Exercises: Day-Of Execution

Part B is timed. Several exercises ask you to decide in sixty seconds; do them with a clock, because the constraint is the exercise.

Difficulty guide: ⭐ Foundational (5–10 min) · ⭐⭐ Intermediate (10–20 min) · ⭐⭐⭐ Challenging (20–40 min) · ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Advanced (40+ min)

Part A: Conceptual Understanding ⭐

A.1. State the chapter's threshold concept and say what differs between planning and deciding.

A.2. Give the six rows of §27.1's before/on-the-day table.

A.3. State the four triage questions in order. Which eliminates most problems?

A.4. Why is "if it is satisfying to do, check whether it is worth doing" a useful test?

A.5. Give the four steps of a sixty-second decision. Which step do people skip and what does skipping it cost?

A.6. Name the five things nobody tells a planner, and say how each is found instead.

A.7. What single sentence at the 7:05 briefing changes what gets escalated, and why does it work?

A.8. State the six radio rules.

A.9. Give the four clauses of the decision protocol. Which is the one nobody writes?

A.10. Why are the couple "guests at their own wedding" on the day?

A.11. Name the two non-negotiable positions and say why the ceremony position is the side rather than the back.

A.12. State the three attention sinks in order, and which is most expensive.

A.13. Describe the sweep — route, frequency, and the one discipline.

A.14. Name the four times a planner must be visible.

Part B: Applied Analysis ⭐⭐

B.1. Triage twenty problems. (Timed — ten seconds each.) Write twenty plausible day-of problems and triage each through the four questions. Report how many die at question one.

B.2. Make ten decisions in sixty seconds each. (Timed.) For each, name the constraint, generate two options, choose on a stated ranking, and write the instruction with a name and a time:

• (a) The cake is leaning, 3:40 p.m.
• (b) A vendor is 50 minutes late at 8:20 a.m.
• (c) A vendor is 15 minutes late at 1:15 p.m.
• (d) The couple's car has not arrived, 3:44 p.m. for a 4:25 ceremony
• (e) It starts raining at 3:10 for a 4:25 outdoor ceremony
• (f) A reader has not arrived, 4:20
• (g) The DJ says the generator "sounds funny," 6:50
• (h) A guest is very drunk at 9:15
• (i) A parent asks you to move two people at the top table, 5:50
• (j) The photographer wants the couple at 8:52

B.3. Write a decision protocol. All four clauses, in the words you would use with a couple. Then write the version for a couple with a $9,000 budget and one for a couple with $180,000 and say what differs.

B.4. Write the two briefings. 7:05 and 3:20, in full, for a wedding you specify.

B.5. Build a position schedule. Hour by hour for a full day, with the two non-negotiables marked and a reason for every entry.

B.6. Design a sweep route. For a real or constructed venue. Six things to look at, a fixed order, and four minutes. Then say what you would find on each sweep at 5:40, 7:00, 8:00, 9:20, and 10:15.

B.7. Write six people-scripts. For §27.5a's six situations, in your own words.

B.8. Write three handoffs. The four-minute, the one-hour, and the whole-day. Include what you would need to have in place before the day for the third.

Part C: Real-World Application ⭐⭐–⭐⭐⭐

C.1. Shadow a planner. ⭐⭐⭐ For a full event day if you can arrange it. Record every decision they make and time it. Report how many, how long each took, and how many were triaged out.

C.2. Count what reaches you. ⭐⭐⭐ At any event you run or help at, tally problems by source — vendor, venue, family, guest — and by whether a guest would have noticed.

C.3. Do a sweep. ⭐⭐ At any event, walk a fixed route and look at six things without fixing anything. Report what you found and how much you wanted to fix.

C.4. Ask about attention. ⭐⭐⭐ Ask two experienced planners: "what do you spend the day noticing?" and "what do you deliberately not do?" Write 600 words.

C.5. Time yourself deciding. ⭐⭐ Take B.2's ten scenarios and have somebody read them to you cold. Record how long each took.

C.6. Watch a face. ⭐⭐ At any event, find the person in charge and watch whether their expression changes when something goes wrong. Report.

Part D: Synthesis and Critical Thinking ⭐⭐⭐

D.1. Cross-chapter integration. Chapters 24, 25, and 26 all exist to make this chapter's decisions faster. Trace three specific day-of decisions back to the documents that pre-made them, and identify one that no document covers.

D.2. Critique the notice test. §27.2 says a problem a guest will not notice is not a problem. Argue that this is a low standard — that a planner is paid for the event being right rather than for it appearing right, and that the test licenses a slide. Then respond.

D.3. The fourth clause. §27.5's protocol includes an agreement not to tell the couple about things they cannot fix. Argue that this is a planner deciding what a client may know about their own wedding. Then respond, and say where the line is.

D.4. Invisibility. §27.8 makes invisibility a discipline. Argue that it is a professional self-effacement that costs the industry — that planners who are never seen are never valued, and that the norm depresses fees. Then respond.

D.5. Two hundred decisions. §27.1 claims a planner makes about two hundred decisions in a day. Design the measurement that would test it, and say what you would expect the distribution to look like.

D.6. Transfer. Compare a wedding planner's day with an operating-theatre lead, a shift charge nurse, a film first AD, an air traffic controller, or a restaurant expediter. Which is the closest, and what does it have that events lack?

Part M: Mixed Practice (Interleaved) ⭐⭐–⭐⭐⭐

M.1. (Ch.25 + Ch.27) A crew is 30 minutes behind at 9:20 a.m. and again at 1:20 p.m. Triage both.

M.2. (Ch.26) Trey is not at the console at 7:19 p.m. What does the run sheet say, and what do you do?

M.3. (Ch.22) Fifteen people have been outside for twenty minutes. How did you find out, and what do you do?

M.4. (Ch.15) The bar lead tells you a guest should be cut off. What is your role and what is not?

M.5. (Ch.23) The photographer asks for the couple at 8:52. Sixty-second decision.

M.6. (Looks like one thing, is another) A vendor who was chatty at nine is not answering at one. Name four possibilities.

Part E: Research and Extension ⭐⭐⭐⭐

E.1. Research decision-making under time pressure — Klein's recognition-primed decision model, naturalistic decision making. Write 800 words on whether §27.3's four-step method is compatible with it, and what expertise actually changes.

E.2. Investigate attention and vigilance in sustained operations — the literature on watchkeeping, long shifts, and vigilance decrement. Write 700 words and apply it honestly to §27.7's sweep and resets.

E.3. Interview two planners about the worst day they have had. Ask what they decided, how fast, and what they would do differently. Report anything that contradicts this chapter.

Solutions

Selected solutions: appendices/answers-to-selected.md. The decision protocol, the assignment sheet, and the sweep route: appendices/appendix-a-templates-and-worksheets.md.