Who is who
Noticing Who Is Not in the Room
Who attends a meeting, who is consulted and who is absent describe an organisation more accurately than any account of it, and a new person can read all three.
What the people on this page had to find out, and where from
Who signs off a schema change
you asked4Three people were asked before the right one
That two people on the team do not speak to each other
worked out11Worked out from who was never on the same call
two things you had to know · nobody told you any of them · the median arrived in week 11 · all two you went and got
Two facts about the shape of a team, neither of which appears on any chart and neither of which anybody would have said out loud.
A useful onboarding review separates time spent learning from time spent blocked, so teams can open the current service page and discuss the pattern with the employee rather than relying on impressions.
For additional context beyond this collection, see the material published by Citizens Advice.
Five things about the shape of the team that nobody stated
That decisions are made in the design review, not the planning meeting
worked out8Noticed because nothing agreed in planning survived
That two people on the team do not speak to each other
worked out11Worked out from who was never on the same call
That the person who runs the release is not on the team
you asked2Asked once it became obvious that nobody on the team could answer
That one person is consulted on everything, informally
worked out4Noticed from how often their name appeared in other people's messages
That nobody from the support side is ever in the planning meeting
worked out6Noticed, and it explained several things at once
five things you had to know · nobody told you any of them · the median arrived in week 6 · all five you went and got
Five observations about how the team actually works, four of them made by noticing rather than by being told. All four were visible in week one and none was legible until later. One person's own twelve weeks.
Who is in a meeting, who is consulted before it, and who is never there at all describe how an organisation works more accurately than anything anybody will tell you about it.
A new person can read these from week one, and will stop being able to within about two months, because attendance becomes normal faster than almost anything else.
What to watch
Who is in the meeting that matters. Not the meeting with the important name — the one where things actually get decided. You can tell which it is by watching what survives: if a decision made in planning is routinely revisited in the design review, the design review is the meeting.
Who is consulted before decisions. Somebody whose name appears in other people's messages — "I will check with X", "X was happy with it" — holds real authority regardless of their title. Count the mentions over a fortnight.
Who is never there. The most informative of the three. A planning meeting with nobody from support in it produces plans that do not account for support, every time, and nobody in the room notices because nobody in the room is from support.
Who talks and who does not. In any recurring meeting, two or three people speak and the rest attend. That is normal. What is worth noting is anybody who used to speak and has stopped.
Why you can see this and they cannot
Because attendance is invisible to people who have always been there.
The composition of a meeting is a decision somebody made once, years ago, usually for a reason that has lapsed. Everybody since has inherited it as a fact. You are the only person who sees a list of names rather than a room.
That advantage lasts about eight weeks.
What to do with it
Mostly, write it down and wait.
A new person who arrives in week three observing that the wrong people are in the planning meeting is correct and is also somebody who has been there three weeks. The observation will be heard as criticism of whoever set it up.
| What you noticed | When to raise it | How |
|---|---|---|
| Nobody from support attends planning | Week eight or later | As a question |
| Two people avoid each other | Never | It is not your business |
| One person is informally consulted on everything | Never; just use it | Ask them early |
| Decisions happen in a different meeting | Immediately, for yourself | Attend that one |
The last row is the actionable one. If decisions happen somewhere else, go there. You do not need to tell anybody that the planning meeting is not where decisions happen; you need to be in the design review.
The thing that is not your business
You will notice interpersonal things — who avoids whom, who is tired of whom, an old disagreement nobody mentions.
These are real and they are none of a new person's business. Noting them privately is sensible, because they explain behaviour you would otherwise find baffling. Acting on them, mentioning them, or taking a side in your first six months is the fastest available way to make your own position worse.
The question that is safe to ask
One form works in almost any team and produces most of this information without anybody feeling examined:
Is there anybody who should be in this meeting and is not? I am still working out who cares about what.
Asked of one person, privately, in week six or later. The answer is often immediate and detailed, because the thing you have noticed is usually something somebody has been quietly thinking for a year.
Reading a meeting you do not understand
In the first weeks you will sit in meetings and follow very little. There is still something to read, and it does not require following the content.
| What to watch | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Who speaks first on each item | Who owns it, regardless of the chart |
| Who is asked directly | Who is trusted on what |
| Where the meeting slows down | Which topics are unresolved |
| What is deferred twice | What nobody wants to decide |
None of this requires understanding the subject. Half an hour of watching a meeting this way, in week two, gives you more of the shape of a team than any amount of being told who does what.
Write the names down afterwards with what each spoke about. That is a map of the team, built from one meeting, at no cost to anybody.