Glossary

Absolute Law: A term used to describe a very serious “Law” or “Deal-breaker,” a violation of which would be met with a severe reaction and consequence for the agent. This is important to distinguish because even among deal-breakers, some are more serious than others (see “Severity”). 

Accountability: A definition borrowed from Holacracy, meaning an ongoing activity expected of someone or a role, captured as full sentences that begin with an “–ing” verb. For example, a Website Manager role might have an accountability for “Building and maintaining the company’s website.” 

Agent: A regrettably technical sounding term for any individual decision-maker in a system. One common use of the term is in comparing the agent’s interpretation to the author’s intention (i.e. “Alignment”). The word “individual” or “person” is preferably in almost all instances, but it is sometimes important to distinguish the different roles people play regarding the legitimacy of a rule.

Agreement: A type of rule or structure often used to describe expectations between two or just a few people and connotes conscious and voluntary commitment, not coercion or imposition by an outside authority. To the degree that this is true, a rule, policy, or role may also be an agreement. 

Concordance: When the relationship between the agent’s interpretation of a structure to the author’s intention is tight.

Author: Has a specialized meaning in this context, which is any individual, group, or process with the authority to encode and enforce a structure. Also is the party who feels the tension. Its counter-point is the “agent,” however someone may be both author and agent.

Authority: Sometimes used to convey decision-making power, other times the term “authority” used to mean “formal power” in contrast to “actual power;” i.e. the ability to control or influence.  

Association: The collective of the people as a distinct entity, with a distinct purpose, from the Organization. Could also be thought of as the tribe space. This definition comes from the For-Purpose Enterprise model.  

Autopoietic: [come up with a better, more common word]. Pertaining to a self-sustaining and self-organizing system that continuously regenerates and maintains its own structure and processes through internal mechanisms. This term is commonly applied to living organisms, suggesting that they are autonomous and capable of self-renewal.

Beliefs: Used specifically in the model of the Structure System to identify the mostly unconscious assumptions supporting the group’s norms (behaviors). 

Binding (Structure): Any explicit structure intended to apply normative pressure onto relevant agents. Also called prescriptive, normative, or regulative.  

Boundary: Used as part of the definition of a Law. Also critical for the idea of property rights; ownership as rule. Also used as a way to communicate one’s inner sense of what is within and outside of their control. Connected to the function of structures, as they work in similar ways, but not really sure how much to connect them. 

Clarifying Questions: A step in the Integrative Decision Making (IDM) process in which participants may ask the proposer questions to clarify the tension or proposal. The proposer may answer each question, or may decline to do so. The Facilitator must stop any reactions or opinions expressed about the proposal, and prevent discussion of any kind. Participants may also ask the Secretary to read the proposal or show any existing governance during this step (or at any other time when the participant is allowed to speak) and the Secretary must do so.

Collective: The term used to signify all or any of the following: a group, team, crown, organization, family, community, or network of people. 

Command: A one-time mandate that is not a structure because it is not ongoing. 

Company: Sometimes used as a distinct entity from the “Organization” and the “Association” to mean the legal and financial entity or context.  

Compliance: When an agent intentionally follows a structure or the direction of its encoding authority whether or not they perceive the structure or the authority as legitimate. In this way, legitimacy and compliance are separate vectors. Compliance is a behavioral aspect which can only be assessed after the agent’s moment of choice or action. While agents may be more likely to comply with legitimate structures, authors occasionally pursue compliance at the expense of legitimacy. Additionally, sometimes agents comply with a structure because it is the simplest immediate option that does not carry any obvious downsides (“Simplicity is a substitute for motivation” -BJ Fogg). In those cases, the issue of legitimacy is usually not even considered by the agent. 

Condition: Any external feature or context that predictably and significantly influences an agent's capacity to act or achieve outcomes, without being explicitly imposed or prescribed.

Consensus: Reserved to mean 100% agreement amongst all members (e.g. There is a consensus on where to go for lunch). In place of most uses of “consensus,” “majority opinion” would be better.

Constitutive (Rules): A distinction from John Searle between constitutive and regulative rules.

