mc-quarterly-positioning

Conductor - Quarterly Positioning

Part of the MC Conductor bundle. The quarterly asks what to set up.

The Monthly Review names what's real. The Quarterly Positioning asks: Given what is real, what should you be setting up now?

This is the highest-altitude cadence skill in Conductor. It is not a retrospective disguised as a plan. It is a positioning read.

Conductor Profile

If a Conductor Profile is available, use it to adapt this skill to the leader's role, organization, stakeholders, strategic arc, source map, communication duties, directness preference, and off-limits areas.

If no profile is available, ask only the minimum context needed for this run. Do not force the full onboarding interview unless the user is intentionally setting up Conductor. See docs/onboarding.md for the shared setup flow.

Cadence rule

Run quarterly, ideally after the quarter closes or at the start of the next quarter. If a Monthly Review is due the same week, run Monthly Review first and use it as the final month in the cascade.

What to bring

Bring your own sources:

1. The last three Monthly Reviews.
2. Weekly reflections if monthly reviews are missing.
3. Calendar/time allocation for the quarter.
4. Board, investor, market, customer, client, or stakeholder signals.
5. Financial or operating summaries at a high level.
6. Reading, writing, strategy, or product themes from the quarter.
7. Relationship or network summaries.
8. Current "what matters now" document, annual goals, strategic plan, or CEO priorities.
9. Previous Quarterly Positioning, if one exists.

If fewer than two monthly reviews exist, say the cascade is thin and build from weeklies plus direct sources.

Evidence protocol

Track the source state:

• Used: source informed the positioning read.
• Provided, no signal: source was available but did not change the read.
• Missing: source would materially improve confidence.

End with a short Sources used: line. Do not claim source coverage you do not have.

What quarterly is responsible for

The quarterly view names:

• Which themes persisted across months.
• Which capabilities are being built, intentionally or accidentally.
• What the leader's actual work says about positioning.
• Whether professional and personal architectures reinforce each other.
• Whether the relationship architecture serves the next version of the work.
• What open question should guide the next 90 days.

It should create strategic readiness, not a long action plan.

Step 1: Establish the range

Define the quarter under review. Note whether it is a calendar quarter, fiscal quarter, school-year quarter, board cycle, fundraising cycle, or custom 90-day arc.

Step 2: Gather cascade input

Use Monthly Reviews as primary input. Extract:

• Pattern arcs: themes that persisted, grew, or faded.
• Energy trajectory.
• Relationship cadence.
• Honest reads and whether they repeated.
• Accountability trend.
• Strategic commitments that held or drifted.

If fewer than two Monthly Reviews exist, use Friday Pattern Reads and Sunday Reflections directly.

Step 3: Cascade exceptions

The quarterly needs some direct inputs because monthly compression can lose personal and strategic signal. Use any provided:

• Personal reflections or leader notes.
• Reading and writing themes.
• Current "what matters now" or strategic-priorities document.
• Previous quarter's open question.
• Calendar allocation across the full quarter.
• High-level financial or operating context.
• Market and stakeholder signals.

Do not turn this into a data-room review. Pull only what informs positioning and coherence.

Three movements

Movement 1: Positioning Scan

Ask:

• Where is the work converging?
• What is the market, organization, or leadership context starting to reward?
• Which capabilities became more visible this quarter?
• Which offers, decisions, products, relationships, or internal systems are pulling the leader toward a future not yet named?
• Which themes faded, and what does that say?

Include reading, writing, and intellectual signals when available. What a leader reads, writes, teaches, and repeats is often a leading indicator of positioning.

Movement 2: Coherence Check

Ask whether the current architecture serves the stated direction:

• Does the calendar serve the strategy?
• Does the business model serve the life the leader says they want?
• Does the team shape serve the work that is coming?
• Does the relationship architecture serve the next version of the role?
• Are personal constraints being treated as real design inputs or inconvenient footnotes?
• Are current commitments built for the next version of the work or the last one?

This section should be honest. Many leaders set strategy as if their lives are irrelevant. They are not.

Movement 3: The Open Question

Generate one question to carry into the next quarter.

If a prior Quarterly Positioning exists, address its open question first:

• Was it resolved?
• Refined?
• Retired?
• Avoided?

Then name the new question. It should sit at the intersection of external positioning and internal coherence.

Strong: "What would you stop selling if the next quarter had to prove the business you actually want to build?"

Weak: "How can you make next quarter successful?"

Setup Notes

End with 3-5 short notes on what should be set up, protected, stopped, or watched. These are not a task plan. They are strategic setup conditions for the next 90 days.

Output format

## Quarterly Positioning - Q[Number] [Year]

### Movement 1: Positioning Scan
[4-6 paragraphs.]

### Movement 2: Coherence Check
[3-5 paragraphs.]

### Movement 3: The Open Question
[Address prior question if available. Then name one question for the next quarter.]

### Setup Notes
[3-5 short notes on what should be set up, protected, stopped, or watched. Not a task plan.]

Sources used: [Used sources; missing sources that materially limit confidence.]

Quality bar

• 2,500-4,000 words is the normal range.
• Forward-facing, not nostalgic.
• Strategic, not operational.
• Honest about coherence gaps.
• No annual-planning boilerplate.
• No "goals for next quarter" template unless the user explicitly asks for goals.
• The open question should be worth rereading in 90 days.

Where this fits in the Conductor rhythm

Quarterly Positioning uses the Monthly Reviews as primary input. It gives the next quarter's Morning Briefs, Sunday Reflections, and Monthly Reviews a clearer strategic horizon.

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