CPO Coalition Map Worksheet (First 90 Days)

Your first bets will live or die on this map, not on their merits. Build it by day 45, from listening-tour evidence, not from vibes. Update it after every significant interaction. Keep it somewhere nobody else can read it.

The four quadrants

Sort every person who can affect your first bets into one of four boxes. The axes are stance (with you / against you) and energy (active / dormant).

Allies (with you, active)

They run on evidence, they have wanted change, and they will spend their own credibility alongside yours. The trap: assuming agreement means alignment on specifics. An ally who expects bet A while you ship bet B becomes a persuadable overnight, and a bruised one. The move: give allies real work, not cheerleading roles. An ally executing part of the plan is bound to it.

Persuadables (undecided, active)

They are watching. They have not committed because they have been burned by previous regimes, or because they are waiting to see if your decisions stick. The trap: pitching them. Persuadables move on demonstrated behavior, not on narrative. Your first visible decision is worth forty coffee chats. The move: find what evidence would move each one (it is different per person) and route that evidence to them without ceremony.

Blockers (against you, active)

They lose something if your bets win: budget, headcount, a pet project, the story they tell about themselves. The trap: treating blockers as enemies. Most blockers are defending something legitimate that your plan threatens. Name the legitimate thing out loud and half the blocking energy drains away. The move: never let a blocker learn about a decision that affects them in the meeting where it lands. Pre-wire (checklist below).

Sleepers (uncommitted, dormant)

They have checked out, are heads-down, or have survived enough executive transitions to outwait you. The trap: ignoring them. A sleeper with institutional knowledge wakes up as a blocker at the worst moment, usually in front of the board, usually with a fact you did not have. The move: one real question about the thing they know best. Sleepers wake as allies when someone finally uses their knowledge.

The per-person row

One row per person. Fill from listening-tour captures, then keep current.

| Name | Function | Quadrant | Stance (1 line) | What they need | What they fear | Last interaction | Next move |
|------|----------|----------|-----------------|----------------|----------------|------------------|-----------|
| [Name] | [Eng / Sales / CS / Finance / Exec / Board] | [Ally / Persuadable / Blocker / Sleeper] | [Their actual position on your direction, in their words if you have them] | [What would move them or keep them moved. Be concrete: "wants the eval scores public", "needs headcount protected"] | [What your plan threatens for them. Often more honest than what they need] | [Date + what happened] | [One concrete action with a date, or "none needed"] |

Filling rules

• Quadrants are per-bet, not global. Someone can be an ally on the kill list and a blocker on the margin work. If a person splits hard across bets, give them two rows.
• "What they fear" is the load-bearing column. If it is blank, you do not know the person yet. Go back to your capture forms or have another conversation.
• Re-sort after every visible decision. Your first shipped decision will move three or four people across quadrant lines. The map is a film, not a photo.
• Count your quadrants before any big move. A bet with two allies, one blocker, and nine persuadables is not ready. Move two persuadables first or shrink the bet.

The pre-wiring checklist (run before every big decision)

Pre-wiring means nobody influential hears the decision for the first time in the room where it is decided. Run this checklist starting 10 days before the decision lands. The day-90 readout is a big decision. Pre-wire it like one.

[ ] 1. List everyone the decision affects. Check each against the map. Anyone affected who is not on the map yet goes on it today.
[ ] 2. Identify the two people whose objection would kill it. Meet them first, one on one. Bring the evidence, ask for their objection, and mean it. If their objection is right, change the decision now, while it is cheap.
[ ] 3. Brief every blocker before every ally. Blockers forgive disagreement. They do not forgive surprise.
[ ] 4. For each blocker, name what they are defending, out loud, in the one-on-one. "This costs your team the Q3 project, and I know that project matters because X."
[ ] 5. Give allies their assignment. Who says what in the meeting, who follows up with whom after. Allies without a role go quiet exactly when you need them.
[ ] 6. Route evidence to persuadables 3 to 5 days ahead. Not the pitch. The data. Let them arrive at the conclusion before you announce it.
[ ] 7. Check your trust ledger. Any open commitment to someone in the room weakens you on the day. Close or renegotiate everything outstanding with attendees before the meeting.
[ ] 8. Write the objection sheet. Top five objections, who raises each, your answer in two sentences. If you cannot answer one in two sentences, you are not ready, and the objector is right that you are not ready.
[ ] 9. Plan the no. Decide in advance what you do if the decision does not land: what you concede, what you defer, what you absolutely hold. Deciding this in the room, live, is how leaders give away the load-bearing part.
[ ] 10. After the decision: same-day note to everyone affected, decision plus reasoning plus what happens next. The note is what makes the decision stick. Meetings evaporate. Documents remain.

The 10-minute weekly pass

Every week, alongside the trust-ledger Friday review:

1. Update Last interaction for anyone you met this week.
2. Move anyone whose stance shifted. Note what moved them, because that is the lever you will use again.
3. Pick the one persuadable closest to the line. Schedule the next move.
4. Check for sleepers you have not touched in three weeks. One real question each.