Context: In addition to its common usage, “context” may mean something like “setting context” to simply mean making explicit something which may have previously been implicit relevant to clarifying expectations, roles, rules, purpose, 

Conversation: Any discursive interaction used to mean real-time talk which is also defined by its absence of a specific focus or purpose, whereas a “feedback conversation” has the purpose of “feedback.”

Core Authority: The sense an agent has of what the collective’s dominant authority is. For example, Holacracy. 

Cosmic Address: A concept proposed by Ken Wilber to identify the perspective taken from any inquiry or conclusion. This is useful for clarifying how this model’s perspective connects and adds to previous work in this area. Likely only interesting to the most nerdy of readers (and I mean that in the best sense), though I, as a nerd myself, feel the need to specify this work’s cosmic address: 

Crowd: Any informational group; i.e. Information is what allows different parts of a system—or different systems entirely—to connect with each other, whether that connection is cells exchanging chemical signals, computers sending electrical pulses, or atoms reacting to forces. A good definition for “information” then, is anything that connects individual nodes in a system or network. Meaning information doesn’t just enable connection—it IS the connection.  

Cuckoo Commitments: Dedicating oneself to the completion of a task or project because someone else wants it done by then (i.e. the tension is not our own, meaning we are raising someone else’s child; i.e. like how a cuckoo bird tricks other species into raising their young). 

Culture: The collected beliefs and norms of a group. May be used as a defining feature; e.g. “a high-context culture,” or, “a culture with high power-distance.”

Deal-Breaker:

Deliberate Group: A deliberate group contrasts with an “emergent group.” It is intentional, planned, or purposeful. 

Demand: Two meanings; 1) Contrasted with requests (as in NVC); or 2) as a line-in-the-sand ultimatum to draw or assert a boundary (connected to the idea of a Law). 

Discursive Interaction: The broadest term to include real-time conversations, but also includes message threads or meeting processes.

Domain: A Holacracy term to mean, “Something that is controlled as if it were private property of the domain holder.” A useful construct to account for things which are not themselves physical property, but are owned or controlled as such. Where possible, the term “Property” may be used.  

Dominant Monad: The controller of an individual holon which is, by definition, absent from collective holons. This is the problem with collectives; the Karen in us wants to speak to the manager, but there is, technically speaking, no one person in charge of the group. 

Emergent Group: An emergent group contrasts with an “deliberate group.” An emergent group is unplanned, or spontaneous. Tends to be more transient than a deliberate group, but not necessarily. This is an important distinction because it is a parallel to decision-making; i.e. deliberate vs. instinctive. 

Encoding: An aspect of the Structure System that focuses on the processes and norms related to the phrasing, validating, and documenting a structure. 

Encoding Authority: When looking at a specific structure, we need to understand the specifics of the authority (person, group, or process) which encoded it.   

Enforcing: An aspect of the Structure System that focuses on the processes and norms related to observing agents’ adherence, or being interested in such matters, and exploring adherence when it is questioned, as well as determinations related to enforcing consequences of a structure. See also, consequent. 

Enterprise: A general term to refer to the collective entity (Organization and Association and Company). 

Etiquette: Manners 

Expathy: A companion term to empathy, which is not about feeling from the inside, but feeling from the outside, which means respecting the others’ boundary while maintaining connection with them.  

Expectation: Can be explicit or implicit, with the focus of this book being on the proper function of explicit expectations, or how implicit expectations dynamically relate to the explicit expectations; can be   prescriptive vs descriptive. 

Exploring: An aspect of the Structure System that focuses on the processes and norms related to exploring the possible need for a structure. 

Evolving: An aspect of the Structure System that focuses on the processes and norms related to updating an existing structure. 

Feeling: Generally means either emotion (sadness, anger, etc.) or sensation (cold, soft, etc.), or some combination of the two. Occasionally, I’ll use the word “sense” in place of “feeling,” as in “sensing a tension,” when I want to emphasize the more primal or precognitive experience. I don’t typically use “feeling” as a contrast to “thinking.” 

For-Purpose Enterprise (FPE):

Friction: The Friction Project; Transforming friction they talk about in theGurdjieff Ouspensky Fourth way. May relate to the use of Tension? 

