Quiz: Day-Of Execution

Target: 70% or higher.

Section 1: Multiple Choice (1 point each)

1. The chapter's threshold concept is:

  • A) The plan should be followed exactly
  • B) On the day you stop planning and start deciding
  • C) The planner should be invisible
  • D) Delegation is the key to a smooth day
Answer **B).** **Planning is optimisation with time and information.** Deciding is triage under constraint, **where the cost of deliberating usually exceeds the difference between the options.** **A planner who is still planning at 1:52 p.m. is this chapter's failure mode** — they will produce a better answer twenty minutes after it stopped mattering. *Reference:* §27.1

2. The first triage question is:

  • A) Is it on the critical path?
  • B) Will a guest notice?
  • C) Does it cost money?
  • D) Whose problem is it?
Answer **B) Will a guest notice?** **It eliminates most of what reaches you.** Linen a slightly different white on two tables · twelve chairs of the wrong model · napkins folded differently on three tables — **none of these is a problem.** **Then:** is it on the critical path · does it cost money or change something agreed · **can somebody else do it.** *Reference:* §27.2

3. The commonest failure in day-of execution is:

  • A) Not delegating
  • B) The planner who fixes the napkins
  • C) Poor communication with vendors
  • D) Arriving late
Answer **B).** **And it is not laziness — it is the opposite.** A napkin fold is visible, bounded, and completable. Fixing it produces a feeling of accomplishment **in a day where most of what you do is invisible and unfinished.** **So planners fix napkins at 2:40 while a flooring crew waits for a decision.** **The tell: if it is satisfying to do, check whether it is worth doing.** *Reference:* §27.2

4. In the sixty-second decision, the step people skip is:

  • A) Naming the constraint
  • B) Generating two options
  • C) Choosing on the ranking
  • D) Communicating it
Answer **B) Generating two options.** **A single option is not a decision, it is a reflex** — and generating a second takes twenty seconds and **changes the answer about a third of the time.** **Two. Not one, not five.** *Reference:* §27.3

5. A decision must be communicated as:

  • A) A suggestion, to preserve goodwill
  • B) An instruction with a name, a time, and "tell me when it's done"
  • C) An email, for the record
  • D) A discussion with the vendor lead
Answer **B).** **At 1:52 p.m. a suggestion is a thing somebody will think about.** **And the confirmation half matters:** *"tell me when it's done."* Without it **you will check, which costs attention** — and Chapter 26's exception lines exist so you do not have to. *Reference:* §27.3

6. The sentence at the 7:05 briefing that changes what gets escalated is:

  • A) "Let me know if there are any problems"
  • B) "If you're going to be late on anything, tell me when you know, not when it happens"
  • C) "I'm in charge today"
  • D) "Everything must finish by 3:10"
Answer **B).** **It works because it gives permission.** A crew lead twenty minutes behind at eleven does not want to report it, because reporting is admitting and they still think they can recover. **Told explicitly that early information is what you want, most of them will give it** — and early information is the only kind that is useful, because at eleven there are options and at one there are not. *Reference:* §27.2a

7. Of the five things nobody tells a planner, all are found by:

  • A) Asking vendors
  • B) Looking
  • C) Checking the run sheet
  • D) Radio contact
Answer **B) Looking.** A vendor quietly behind · a guest who is uncomfortable · somebody outside for twenty minutes · the room's energy dropping · **somebody in the family who is upset.** **None of them announces itself**, which is the whole argument for the sweep and for position. *Reference:* §27.2a, §27.7

8. The decision protocol's spending authority should be:

  • A) A principle, so it can be applied with judgment
  • B) A number
  • C) Unlimited within the contingency
  • D) Zero — everything is asked
Answer **B) A number.** **A principle requires a judgment, which requires a conversation. A number does not.** At Reyes–Whitfield: **$200, against a $962.69 contingency the couple know is thin** — and it is stated as a share of that reserve rather than as an abstract figure. *Reference:* §27.5

9. The change authority distinguishes:

  • A) Cheap changes from expensive ones
  • B) How something happens from what happens
  • C) Vendor changes from guest changes
  • D) Morning changes from evening ones
Answer **B).** **I may change:** where a table goes · when something is served · which crew does what · a time by up to 15 minutes. **I will ask:** the order of the ceremony · who speaks · **anything about a person** · a time by more than 15 minutes · **anything you would notice.** *Reference:* §27.5

