You’ve been there.

The team aligned. The decision felt solid. You left the meeting thinking, We’re doing this.
And then…
Three days later, the plan has mysteriously shifted. A new direction shows up in a slide deck or Slack thread—one nobody remembers agreeing to.

Turns out, there was another meeting. A hallway convo. A quiet 1:1.
And that’s where the real decision was made.

This episode, we’re cracking open the syrupy promise of collaboration… and exposing the bitter aftertaste of backdoor leadership.
Because when decisions get remade in secret, it doesn’t just waste time.
It drains trust.
It erodes accountability.
And it turns every meeting into a performance—while the real story unfolds backstage.

We’ll unpack why this happens, how to spot it, and what strong cultures do to keep the fizz from going flat.