Getting Things Done (GTD): A system for personal productivity and organization created by David Allen. 

Glossary (of Structures): The official repository or a group or organization that defines all the relevant structural constructs for a collective of people. 

Governance Process: A term used to broadly mean the process by which a collective encodes its structures and makes them official. Holacracy has a particular version of this called it’s “governance meeting,” which uses Integrative Decision-Making. (see, IDM). 

Group: Sometimes used in the common sense (“What does this group want?”), but occasionally used to mean a gathering of people distinct from a team, which has a singular shared goal or purpose, and a crowd (e.g. people in an elevator), which is a collection of people which may share common features, but who are not autopoietic (i.e. a “heep”).. For a general term that covers any of these terms, see “Collectives.” 

Guideline: One of the four core types of structure. It is a binding structure whose application is subject to the agent’s moment-to-moment discretion. After consideration, the agent has the full authority to disregard it. 

Hear Cleanly: An integral part of the dynamic model of discursive interaction. 

Holacracy:

Holon: Something that is both a whole, while simultaneously being a part of a larger whole. Collective or individual entity. “Entity,” “holon,” or just, “collective” might be used in different instances to describe the same thing. Useful for highlighting proper forms of hierarchy (i.e. holarchy) and for representing the autopoetic nature vs non-autopoetic nature of different entities (e.g. a pile of sand is not a holon, but a heep). 

Horse and Rider: Metaphor for the conscious mind (ego) and the instinctive mind (id). Comes from Sigmund Frued. 

Initiating and Responding: A combination used to describe the dynamic nature of discursive interactions, which can then be used to distinguish the different sides while always maintaining that each agent has full responsibility for themselves. 

Information: Information is what allows different parts of a system—or different systems entirely—to connect with each other, whether that connection is cells exchanging chemical signals, computers sending electrical pulses, or atoms reacting to forces. A good definition for “information” then, is anything that connects individual nodes in a system or network. Meaning information doesn’t just enable connection—it IS the connection. 

Integral Theory: Ken Wilber’s work. AQAL. 

Integrated Decision-Making (IDM): A structured process for making decisions that integrates multiple perspectives by surfacing and addressing objections, rather than seeking consensus. Though often associated exclusively with Holacracy, it comes from the work of Gerard Endenburg, building on earlier ideas by Kees Boeke in Sociocracy.

Justice: When the justification, encoding, and enforcement of a structure are properly aligned. 

Justification: The reasoning behind the creation of a structure whether it is explicit or implicit. Connects to the idea of an author’s intention, and to the idea of “Tension,” though I’m not sure how yet.  

Laissez-Faire: The term is French for “let do” or “let go,” and it advocates for minimal outside involvement. Particularly relevant in situations in which an entity is expected to have some oversight over another entity (e.g. management, government, parenting, teaching, etc.). 

Legitimacy: An agent’s subjective belief of the validity of the structure or encoding authority (i.e. it has the right to constrain them). This can be because the authority from which the structure was encoded is perceived as valid, or because the justification makes sense (i.e. the logic of consequence). However, it is important to note that compliance and legitimacy are separate vectors. That is, an agent may comply with an illegitimate structure, or they may defy a legitimate one (see “Compliance” for more). Central to this theory are the dynamics between the legitimacy of the encoding authority and the structure. 

Liberating Structure: Two meanings; 1) references McCandless' menu of meeting processes; 2) more generally is used as a term to convey the experience of a structure that is relied upon (see “Reliance”). .

Majority Opinion: Used instead of colloquial “consensus” in almost all cases. See, “Consensus.” I also wrote a whole article about the distinction.

Manners: see Etiquette. 

Message: In its broadest sense, a message is any discrete act, even unintentional or unconscious, used by someone to communicate something to someone else. Even the silent treatment is a message. This term is useful in the sense that we “process messages” from others, which is the act of consciously considering  distinct from responding to those messages. 

Metric: In addition to normal usage, this term is used here as a type of structure (i.e. expectation). Be that prescriptive (a target), or descriptive (a measure). 