10. The protocol's fourth clause — the one nobody writes — is:

  • A) A cancellation policy
  • B) An agreement not to tell the couple about things they cannot fix
  • C) A weather decision rule
  • D) An overtime provision
Answer **B).** *"If something has gone wrong and there is nothing either of you can do about it, I will not tell you until afterwards."* **It has to be agreed explicitly**, and it is the clause couples most appreciate having been asked about — **because on the day they are guests at their own wedding**, and every question you take to them arrives when they are tired and least able to weigh it. *Reference:* §27.5

11. During a ceremony, the planner should stand:

  • A) At the back, to manage the exit
  • B) At the side, about two-thirds down, at ninety degrees
  • C) At the front, where they can be seen
  • D) Outside, to catch late arrivals
Answer **B).** The back is operationally correct **and it shows you a hundred and fifty backs of heads.** **Two-thirds down at ninety degrees: you can still see the whole room, still reach the exit in six seconds, and you can see faces** — which is the only way to know whether anybody can hear, whether somebody is struggling, and whether the room is with it. **Chapters 18 and 22 both said the planner's vantage point is not the guest's. This is the fix and it costs nothing.** *Reference:* §27.6

12. The most expensive attention sink is:

  • A) Delegable tasks
  • B) Remembering
  • C) Reconciling
  • D) Walking
Answer **C) Reconciling.** Chapter 25's case study: a planner spent an evening working out which version of a timeline each vendor had. **And it is always the result of a document failure** — which is why Chapters 25 and 26 exist, and why "generated, not kept in step with" is not a filing preference. *Reference:* §27.7

Section 2: True/False with Justification (1 point each)

13. "Let me find out" is a reasonable response to a mid-build question.

Answer **False, and it is the clearest sign somebody has not made the switch.** At 1:52 p.m. it costs four minutes and produces information that changes nothing. **The person asking wanted a decision, and they will now stand there — or worse, make one themselves.** **The replacement is "do X."** And if you genuinely do not know: **"do X for now, I'll come back in ten minutes"** — which is still a decision.

14. A planner should take a floral problem to the couple because it is their wedding.

Answer **False, and the instinct is generous and wrong.** **What actually happens:** two people who were calm become anxious, about a thing they cannot fix, twenty minutes before they get dressed. **They say "whatever you think"** — because that is what everybody says — **and now they are carrying it.** **Chapter 3's map made them deciders for the planning.** The decision protocol converts that into a workable position for the day: **on the day they are guests at their own wedding.**

15. During a sweep, a planner should fix what they find.

Answer **False. Fixing and looking are different modes and you cannot do both.** **The moment you stop to fix something, the survey ends.** Four minutes becomes forty, and the second half of the route — which you have not seen — stays unseen. **And the far end of the route is frequently where the things that most needed looking at are**, because it is furthest from where you normally stand. **Carry a note and use it.** About a third of what you find will have resolved itself by the time you get back to it, **which is information you could not have had if you had fixed it immediately.**

16. A planner should always be invisible.

Answer **False — four exceptions, and they are not marginal.** **When a decision needs authority** — a crew arguing, a vendor doing something they should not; somebody has to be obviously in charge. **When somebody is unwell or unsafe** — no discretion, immediately. **When the couple need to see you** — usually once, briefly, at about 4:15, not to say anything. **And when the room needs to be moved** — somebody physically starts a hundred people walking, and it is not going to be a guest.

17. A planner who is reachable is effectively present.

Answer **False, and the difference is what gets reported.** **Reachable means people bring you problems** — which filters out everything below *their* threshold, and their threshold is not yours. **Present means you see things:** the crew lead who looks at the far corner twice, the florist who has stopped moving, **the two boxes by the door since eleven that belong to nobody.** **Neither is sufficient, and the mix changes across the day** — mobile in the morning when float is high and information is cheap; **rooted in the fragile hours, when a missed thing cannot be recovered.**

Section 3: Short Answer (2 points each)

