A fixed decision rhythm — weekly, monthly, quarterly — that removes latency from execution.
In the median mid-market organisation, necessary decisions spend nine working weeks a year in queues — not being analysed, simply waiting for a meeting with the authority to decide. The forums that exist review activity; the decisions improvise their own path, and the path is slow.
The model replaces improvised escalation with a fixed rhythm: a weekly operating forum for execution decisions, a monthly forum for resource and priority decisions, a quarterly forum for direction. Every recurring decision class is assigned to exactly one forum, with a named owner and a standard input. Latency falls because nothing has to find its own way to a decision.
The operating forum. Execution decisions against the outcome baseline: unblock, re-sequence, stop. Activity is reported in writing beforehand; the meeting decides.
60–90 minutesThe resource forum. Priorities, funding shifts and cross-functional trade-offs. The load map is reviewed; nothing new starts unless something stops.
Half dayThe direction forum. Strategy against evidence: what the operating data says about the choices, and what changes. Fed by the verified outcome ledger, not the activity report.
One dayThe three tiers are installed together — a weekly forum without a monthly resource forum simply moves the queue upstream. Decision classes are assigned once, in writing, during installation.
Organisations where decision latency is measurably pricing out programme value — the companion brief provides the measurement method.
Family-owned and founder-led firms, where the model routes personal authority through fixed forums rather than pretending it away.
Transformation programmes, as the governance layer of Draw · Hold · Release — outcomes reviewed weekly against the month-0 baseline.
The model has been installed in more than forty organisations since 2023. Its effect is measured, not asserted:
The Institute stewards the model and revises it after every tenth application review. Changes are versioned; superseded editions remain citable.
Cite as: Markham Institute, “The Operating Cadence Model”, MKM-F-002, v2.1 (2026).