Team Cognitive Health playbook / Module 5 · Pace & sustainability
Day 49 / 100 · Pace & sustainability · Seasonal peaks
Plan the peak. Protect the recovery.
Year-end, Black Friday, go-lives, audits. Every team has predictable peaks. What hurts is treating them as surprises, and skipping the recovery afterwards.
Before
Prepare
Known dates in the plan
Change freeze and pre-work
Leave planned around it
During
Focus
Clear roles and on-call
Meetings cut to essentials
Short daily check-ins
After
Recover
Lighter sprint scheduled
Time off honoured
Retro while it's fresh
Case File
“Black Friday on the contact-centre platform.”
Before A code freeze two weeks out. Capacity was tested, runbooks refreshed, and leave agreed early rather than refused late.
During A named incident lead per shift. All non-essential meetings cancelled, with a 15-minute check-in morning and evening.
After The next sprint was deliberately light, used for tidy-up and learning. The retro happened within a week.
Mark day as done
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