Problem
Meetings produced decisions that nobody owned. Priorities were set by whoever spoke last. Nothing finished.
What I saw
It looked like a capacity problem. It was an ownership problem: decisions left meetings without an owner or a date.
What changed
Shelved the new product. Named one commercial focus. Gave every open decision an owner, a date and a definition of done. Wrote the cost cut list while things were still fine. Set a weekly rhythm around what actually got produced.
Outcome
One priority instead of four. A team that knows what "done this week" means. A cut list that turned a future panic into a decision already made.
Lesson Execution is a system, not a personality trait. Accountability fails when a decision has no owner. Related idea: Revenue is not resilience