Operating rhythms: why your company does not need more meetings, but a system that fits

Every beginning of the year brings the same ritual.

New meetings. New cadences. New check-ins. New formats.

A lot of energy to “fix how we work”.

And yet, a few months later, frustration returns.

Too many meetings. No real alignment. Decisions still stuck. Teams still disconnected.

The problem is not effort. The problem is that operating rhythms are often designed around the calendar, not around the company.

An operating system should never be annual.

It should be contextual.

What an operating rhythm really is

An operating rhythm is not a collection of meetings.

It is the system that allows an organisation to think, decide and execute together.

A healthy operating system always connects three levels:

Strategic

Where direction is set. Priorities are chosen. Trade-offs are made.

This level answers one question: where are we going and why.

Tactical

Where strategy becomes plans, sequencing and ownership.

This level answers: what are we focusing on now and who owns it.

Operational

Where execution happens. Progress is tracked. Issues are surfaced early.

This level answers: what is happening on the ground.

These levels must work in sync. If one fails, the others compensate poorly.

Strategy without operational cadence becomes abstract.

Operations without strategy become busy work.

The goal of the system is simple: everyone understands how their work contributes to the same direction.

One size never fits all

A startup and a SME cannot run on the same operating rhythm.

In a startup, speed is king.

Daily and frequent syncs are critical, not because people like meetings, but because decisions need to move fast and uncertainty is constant.

That said, even here, cadence depends on the founders. Their decision style, their digital maturity, their ability to work asynchronously.

More meetings do not automatically mean more speed.

In a SME, strategy often has a clearer cadence.

But tactical and operational rhythms frequently lag behind.

Teams keep working as they always have, while leadership assumes alignment exists.

Here, the challenge is synchronisation across levels and across digital maturity, from the top to the frontline.

Context matters.

Market matters.

Team capability matters.

The illusion of the new year reset

One of the most common mistakes I see at the start of the year is this: trying to launch multiple initiatives at once.

Energy is high. Ideas are flowing. Everything feels urgent.

But organisations do not move in parallel lines.

At any given moment, a company should be aligned around one global initiative.

One clear priority that connects strategy, operations and customer impact.

Everything else supports that.

Operating rhythms exist to protect focus, not to fragment it.

Systems evolve with maturity, not with the calendar

An operating system should change only when something meaningful changes:

• The objective shifts.

• The company matures.

• The team grows or shrinks.

• The market forces a different pace.

A system does not change because the year changed.

When that happens, confusion usually follows.

In early-stage companies, rhythms evolve quickly.

In more mature organisations, they evolve more deliberately.

But in both cases, change must be intentional and explained.

The human factor is not a detail

No operating rhythm works if it ignores people.

Imposing too much structure too fast creates resistance.

Moving too slowly creates stagnation.

The role of leadership is to set a pace that stretches the organisation without breaking it.

To create enough tension for progress, but enough stability for trust.

This is where many transformations fail.

They focus on tools, frameworks and meeting calendars.

They forget that rhythm is also emotional. It affects motivation, clarity and energy.

This is where my work usually starts

When I work with companies as a fractional COO, the first step is rarely to add anything.

It is to understand the rhythm that already exists, formally or informally.

How decisions are made.

Where alignment breaks.

Where energy is lost.

Where people are stuck reacting instead of leading.

Only then does it make sense to design or adjust an operating system that fits the company’s reality, maturity and goals.

Operating rhythms are not about control.

They are about coherence.

And when they are right, teams stop running in circles and start moving together.