Tool 1 of 32 · a day
One-Paragraph Answer
The people accountable each write what the company is building and why, separately. The differences are the first finding.
At intake, before any group discussion of the goal.
What it is for
To put what the company is building, and why, on paper from the people who actually have to deliver it, so assumed alignment can be checked instead of believed.
The failure it catches
Everyone believes they are aligned on what the company is building and why, and nobody has checked in writing. The divergence surfaces months later as I did not know that is what you meant.
Why it works
Separate writing removes the social pressure that makes people echo the loudest phrasing. What remains on the page is each person's actual picture of the work, so the differences are real instead of polite.
How to run it
- Ask the person accountable for decisions to write one paragraph: what are we building, and why. Do not polish it. The first honest version is the useful one.
- Ask the project leads to write the same paragraph, separately, without seeing each other's or the accountable person's.
- Ask the key contributors to write it the same way.
- Do not circulate a draft for comment. The moment two people compare notes, you are reading the comparison, not the company.
- Read the paragraphs side by side. Grade substance, not wordsmithing. Count the material divergences: different customer, different problem, different success horizon, different constraint.
How to read the result
Zero to one material divergence is alignment. Two or more distinct answers to what we are building is the first finding, dated, in their own handwriting. Wordsmithing differences are not material divergences.
How to run it well
- Sequestered writing is the active ingredient. Brief it as scheduling, not as a test.
- If someone asks what to write, tell them whatever they would tell a serious new hire on the first morning, before anyone else got to them.
Where it breaks
- Paragraphs written after group discussion converge on the loudest phrasing and measure nothing.
- Using the differences to win an argument about who was right teaches people to write the safe paragraph next time.
What would prove it wrong
A company with three or more material divergences that nonetheless delivers coordinated work on time would break the link between written divergence and drift.
What we watch
Whether the divergence count, written at intake, later shows up as missed coordination, or whether teams with messy paragraphs still ship together.
Ask yourself
- If the person accountable and two leads each wrote, separately, what the company is building and why, would you expect the same paragraph?
- Have those paragraphs ever been written down without a group discussion first?
- When someone new joins, which version of what we are building do they actually hear?
- Have you ever discovered, months later, that two people were building toward different customers or different problems?
Feeds: Success/Failure Definition, Alignment Echo, Baseline Vitals