Coordinate and act
Vision and Run Are Different Jobs
Separate who sets the direction of an AI-augmented process from who runs it day to day, with an explicit handoff.
Borrowed from stage management in theater, where the director sets the vision and the stage manager runs each performance.
Changes a rule or role · Minutes to start · Anyone on the team can start it
Try this first
On one piece of work, name two roles out loud. Who sets direction, and who runs it.
Use it when
The visionary is also (poorly) running the day-to-day, or the two roles are tangled.
Skip it when
On small work the split is overhead. It earns its keep on sustained AI-augmented processes where direction and daily operation are different jobs.
How to introduce it
Split two jobs that get blurred. One person or group shapes what the work should be. Another runs it day to day, faithful to that intent, without making new directional calls on the fly. Make the handoff between them explicit.
How to show up
Name who owns direction and who owns running, then make the handoff a real moment. Watch the boundary in both directions: the runner drifting into new decisions, and the visionary meddling in the running.
How long it takes
Little setup beyond naming the two roles and the handoff.
What makes it hard
Whoever set the vision struggles to stop interfering, and the runner drifts from the intent. Hold both. The handoff is the fragile point, so make it explicit rather than assumed.
What it looks like when it's working
Direction and running sit with different people, the runner executes the intent, and the work stays coherent. Meddling from one side or re-deciding from the other means the split is not holding.
How long until it sticks
A few pieces of work before the separation and clean handoff feel natural.
How you know it stuck
The team distinguishes setting direction from running the work and hands off cleanly.
The idea behind it
Setting direction and running an operation take different skills and are different jobs. Blur them and you damage both.
Where it comes from
Stage management. Separate who sets the direction of an AI-augmented process from who owns running it day to day, and make the handoff explicit. The director sets the vision. At opening, the stage manager takes over and runs the live show: "calling" every light, sound, and scene-change cue. While preserving the director's intent, without making new artistic calls.
Why it matters for senior teams
It shapes direction and consequential decisions
Evidence
No reference link has been found for this move yet.