18. Make a sixty-second decision: at 1:52 p.m. the flooring crew are 40 minutes short in the far corner.

Sample Answer **1. The constraint.** Not the flooring — **the tables go on at 12:00 and everything after that is zero-float.** What cannot move is the 3:10 finish. **2. Two options.** **(a)** Add a person from the barn crew, who are ahead. **Costs nothing; the barn slips 40 min and has 3 hours of float.** **(b)** Leave the far corner unfloored and move two tables. **Costs nothing; changes the floor plan.** **3. The ranking.** Chapter 11 placed those two tables for a reason and Chapter 23's photographs assume the layout. **(a) is better.** **4. Say it.** > *"Take Kev off the barn and put him on this corner. Barn can slip to two — they've got three hours. Tell me when the corner's done."* **Fifty seconds. And the barn crew were never consulted, because they had float and the decision was mine.** *Rubric:* Must name the constraint as the 3:10 finish rather than the flooring; must generate two options; must choose on a stated basis; must issue as an instruction with a name and a confirmation.

19. Write the decision protocol, all four clauses.

Sample Answer **1. Spending.** *"I can spend up to $200 on the day to solve a problem, without asking. I'll tell you afterwards what it was."* **A number, not a principle** — a principle requires a judgment, which requires a conversation. **2. Change.** *"I can change anything that's about how something happens. I won't change anything about what happens."* | I may change | I will ask | |---|---| | Where a table goes · when something is served · which crew does what · **a time by up to 15 min** | The ceremony's order · who speaks · **anything about a person** · a time by more than 15 min · **anything you would notice** | **3. Who.** *"If I do need one of you — who?"* **One person, named, agreed in advance**, because a planner deciding which of two people to interrupt has already lost the sixty seconds. **4. And the clause nobody writes.** *"If something has gone wrong and there is nothing either of you can do about it, I will not tell you until afterwards."* **Agreed explicitly at −8 weeks, and it is the one couples most appreciate having been asked about.** *Rubric:* All four; must state the spending authority as a number and say why; must give examples on both sides of the change line; full credit names the fourth clause as the one nobody writes.

20. Describe the sweep: route, frequency, and discipline.

Sample Answer **Four minutes, a fixed route, four or five times a day. You are looking, not doing.** | Look at | For | |---|---| | **The edges of the room** | Who is alone? Who is standing? | | **Outside** | Who has gone out, and how long ago | | The bar | Queue length, and who is at it a lot | | **The oldest guests** | Seated? Comfortable? Cold? | | The crew | Fed? Watered? Anybody stuck? | | **The couple** | **Have they eaten? Have they sat down?** | **Roughly 5:40 · 7:00 · 8:00 · 9:20 · 10:15.** **And the discipline: you fix nothing while sweeping.** Note it and carry on — **fixing mid-sweep turns a four-minute survey into forty minutes of tasks and you never see the other half of the room.** **Why it exists:** the five things nobody tells a planner are all found by looking. **A vendor quietly behind, a guest who is uncomfortable, somebody outside for twenty minutes, the room's energy dropping, a family member who is upset.** *Rubric:* Six things, a fixed route, four minutes, five times; must state the no-fixing discipline and why; full credit connects it to the five unreported things.

Section 4: Applied Scenario (5 points)

21. 6:52 p.m. A wedding for 160 at a marquee on private land. Dinner service began at 6:40. Sunset 8:04; first dance 9:15; no curfew. You are at the edge of the marquee.

In ninety seconds, four things happen:

(a) The DJ tells you the generator "sounds different" and the lights flickered once. (b) A guest tells you that a woman in her eighties at table 11 has been sitting in a draught and is very cold. (c) The photographer says golden hour is at 7:35 and asks whether she can have the couple then, "or now, if dinner's dragging." (d) The bride's mother asks you to move two people at table 4 because "it isn't working."

Produce: (a) your triage of all four, in order; (b) what you do first and why; (c) what you say to each; (d) what you delegate; (e) what you write down.

