Reading series
The Ground Series
Why decision systems do not transfer: levels of development, floors, decision technologies, resource prices, villages, and judgment.
8 posts, written to be read in order. Each part stands alone if you arrive mid-series.
- Part 1 of 8
A Decision System Only Works on the Ground That Grew It
A decision system carries hidden assumptions about who decides, what counts as evidence, and what failure costs. Copy the artifact, miss the assumptions.
- Part 2 of 8
The Spiral Is Not a Scoreboard
A level of development describes a response to life conditions, not a rank of people. Use the spiral as a lens and it helps. Use it as a leaderboard and it lies.
- Part 3 of 8
Every Floor Runs a Different System
The warehouse, the sales floor, and the executive floor live in different conditions and decide differently. One uniform system breaks on each floor differently.
- Part 4 of 8
Consensus Is a Green Technology
Consensus, command, procedure, and bets are decision technologies grown by different conditions. Misplace the technology and you get theater, not decisions.
- Part 5 of 8
Some Systems Assume a Surplus
Every decision behavior has a price: deliberation costs time, consensus costs meetings, evidence costs tooling. Under budget stress, groups downshift.
- Part 6 of 8
A Process Without a Village Is a Shell
A decision system runs on a trust web the org chart never shows. Install the process without the village and it becomes a ritual performed for visitors.
- Part 7 of 8
Judgment Does Not Transfer
Agents inherit judgment through contracts, gates, and thresholds written by people standing somewhere. Export the system and you export one group's assumptions.
- Part 8 of 8
Design for the Spiral You Have
You cannot pick your conditions. The working loop: audit the ground, place systems floor by floor, price the behaviors, and design for the downshift.