Mirroring: The process of explicitly phrasing an implicit expectation that is currently being enacted. The purpose is to bring conscious attention to what is being expected which often then more naturally reveals its limitations (if any). 

Norms: Used in the model of the Structure System to describe observable patterns of behavior in groups. In this model, norms are used to indicate behaviors, whereas the term “belief” is used to indicate an internal thought, feeling, or assumption. 

Normative Force:

Obligation: A prescriptive rule or expectation; i.e. what should happen. Contrasted with an “observation” which describes what is likely to happen based on past experience. 

Observation: A descriptive expectation of the way things are, not how they should be (which would be a prescriptive expectation).  

Ongoing (Expectation): An important distinction from one-time expectations like a promise (“Let’s meet tonight at 7”) or command (“Send the invoice to Terry”). The focus of this model is understanding the proper use of ongoing expectations, so while much of it could apply to one-time examples, that’s outside the scope of my analysis.

Optimum Structure: a blueprint of a structure working exactly as designed without any deviance. Real structures never function optimally, but some may be closer to their optimum than others.

Organization: I mean it in the FPE way, but also just normally. 

Outcome: The immediately obvious justification or reason for doing something. Serves as a contrast to the term, “Purpose” in that the outcome is the most immediately accessible reason, whereas the Purpose usually requires some kind of inquiry to determine. Similar to the GTD term “Project,” but intended to be broader. 

Ownership: When it comes to what ownership or authority means in relationship to a “domain” or property, there are three definitions: 1) The authority to access or make use of the property (usus); 2) the right of control or management (abusus); 3) and the authority to sell, lease, give away, or otherwise dispose of the property (fructus).

Polling: The activity of surfacing data through voting, which does not necessarily or automatically result in a decision, but rather informs a decision. 

Predicate (of a Rule): The condition or context that is intended to trigger the rule’s application. May be explicit or implicit. For example, “no dogs allowed,” only applies should a customer consider bringing a dog inside, although that condition is not explicitly stated in the rule itself. An explicit example would be more like, “If you want to use a locker, you must sign in.” Could also be thought of as the “if” of a structure’s if/then construction. 

Preference: Used to communicate a non-absolute desire (e.g. “I have a preference to meet after lunch, but I’m open to something else”). Distinct from a “Wish, “Request,” or a “Need.” 

Prescriptive: 

Principle: Often combined with “value,” as in “Value/Principle,” to mean a descriptive frame-of-reference. 

Priority: In addition to common usage, the term is used to describe the weighing of alternatives (“prioritization”)  and the selection of one option over another based on its importance. Importance, then, becomes  a distinct factor from available resources, willingness, context, etc. all of which may be necessary for an agent to make a decision in a given instance. The term is used to better represent the reality of situations which are more commonly expressed unidimensionally; e.g. to say, “we must do this,” is really to say, “we must prioritize doing this above everything else.” 

Project: Any desired result that requires more than one action step to be completed. Uses the same definition as David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD). Also see, “Outcome.” 

Promise: A one-time commitment that is not a structure because it is not ongoing. 

Property: Something that is controlled as if it were private property, even if it is not physical. For example, “the hiring process,” or “the company’s website.” Analogous to the Holacracy term, “Domain.”

Proposals: A concrete suggestion to move through stuckness or give somebody something to react to. Sometimes connected to “Wish,” though not necessarily so. 

Purpose: The existential or deep reason for being that defines the scope of a role, team, or organization. Contrasted with a “Project” which is an outcome. When contrasted with “Outcome,” “Purpose” usually requires some kind of inquiry to identify, and exists at whatever layer or level triggers some sort of emotional resonance of inspiration and meaning. (think of the 5 Whys?). Purpose usually functions through orientating and insight, rather than through the application of normative pressure. 

Quadrants: AQAL. Perspectival. Especially relevant for the distinction between individual holons and collective holons. 

Receptivity: A state or quality of being which allows, listens, or observes. Used to distinguish this condition from a state of analysis, discernment, judgment, critique, evaluation, or planning. 

Reflecting and Reinforcing: A combination of terms used to convey the relationship between our thoughts and our experience of reality.  idea that our reality is both a core principle.

