Purpose · Alignment · Component
Decision gates
The named points in existing processes where the purpose test is applied — the moments where the organisation binds itself to something.
The deliverable
What it is
Alignment is a mechanism question, not a communication question. Repeating a purpose more often does not make it operative; attaching it to a specific moment in a specific process does.
The moments worth attaching it to are those where something is committed — budget approval, senior hiring, entering a market, signing a partner. Anywhere else, the test is decoration.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
The gate
The point in an existing process where the test is applied.
3 attributes: Process · The question · Asked by
LearnThresholds
What size or kind of commitment triggers the gate.
2 attributes: Value threshold · Commitment length
LearnOutcomes
What was recorded at each gate, and what it changed.
3 attributes: Date · Result · What changed
Learn
If the outcomes column shows nothing ever changed, the gate is ceremonial. That is a finding, not a formality.
The other components in alignment
The cascade record
The traceable line from purpose down to this quarter’s work — how the statement translates into the goals beneath it.
LearnThe alignment review
An annual note on what the purpose test actually changed, and what it failed to catch.
Learn