and why, and the escalations only leadership can decide.
Teams set the agenda. Lead with exceptions: green items get one line. The output is a Lift list that goes straight into Monday's Uplink.
Mayday
When the quiet may be broken.
| State | Breaks silence? |
|---|---|
| Floating · Teal · Green | No. Written check-in only. |
| Drifting | No. Note it now, discuss in Downlink. |
| Breaking Orbit | Yes. Tell the owning leader the same day. |
| Unstable Orbit | Yes. Tell the plan owner; fix the inputs. |
| Gravity Well | Yes. Leadership needs a Lift decision. |
A Mayday is a targeted conversation with the people who can act, not a new all-hands.
Classify every meeting
Which way does it point?
| Label | Test |
|---|---|
| ↓ Uplink | Information mainly flows from leaders to teams. Belongs on Monday. |
| ↑ Downlink | Information mainly flows from teams to leaders. Belongs Thursday or Friday. |
| ↔ Working | It ends with an artifact or a decision. Any day, mostly midweek. |
| ✕ Noise | None of the above. Cancel it. |
Put the symbol in the calendar title, such as ↓ Program Uplink, so the week's shape is visible at a glance.
The cascade
Down by level, then back up.
In larger organizations, direction cascades down through each level on Monday and telemetry rolls back up on Thursday and Friday. Teams hear the week's direction the same day it is set, and leadership hears the team's reality within a day of it happening.
| Level | ↓ Uplink | ↑ Downlink |
|---|---|---|
| Exec | Mon 08:30 | Fri 13:00 |
| Program | Mon 10:00 | Fri 09:30 |
| Team | Mon 13:00 | Thu 15:00 |
Packets
The packet does the work. The meeting covers the rest.
Both packets are sent before the meeting. Assume they were read and spend the time on what changed.
# Uplink — Week of YYYY-MM-DD ## Gravity this week (max 5) 1. <Outcome> — why it matters — owner ## Decisions made (from last Downlink) - <Lift decision> — affects <team(s)> ## Constraints & known turbulence - <Deadline / dependency / absence / customer event> ## Explicitly NOT a priority - <Thing people might assume matters but doesn't>
# Downlink — <Team> — Week of YYYY-MM-DD ## Glide vs Gravity | Outcome | State | Trend | Note | | --------- | ----- | ----- | ----------------------- | | Outcome 1 | 🟢 | ▶ | Landed | | Outcome 2 | 🟠 | ▼ | −2d, waiting on <team> | ## What went well ## What didn't ## Escalations (needs a leadership decision) - <Ask> — by when — impact if not decided ## Learnings for next Uplink
Anti-patterns
How the cadence breaks.
| Name | What it looks like | Correction |
|---|---|---|
| Retrograde meeting | Leadership gives new direction in Downlink | Capture it and announce it in the next Uplink |
| Premature telemetry | Uplink turns into a status round-robin | Status belongs in the Downlink packet |
| Signal leak | “Quick syncs” fill up the quiet orbit | Reclassify as ↔ with an output, or cancel |
| Amber Mayday | Every slip gets escalated midweek | Amber waits for Downlink |
| Silent red | Red items held until Friday to avoid conflict | Red, purple and black break silence |
| Open loop | Downlink escalations never appear in the next Uplink | Every escalation gets a Lift answer |
| Packet theater | Packets written, then read aloud line by line | Assume the packet was read; discuss what changed |