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Practice tools

Two tools. Run the Load Curve first, because it tests the shape before anything is committed. Then use the Planner to write the page.

The diagnostic

Communication Load Curve

Draws the coordination demand the work creates against the sessions a calendar supplies. Change the party count and watch the gap open. It covers Steps 1 and 5 of the six step build.

Open the Load Curve →

The builder

Communication Planner

Writes the one page plan. One row per touchpoint, each carrying a trigger, an audience, an owner, a date and a written output. Print it or copy it into your own template.

Open the Planner →

Sizing the load before you set the cadence

Count the parties who must coordinate directly, then decide whether they coordinate as a group or through leads. This decision sets how much calendar the project needs, and it is made before any meeting is named.

Channels, everyone coordinating directly = n(n−1)/2

Channels, coordination routed through leads = about n − 1

Parties coordinating directly	Channels held open	Channels if routed through leads	What it means for the calendar
4	6	3	A single weekly session can carry the load
8	28	7	Direct coordination already exceeds what one project manager can schedule
12	66	11	No achievable meeting count covers it. Change the structure, not the cadence

Deriving a client decision latency

Do not carry an assumed number, and do not wait for a firm wide benchmark before planning the decision in front of you. Derive the number from the Grace record in 3 steps.

Pull the record. Open the last 3 decisions of the same size with this client. Where the client is new, open the 3 most comparable decisions with the 3 most comparable clients in the Grace project record.
Measure each one. Count working days from the date the request went out, framed with options and a recommendation, to the date the answer came back in writing. Count the calendar as the client experienced it, including the deferrals.
Plan on the longest. Use the longest of the 3, round up to the whole week, and write it into the plan as a named input beside the decision it governs. Revise it the first time this client returns a decision faster or slower than planned.

Decision size	Who is involved on the client side	How to derive the latency
Single point, technical	One named client staff member	Longest of the last 3 technical answers from that same person, rounded up to the whole week
Cost or scope affecting	Client project manager plus a budget holder	Longest of the last 3, then add the budget holder's own approval cycle where it runs on a fixed date
Public or governed	A board, a council or a committee that meets on a fixed cycle	Time to the next scheduled meeting date, plus one full cycle for deferral. The cycle is published, so this figure is knowable exactly

No firm wide benchmark is published. The derivation above is the method of record. The number written in the plan is yours, sourced and dated.

When a decision slips

Choose deliberately and record the choice. Proceeding silently is the only wrong answer.

Option	Use when	What you record
Hold the work	The dependent work is large and rework would be expensive	The schedule slip, stated in days, raised the same week
Proceed on a documented assumption	The likely answer is clear and the rework exposure is bounded	The assumption in writing, plus the priced rework risk
Reduce the decision	A smaller choice unblocks the work while the larger one continues	The reduced scope of the decision, confirmed by the client

Escalation

Escalate on impact to scope, schedule or fee. Escalate an overdue client decision once the request by date has passed. Neither trigger waits for the next scheduled meeting.

Level	What it resolves	Hand it up when
Team	Resolves within the work	The issue touches scope, schedule or fee
Project Manager	Owns the intersections and surfaces early	The impact crosses disciplines, or the request by date has passed
Principal in Charge	Firm level judgment and client risk	The fee, the contract or the client relationship is exposed
Client	Decides scope, fee and schedule	The decision belongs to the client to make

Three audiences, three jobs

The project team

Needs. The next handoff, the current constraint, and who is waiting on whom.

Cadence. Follows the effort curve. Highest through the middle zone.

Output. A written exchange or a closed question.

The client

Needs. Decisions framed with options, a recommendation and a decide by date.

Cadence. Set by decision points, not by a standing invitation.

Output. A decision recorded, or a documented assumption with its risk priced.

The firm

Needs. Margin position, schedule variance, and any decision now overdue.

Cadence. Monthly, aligned to the billing cycle from Module 3.

Output. A position, an exception, and an ask if one is required.

The meeting invitation

The output field is required. Do not send the invitation until it is filled. If you cannot name the output, the conversation has no trigger and should not be scheduled.

