Tool 10 of 32 · about an hour
Decision-Conditions Test
Whether the big stalled decision has a real, reachable finish line, read from the shape of one answer.
In Pattern, once the big stalled decision is on the table, with the last three named conditions checked against the record when the bar seems to have moved.
What it is for
To find out whether the big stalled decision has a real, reachable finish line, by reading the shape of one answer rather than its content.
The failure it catches
The decision that never gets made. Delivering exactly what was asked does not produce the decision, because the stated condition was never the real constraint.
Why it works
People can perform a healthy-sounding condition once. The shape of the answer, checked against whether the last three named conditions were actually delivered, is harder to perform. A moving bar leaves a trail in the record.
How to run it
- Ask the person who holds the decision: what would have to be true for you to ship, or trade, or decide, tomorrow.
- Pay attention to the shape of the answer, not its content. Read it privately. Do not grade someone in front of their team.
- If the conditions seem to have moved before, list the last three stated conditions, check whether each was actually delivered, and check whether the decision followed.
- Ask the companion question: how will we know if this was a failure. If that has no answer before the finish line, note it. It matters again at the Call.
How to read the result
A healthy answer is measurable and within the company's own control. An unhealthy answer comes in three shapes. A bar set somewhere impossible that never moves. A bar that recedes, where every delivered condition is replaced by a new one. Or a condition that requires a different reality, tools or timelines or people that do not exist. A frozen bar points first at the picture of what waiting costs. A receding bar points at a contract that prices requirement changes before they take effect. A different-reality condition points at the Savability Test.
How to run it well
- Grade silently. The point is a system reading.
- The verification step, last three conditions against the record, is the defense against a coached healthy answer.
Where it breaks
- Read the answer privately, never grade someone in front of their team. Using it as a confrontation destroys both the reading and the trust you need for everything else.
- A coached holder can perform a healthy answer once. Without the record check, the performance passes.
What would prove it wrong
A holder whose bar was frozen or receding, verified against the record, who then decided promptly without a written contract would count against the grading.
What we watch
Whether frozen and receding bars stay unmade until they are priced and dated, or whether some of them resolve on their own once named.
Ask yourself
- What would have to be true for the big stalled decision to ship tomorrow?
- Is that condition measurable and inside the company's control, or does it require a different reality?
- What were the last three conditions named for this decision, and was each one delivered?
- After each of those was delivered, did the decision happen, or did a new condition appear?
- How will you know if this was a failure, before anyone is standing at the finish line?
Fed by: Recurrence Ledger
Feeds: Decision Decay Curve, Decision Contract, Savability Test