ceos-clarity

ceos-clarity

Facilitate the Clarity Break — one of the Five Leadership Abilities in EOS and a core Traction tool. A Clarity Break is scheduled time to step away from day-to-day work and think strategically: "work ON the business, not IN it." Unlike structured EOS tools, the Clarity Break is intentionally unstructured — this skill provides just enough framework to make it habitual without over-formalizing it.

When to Use

• "Clarity break" or "take a clarity break"
• "Step back and think about the business"
• "Strategic thinking time" or "work on the business"
• "I need to reflect on the business"
• "Review how things are going" (in a reflective, non-meeting context)
• "Log a clarity break" or "record my reflections"
• "Show clarity break history" or "what themes keep coming up?"

Context

Finding the CEOS Repository

Search upward from the current directory for the .ceos marker file. This file marks the root of the CEOS repository.

If .ceos is not found, stop and tell the user: "Not in a CEOS repository. Clone your CEOS repo and run setup.sh first."

Sync before use: Once you find the CEOS root, run git -C <ceos_root> pull --ff-only --quiet 2>/dev/null to get the latest data from teammates. If it fails (conflict or offline), continue silently with local data.

Key Files

File	Purpose
data/clarity/YYYY-MM-DD.md	Clarity Break notes (one per session)
data/vision.md	V/TO for strategic context
data/rocks/[quarter]/	Current Rocks for progress context
data/scorecard/weeks/	Recent scorecard data for trend context
data/issues/open/	Open issues for awareness context
templates/clarity-break.md	Template for new Clarity Break files
data/accountability.md	Accountability Chart (org structure for strategic context)

File Naming

Clarity Break files use date-based naming: YYYY-MM-DD.md

If a file already exists for today's date (e.g., a second Clarity Break in the same day), append a numeric suffix: YYYY-MM-DD-2.md, YYYY-MM-DD-3.md, etc.

YAML Frontmatter Schema

date: "2026-02-14"
person: "brad"
duration: "45 min"       # How long the Clarity Break lasted (filled at end)
themes:                  # Key themes identified during reflection
  - hiring
  - product-market-fit
issues_identified:       # Issues to bring to the next L10
  - "Sales pipeline is too dependent on one channel"

Process

Mode: Start

Guide a live Clarity Break session — gathering business context, prompting reflection, and capturing insights.

Step 1: Setup

1. Person: Ask who is taking the Clarity Break. Default to the user if a solo session.
2. Date: Use today's date.
3. Collision check: If data/clarity/YYYY-MM-DD.md already exists, check for the next available suffix.
4. Create the file path but don't write yet — the file is written at the end.

Step 2: Gather Context (State of the Business)

Read current data to provide a strategic snapshot. Keep each section to 2-3 lines — this is context, not a report.

1. V/TO check: Read data/vision.md. Summarize the 1-Year Plan and current progress.
2. Rock status: Read data/rocks/[current-quarter]/. Count on_track vs off_track. List any off-track Rocks.
3. Scorecard trends: Read the 2-3 most recent files in data/scorecard/weeks/. Note any metrics consistently off-track.
4. Open issues: Read data/issues/open/. Count total open issues. List the 3-5 highest priority ones.
5. Org structure: Read data/accountability.md. Note any unfilled seats or gaps relevant to the reflection topics.

Present the summary:

State of the Business
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

1-Year Plan: [brief summary from V/TO]
Rocks: 4/6 on track (Q1 2026)
  Off track: Hire VP Sales, Partner Program
Scorecard: Revenue on track, NPS off track 3 weeks running
Open Issues: 8 total — top 3: [issue titles]

If any data source is missing (no vision.md, no rocks, etc.), note it gracefully: "No [data type] on file yet." and continue.

Ask: "Want to review any of this in detail before we start reflecting, or shall we dive in?"

Step 3: Reflection

Present the four Clarity Break questions, one at a time. Give the user space to think — don't rush through them.

1. "What's working well?" — Celebrate wins. What should we keep doing or do more of?
2. "What's not working?" — Be honest. What's broken, frustrating, or draining energy?
3. "What's missing?" — What are we not doing that we should be? Gaps in people, process, or strategy?
4. "What needs to change?" — If you could change one thing about the business right now, what would it be?

Record the user's responses under each question. Don't analyze or problem-solve during the reflection — the goal is to surface thoughts, not fix things yet.

Step 4: Issues and Actions

After the four reflection questions:

1. Ask: "Did any new issues surface that should go on the Issues list for the next L10?"
2. If yes, capture them in the issues_identified frontmatter list.
3. Mention: "You can create formal issue files for these using ceos-ids when you're ready."

Step 5: Themes

Review the notes and suggest 2-4 themes — recurring topics or categories that emerged during the reflection. Ask the user to confirm or adjust. Record in the themes frontmatter list.

Step 6: Wrap Up and Save

1. Ask how long the Clarity Break took (for duration frontmatter).
2. Show the complete file before writing.
3. Ask for any final edits.
4. Write to data/clarity/YYYY-MM-DD.md.
5. Remind: "Run git commit to save your Clarity Break notes."

---

Mode: Log

Record a Clarity Break that already happened (retroactive logging).

Step 1: Collect Details

Ask for:

• Date: When did the Clarity Break happen? Default to today.
• Person: Who took it?
• Duration: How long was it?