Field	Rule	Oakhaven example
Subject	The work and the week, not the meeting type	Hardened core and structural coordination, Week 6
Trigger	One of 3. Work intensity, coordination milestone, client decision point	Coordination milestone
Audience	Only the disciplines on both sides of the handoff	Architecture, Structural
Owner	One name, and it is not the room	Project Manager
The one output required	The artifact this conversation produces, in writing, the same day	Slab penetration locations agreed and recorded in the interface log
Reading required	What has to be read before, and by when	Current hardened core plan set, 2 days ahead
Duration	Sized to the output, not to the calendar block	45 minutes

The four communication patterns

These are the Module 1 archetypes doing communication work. The names are a shorthand for the behavior, and the pairing keeps the 2 lists from competing.

The Calendar Keeper. Sets a cadence at kickoff and never revisits it. The cadence is identical in the quietest and the busiest week of the project. This is the Competent Coordinator, reading a maintained schedule as a managed project. The fix is resetting density at every phase change.

The Broadcaster. Communicates constantly and closes nothing, so decisions stay open while everybody feels informed. This is the People Pleaser, keeping every audience comfortable. The fix is ending every touchpoint with one written output.

The Firefighter. Communicates when something breaks, so the client only hears from the project manager during a problem. This is the Obsessed Designer, absorbed in the work until an interruption forces contact. The fix is scheduling the decision before it becomes an escalation.

The Deliberate Communicator. Reads the work plan, schedules against coordination milestones and client decision points, and moves intensity with the work. This is the Accountable Owner. The standard is a plan whose shape a stranger could predict from the effort curve alone.

Communication debt

Coordination your work plan required and your calendar never scheduled. It doesn't disappear. It comes back as rework.

How to count it

Open the work plan. Count the dependencies that cross a discipline. Subtract the ones with a working session against them. What's left is your debt for the phase, and it's a number you can put in front of a Principal in Charge.

What it costs

The coordination happens either way. Scheduled, it's a 45 minute working session at the rate you planned. Unscheduled, it comes back as rework at roughly 2.75 times the wage per hour, which is the economic rate carried from Module 2. The fee hasn't grown to cover it, so the whole difference lands on margin.

Why it compounds

The same gap gets more expensive the later it surfaces, because more work has been built on the assumption by then.

When the gap surfaces	What you pay
The same week	The working session you should have held. 45 minutes, at the planned rate.
One phase later	The redraw, plus reissuing to every consultant who drew to the old assumption.
After a milestone has issued	The redraw, the reissue, the schedule slip, and a conversation with your client about work that was always inside scope.

What it looks like on Oakhaven. The Week 7 coordination session ran 40 minutes and ended in agreement. Nothing was written down. By Week 8, three disciplines were drawing three versions of the same routing, and somebody had to reconcile them. The session happened. The output didn't. The project paid for that exchange twice.

What in the model is grounded, and what is illustrative

The Load Curve is a teaching instrument, not an estimating instrument. Two of its relationships are established. The rest are chosen so the shape reads clearly on screen, and they are marked below.

Element	Basis	Status
Channels between parties = n(n−1)/2	The communication channel count used in project management practice. 5 parties produce 10 channels, 10 produce 45, 20 produce 190.	Established
Effort concentrates in a single peak across the phase	The cumulative form is the earned value S curve taught in Modules 2 and 5. Effort per week is its rate of change.	Established
Routing through discipline leads reduces channels to about n−1	The hub and spoke structure the channel count implies when coordination runs through a hierarchy rather than open between all parties.	Established
Sessions one project manager can run per week	An input, defaulted to 5, which is one working session a day at peak. Grace should replace the default with its own observed figure.	Illustrative
Share of channels live in a given week	Scaled by that week's effort. Real projects vary with phase and contract structure.	Illustrative

The transfer test

Hand it to somebody in two minutes

The test of learning is being able to hand it off. Pick one colleague by name, a project architect or a discipline lead on a live project, and work on their project rather than on Oakhaven.

Draw the effort curve. Mark one dependency that crosses a discipline. Put a decide by date on one client choice, then subtract the latency. Ask them the one question that tests it. Why is the request date earlier than the date we need the answer?

Then hand them the last 3 meetings on their own calendar and ask them to name the output of each. If they can, the model transferred. If they cannot, the part they missed is the part you do not own yet either.

Write down who you taught, their project, the date, and the meeting that had no output. Carry it into your Module 6 survey response.

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