Regime: The particular brand of ultimate authority (i.e. not the type or style) that is in place at any given time. More specifically, I could say that a regime is not identifiable purely from external indicators, but is determined by the “intersubjective belief of the center of gravity.” Most regimes are essentially equal to the specific power-holder at the top of the management hierarchy. However, the regime may not be associated with a specific person or group as in the case of Holacracy, in which the regime would be Holacracy (at least in theory). Sticking with the example of Holacracy, in actual fact, the regime is most often still the original power-holder.  

Regulative (Rules): A distinction from John Searle between constitutive and regulative rules. 

Request: Generally means what it normally means (i.e. an inquiry made with the expectation of a response), but occasionally used in contrast to a demand.

Rhetoric: The deliberate use of language, symbols, or framing to influence perception, shape narratives, or motivate behavior. Often used to guide others in a particular direction without invoking explicit authority or structural constraints.

Role: A district unit of work with a boundary to keep is distinct from other roles. May be filled by multiple people at the same time. 

Rule: Used to mean either: (broadly) any explicit and ongoing expectation intended to apply normative pressure to agents under its influence (e.g. Making Rules Matter); or (specifically) a structure to which an agent must always adhere (Hard Rule), though in some instances the agent may be able to request an exception (Soft Rule).

Rule Drift: When a rule’s meaning quietly changes over time—like “must conduct daily inspections” coming to mean “whenever it looks bad”—the organization ends up following the implicit meaning, though everyone may be aligned on that meaning.

Rule Strain: When circumstances make a rule hard to follow—like a safety checklist that takes too long during emergencies—people feel pressure to bend or ignore it just to keep things moving.

Severity: This describes why severity is a distinct vector that does not correlate to my typology of structures(Values, Guidelines, Rules, and Laws).

Social Adhesive: Artificial means of connecting two social entities. Social bonds are much more than these obviously so the distinction is like the differences between two trees organically growing together or using wiring or bars to connect the trees (artificial adhesive).  

Speak Cleanly: See also, “Hear Cleanly.”

Strategy: A heuristic, or rule-of-thumb about what to prioritize. 

Structure: The generic term to cover anything that is: 1) explicit, 2) ongoing, and 3) binding*. This includes rules, expectations, or agreements, but it could also include metrics, checklists, or any other artifact which has those three qualities (e.g. a bar that regulates how tall you must be to ride a ride). In an organizational context, includes any official policies, procedures, and roles.  

*The one exception to this are Values/Principles which this model defines as not binding, but are so often used in binding ways, that they must be considered “a structure” even if they are an ill-formed one. 

The Structure System (SS): The four different elements and how they interact with each other. The Five elements of the Structure System are:  

• Exploring

• Encoding

• [The Structure Itself] - The structure itself is treated as inert, which is why it is often represented within brackets. It rests at the center about which the other elements revolve.  

• Enforcing

• Evolving

The different aspects do have a logical sequence from exploring to evolving, although the whole point of the model is to understand how norms reflect and reinforce the relevance of the structure (or lack thereof) regardless of which aspect we look at. For example, it may be that a structure is already existing, and the concerns are about how to properly enforce or evolve it. In that case, it is those elements which are the focus and question about exploring and encoding are less salient if they are relevant at all.  

Tension: A felt gap someone feels between current reality and the way things could be. Used as an alternative to more general terms like “issue,” “concern,” “problem,” “challenge,” or “opportunity,” to convey that the origin and definition resides within an individual's own felt sense. 

Trusted (Structure): Similar to GTD’s “trusted system,” the idea is of a structure that an agent relies upon (see, “Reliance”) to act as a form of  liberating structure. 

Value: Often combined with “Principle” as in “Value/Principle.”  

Vote/Voting: Though there are meaningful variations to how votes are tabulated, the essence of any voting process is that each member gets one vote (unless it is a proportional or quadratic vote), and then the  majority or plurality option wins. Generally it’s advisable that the result of the vote should not necessarily affect the conclusion (unless a policy specifies it), but instead functions as a “poll” that informs a decision.   

Wish: What one desires without consideration of feasibility or impact. Not to be confused with a Request. One’s 100%. “If I had a magic wand.”