Sample Answer **(a) Triage, in order of action.** | | Guest notice? | Critical path? | Costs / changes? | Somebody else? | **Order** | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | **(a) Generator** | **Yes — catastrophically, if it fails** | **Yes** | Possibly | **No** | **1st** | | **(b) The cold guest** | **Yes — she already has** | No | No | **Yes** | **2nd** | | **(c) Golden hour** | No | No — but it is time-bound | **Changes an agreed block** | No | **3rd** | | **(d) Table 4** | **No** | No | **Yes — a person** | No | **4th, and mostly not** | **(b) What I do first.** **The generator, and it is not close.** **Everything else is recoverable. A generator failure at 6:52 takes the lights, the music, the bar's refrigeration, and the restroom trailer simultaneously**, at a wedding with no other power source and 160 people sitting down to eat. **And the specific reason it is first is that it is the only one of the four with a window.** A generator that sounds different at 6:52 can be looked at while it is still running. **At 7:40, when it stops, there is nothing to look at.** **What I actually do, in about four minutes:** > Call the rental company's on-site lead — **or, if they have left, the depot number from the contact sheet** (Ch.26). > > Ask two questions: **"is it fuel or is it load?"** and **"can somebody look at it in the next twenty minutes?"** > > **And while waiting: shed load.** Anything non-essential off — a photo booth, a charging point, spare festoon runs. **A flicker is usually the first sign of a load or fuel problem** and reducing draw costs nothing and buys time. **(c) What I say to each.** **To the DJ:** > *"Thanks — that's exactly the kind of thing I want to hear early. Turn off anything you're not using and tell me immediately if it does it again. I'm calling the rental company now."* **To the guest, about the cold woman:** > *"Thank you for telling me — I'll sort it in the next two minutes."* **Then, to Danny (or whoever is named):** > *"Table 11, the lady in the blue — she's in a draught and she's cold. Two things: get her a blanket from the box in my car, and see if we can drop the sidewall behind her or move her seat round two places. Come and tell me when it's done."* **To the photographer:** > *"Golden hour at 7:35 — take it at 7:35, not now. Service started at 6:40, they'll be eating until about half seven, and I'd rather they left after the mains than in the middle. Come and find me at 7:30 and I'll get them for you."* **To the bride's mother:** > *"Let me check that with [the couple]."* **And then — because it is 6:52 and the protocol says anything about a person is theirs — I do not check it.** I will mention it to Sam much later, or not at all, and **the request will almost certainly not be raised again**, which is what that sentence is for. **(d) What I delegate.** **The cold guest, entirely** — Danny, with a specific instruction, a specific solution, and a confirmation. **Nothing else.** The generator is mine because it needs judgment and a phone call to somebody on my contact sheet. **The photographer is a decision, which is a sixty-second job, not a delegable one.** And the mother is a boundary, which cannot be delegated to anybody. **(e) What I write down.** | | | |---|---| | **6:52 — generator flicker. Called [lead]. Load shed.** | **The one that might matter later** | | 6:54 — table 11 cold, Danny, blanket + sidewall | | | **6:55 — golden hour held at 7:35** | So I do not forget I promised 7:30 | | 6:56 — MOB re table 4 | **In case it comes back** | | **And: "draught at table 11" as a surprise** | Ch.30. **The marquee's sidewall plan did not account for a wind direction, and that is a finding rather than an incident** | **And one more thing that is not a note: the next sweep is at 7:00 and I am doing it anyway.** Three of these four came to me in ninety seconds, **which usually means there is a fourth that has not.** *Rubric:* | Criterion | 0 | 1 | 2 | |---|---|---|---| | Triage (a) | Orders them | Orders with the four questions | Both, **and identifies that the generator is first because it has a window that closes** | | First action (b) | Says generator | Says generator with reasoning | Both, **plus shedding load immediately as a free action while waiting** | | Scripts (c) | Four responses | Four appropriate responses | Four, **plus thanking the DJ for early information (§27.2a)** and **not actually checking the table-4 request** | | Delegation (d) | Delegates something | Delegates the guest with specifics | Delegates with a named person, a specific fix, and a confirmation — **and correctly keeps the other three** | | Notes (e) | Notes the incidents | Notes with times | Both, **plus recording the draught as a finding for Ch.30 rather than an incident**, and keeping the 7:00 sweep | *Scoring: (a)=1, (b)=1, (c)=1, (d)=1, (e)=1.*

Scoring and Next Steps

Score Assessment What to do
Under 50% Needs review Re-read §27.2, §27.3, §27.5. Redo Part A.
50–70% Partial Do B.2 with a clock. The constraint is the exercise.
70–85% Solid Proceed to Chapter 28. Do C.3 first — one sweep, fixing nothing.
Over 85% Strong Proceed. Deep Dive: case-study-02.md, then C.1 and E.1.

Regardless of score: do C.3. Walk a fixed route at any event, look at six things, and fix none of them. It is four minutes and it is much harder than it sounds.