Intellectual Frontiers

Test a Dependency Before Creating a Meeting

Dependency Test

Companion to The Child Should Never Experience the Organizational Chart · Updated 2026-09-30

Use this before creating a recurring meeting, adding someone to a standing team, or requiring broad collaboration. Worked as Tool 6 in “Seven Prototype Tools Put the Ideas to Work in Real Meetings”, in “Make the Seams Disappear for the Child”, and grounded in “Collaboration Has Costs, So Use It Where Dependency Is Real.”

Name the work and the outcome it is intended to change, and name the roles involved.

  • The work:
  • The outcome it is intended to change:
  • The roles involved:

Ask Five Questions for Each Pair of Roles

Fill in one copy of this table for each pair.

  • Pair of roles:
QuestionAnswer for this pair
1. Does one person’s decision change the conditions under which the other person works?
2. Does either person hold information the other routinely needs to make a good decision?
3. Can inconsistent action between the two roles create harm, rework, delay, or confusion for the child or family?
4. Is the dependency frequent enough to justify a routine rather than occasional direct contact?
5. What is the least expensive coordination mechanism that can manage the dependency reliably?

Choose the Mechanism Deliberately

Choose from the least to the most expensive, and stop at the first one that manages the dependency reliably. Mark one.

MechanismChoose one
No routine needed
A shared artifact or record
A direct handoff
A periodic check-in
A time-limited problem-solving meeting
A standing cross-functional routine
A named integration owner

Do not default to a meeting when a closed-loop handoff or shared artifact can manage the dependency. Do not default to an artifact when interpretation requires real-time professional judgment across roles. The test asks for enough coordination to manage each real dependency, and no more.

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