Step 2: Capture Insights

Prompt for key reflections:

• "What were the main things on your mind?"
• "Any insights or realizations?"
• "Did any issues surface that should go to the next L10?"

Record responses in the markdown body.

Step 3: Themes and Issues

1. Suggest 2-4 themes based on the notes.
2. Capture any issues in issues_identified.
3. Mention ceos-ids for formal issue creation.

Step 4: Save

1. Show the complete file.
2. Write to data/clarity/YYYY-MM-DD.md (with collision handling).
3. Remind about git commit.

---

Mode: History

Review past Clarity Break notes and identify recurring themes.

Step 1: Load Clarity Breaks

Read all files in data/clarity/. Parse the YAML frontmatter from each file.

If no files exist: "No Clarity Breaks recorded yet. Want to start one?"

Step 2: Filter (Optional)

If the user specifies a person or date range, filter accordingly. Otherwise show all.

Step 3: Display Summary

Show a chronological list:

Clarity Break History
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

2026-02-14  brad  (45 min)  Themes: hiring, product-market-fit
2026-02-07  brad  (30 min)  Themes: sales-pipeline, hiring
2026-01-31  brad  (60 min)  Themes: product-market-fit, team-culture
2026-01-24  daniel (45 min) Themes: operations, hiring

Total: 4 Clarity Breaks

Step 4: Recurring Themes

Scan the themes frontmatter across all Clarity Breaks. Identify themes that appear in 3 or more sessions:

Recurring Themes (3+ appearances)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  hiring: 3 times (Feb 14, Feb 7, Jan 24)
  product-market-fit: 2 times (Feb 14, Jan 31)

Flag recurring themes: "These themes keep coming up. Consider surfacing them as formal Issues via ceos-ids if they haven't been addressed."

Step 5: Deep Dive (Optional)

Offer: "Want to open a specific Clarity Break to review the full notes?"

If yes, read and display the full file content.

Output Format

Start mode: State of the business summary, then guided reflection. Complete file shown at the end. Log mode: Prompts for retroactive capture, then complete file shown. History mode: Chronological summary table with recurring themes analysis.

Guardrails

• Don't over-structure the reflection. The Clarity Break is intentionally unstructured thinking time. Present the four questions as prompts, not a rigid checklist. If the user wants to free-form write, let them.
• Context is optional. If the user says "just let me think" or "skip the context," go straight to the reflection questions. Not every Clarity Break needs a state-of-the-business review.
• Don't solve problems during the Clarity Break. The goal is to surface thoughts, not fix things. Problem-solving happens in the L10 via IDS. If the user starts problem-solving, gently redirect: "Great insight — want to capture that as an issue for the next L10?"
• Don't auto-invoke skills. When issues surface during a Clarity Break, mention that ceos-ids can create formal issue files, but let the user decide. Same for scorecard updates (ceos-scorecard) or rock status changes (ceos-rocks).
• One file per session. Each Clarity Break produces one file. Don't update previous Clarity Break files — if themes evolved, that's captured in the new file.
• Sensitive data warning. On first use, remind the user: "Clarity Break notes may contain candid strategic reflections and sensitive business assessments. Use a private repo."

Integration Notes

V/TO (ceos-vto)

• Read: ceos-clarity reads data/vision.md during Start mode to provide 1-Year Plan context for the strategic reflection. This grounds the Clarity Break in the company's declared direction.
• Suggested flow: If the Clarity Break reveals the V/TO needs updating, suggest: "Consider reviewing the V/TO with ceos-vto."

Rocks (ceos-rocks)

• Read: ceos-clarity reads data/rocks/[current-quarter]/ during Start mode to show Rock progress. Off-track Rocks often surface as reflection topics.
• Suggested flow: Rock status changes belong in ceos-rocks, not in Clarity Break notes.

Scorecard (ceos-scorecard)

• Read: ceos-clarity reads recent files from data/scorecard/weeks/ during Start mode to identify trending metrics. Persistent off-track numbers are natural Clarity Break topics.
• Suggested flow: Scorecard logging stays in ceos-scorecard.

Issues (ceos-ids)

• Read: ceos-clarity reads data/issues/open/ during Start mode to show the current issues landscape. Issues identified during a Clarity Break are captured in frontmatter but NOT automatically created as issue files.
• Suggested flow: After the Clarity Break, use ceos-ids to create formal issue files for anything worth tracking.

L10 Meetings (ceos-l10)

• Related: Clarity Break insights are designed to feed into the next L10 meeting. Issues identified during a Clarity Break can be raised during the L10's IDS section.
• Suggested flow: Mention any unresolved Clarity Break issues during the L10. The L10 skill will surface them from data/issues/open/ if they've been formally created.

Accountability Chart (ceos-accountability)

• Read: ceos-clarity reads data/accountability.md during Start mode to surface org structure context — unfilled seats, responsibility gaps, or role misalignments that may be worth reflecting on.
• Suggested flow: If the Clarity Break reveals accountability gaps, suggest: "Consider reviewing the Accountability Chart with ceos-accountability."

Write Principle

Only ceos-clarity writes to data/clarity/. Other skills do not reference Clarity Break notes directly — they are personal reflections, not operational data.