Intrenion

Pattern: Context collapse

Decisions and actions circulate without the conditions or constraints under which they were made.

Situation

  1. In this condition, decisions are referenced and applied across teams or time periods without documentation of the specific constraints, assumptions, or trade-offs that were in place when they were made.
  2. In this condition, formal records store outcomes and approvals while omitting the situational factors that influenced the original choice.
  3. In this condition, actors responsible for execution inherit directives that appear unconditional and universally applicable.
  4. In this condition, past decisions are cited as precedents in discussions without revisiting the environmental conditions under which they were established.
  5. In this condition, compliance is evaluated against documented directives rather than against the circumstances that originally justified them.
  6. In this condition, conflicts arise when current operational realities differ from the implicit assumptions embedded in inherited decisions.
  7. In this condition, no formal mechanism consistently requires restating context when decisions are communicated or reused.

Assessment

  1. This occurs because communication systems prioritize concise conclusions over preserving the conditional reasoning and constraints that shaped them.
  2. This occurs because documentation standards capture approvals and outputs but rarely require explicit recording of assumptions or boundary conditions.
  3. This occurs because organizational incentives reward decisiveness and consistency more than contextual nuance or provisional framing.
  4. This occurs because turnover and role changes sever informal knowledge channels that previously carried situational detail.
  5. This occurs because precedent is treated as a governance stabilizer, reducing coordination costs even when underlying conditions shift.
  6. This occurs because authority to reinterpret or revise past decisions is often unclear or politically costly to exercise.
  7. This occurs because evaluation and audit mechanisms focus on rule adherence rather than on fidelity to original situational constraints.

Consequence

  1. Without explicit reattachment to contextual constraints, decisions progressively harden into rigid rules that no longer align with current operating conditions.
  2. Without mechanisms to reassess inherited assumptions, accountability will be assigned to individuals for outcomes driven by structural mismatch.
  3. Without authority clarity for revisiting past choices, actors will default to compliance even when situational fit has degraded.
  4. Without systematic documentation of boundary conditions, organizational learning will misidentify causal drivers and repeat context-bound errors.
  5. Without separating precedent from condition-specific judgment, strategic drift will become structurally embedded over time.

Decisions

  1. We decide to attach a written list of explicit assumptions and boundary conditions to every decision we communicate because this gives us a traceable context when the decision circulates instead of sending conclusions without documented constraints, and accept that this increases preparation time and exposes our reasoning to critique.
  2. We decide to refuse to execute any inherited directive until we restate in writing the current conditions under which we will apply it because this gives us a defensible operational frame instead of applying legacy decisions as unconditional precedents, and accept that this may be perceived as resistance or non-compliance.
  3. We decide to publicly label our decisions as context-bound and time-limited with a stated review trigger because this gives us a clear basis for later revision instead of allowing them to solidify informally into standing policy, and accept that this weakens the appearance of decisiveness and stability.

Direct formulations

  1. I will not communicate a decision without explicitly stating the assumptions and boundary conditions under which it applies.
  2. I will not execute an inherited directive until I restate in writing the current conditions under which I am applying it.
  3. I will state that my decisions are context-bound and time-limited and specify the trigger for their review.