@skhema/cli 0.4.4 → 0.4.6

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  1. package/README.md +15 -0
  2. package/dist/commands/import.d.ts +4 -0
  3. package/dist/commands/import.d.ts.map +1 -0
  4. package/dist/commands/import.js +238 -0
  5. package/dist/lib/api/import-transfer.d.ts +22 -0
  6. package/dist/lib/api/import-transfer.d.ts.map +1 -0
  7. package/dist/lib/api/import-transfer.js +89 -0
  8. package/dist/program.d.ts.map +1 -1
  9. package/dist/program.js +2 -0
  10. package/package.json +3 -3
  11. package/skills/.manifest.json +8 -10
  12. package/skills/skhema-calibrate/SKILL.md +90 -0
  13. package/skills/skhema-calibrate/references/assumptions.md +77 -0
  14. package/skills/skhema-calibrate/references/coherence.md +95 -0
  15. package/skills/skhema-calibrate/references/freshness.md +81 -0
  16. package/skills/skhema-calibrate/references/language.md +74 -0
  17. package/skills/skhema-communicate/SKILL.md +94 -0
  18. package/skills/skhema-communicate/references/audience-adaptation.md +103 -0
  19. package/skills/skhema-communicate/references/board-update.md +93 -0
  20. package/skills/skhema-communicate/references/decision-brief.md +93 -0
  21. package/skills/skhema-communicate/references/team-brief.md +91 -0
  22. package/skills/skhema-compose/SKILL.md +98 -0
  23. package/skills/skhema-compose/references/assemble.md +119 -0
  24. package/skills/skhema-compose/references/decompose.md +104 -0
  25. package/skills/skhema-compose/references/metrics-tree.md +101 -0
  26. package/skills/skhema-compose/references/options.md +109 -0
  27. package/skills/skhema-frame/SKILL.md +86 -0
  28. package/skills/skhema-frame/references/challenge.md +84 -0
  29. package/skills/skhema-frame/references/decision.md +92 -0
  30. package/skills/skhema-frame/references/outcome.md +82 -0
  31. package/skills/skhema-frame/references/policy.md +82 -0
  32. package/skills/skhema-frame/references/scope.md +79 -0
  33. package/skills/skhema-operate/SKILL.md +107 -0
  34. package/skills/skhema-operate/references/auth.md +110 -0
  35. package/skills/skhema-operate/references/author-elements.md +158 -0
  36. package/skills/skhema-operate/references/navigate.md +110 -0
  37. package/skills/skhema-operate/references/surfaces.md +67 -0
  38. package/skills/skhema-operate/references/validation-loop.md +84 -0
  39. package/skills/skhema-pressure-test/SKILL.md +107 -0
  40. package/skills/skhema-pressure-test/references/decision-grill.md +127 -0
  41. package/skills/skhema-pressure-test/references/full-grill.md +118 -0
  42. package/skills/skhema-pressure-test/references/pre-mortem.md +140 -0
  43. package/skills/skhema-challenge-framing/SKILL.md +0 -28
  44. package/skills/skhema-coherence-check/SKILL.md +0 -28
  45. package/skills/skhema-element-decomposition/SKILL.md +0 -28
  46. package/skills/skhema-element-writer/SKILL.md +0 -20
  47. package/skills/skhema-judgment-audit/SKILL.md +0 -28
  48. package/skills/skhema-semantic-sharpening/SKILL.md +0 -28
  49. package/skills/skhema-strategy-advisor/SKILL.md +0 -20
  50. package/skills/skhema-workspace-navigator/SKILL.md +0 -20
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
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+ # Coherence
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+
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+ Does the strategy agree with itself? You are hunting for three faults:
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+ **contradictions** (two parts that can't both be acted on), **unnamed tensions**
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+ (two parts that pull against each other and nobody said so), and **gaps** (a
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+ decision with no follow-through, or a goal with nothing aimed at it).
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+
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+ Coherence is never automatic. A strategy is written in pieces, over time, by
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+ people in different moods. The pieces drift. Your job is to lay them side by side
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+ and find where they stop fitting.
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+
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+ ## Before you start
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+
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+ Get the whole thing in front of you. Coherence can only be checked across the
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+ full set — a single element in isolation always looks fine. If they hand you one
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+ page, ask what it connects to: what decision it serves, what it depends on.
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+
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+ ## The moves
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+
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+ Run these in order. Each pass looks for one fault type.
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+
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+ ### 1. List the commitments
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+
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+ Read through and pull out every line that commits to something — a decision, a
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+ priority, a target, a "we will" or "we won't." Write them as a flat numbered
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+ list, in the person's own words. This list is your working surface; you check it
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+ against itself, not the prose.
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+
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+ ### 2. Hunt contradictions
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+
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+ Go down the list and, for each commitment, ask: is there another commitment it
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+ can't coexist with? Watch for:
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+
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+ - **Resource collisions.** "Move fast on A" and "move fast on B" when A and B
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+ draw on the same one team. Two top priorities is zero priorities — say so.
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+ - **Direction collisions.** "Premium positioning" and "win on price." Both may
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+ be written proudly, pages apart.
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+ - **Sequence collisions.** "B depends on A" but the plan does B first.
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+
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+ For each hit, quote both lines and state the collision in one sentence. Do not
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+ resolve it yourself — that is the person's call. Surface it and ask which gives.
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+
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+ ### 3. Name the tensions
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+
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+ A tension is softer than a contradiction: both parts can survive, but they pull
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+ opposite ways and the strain is unmanaged. "Serve enterprise and stay
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+ self-serve." Often fine — but only if named, because an unnamed tension gets
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+ resolved by accident, differently by each person, under pressure.
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+
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+ For each tension: name it, say which two commitments create it, and ask the one
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+ question that matters — *is this a deliberate balance you're holding, or a
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+ choice you haven't made yet?* A named tension is a feature. An unnamed one is a
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+ future argument.
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+
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+ ### 4. Find the gaps
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+
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+ Two directions:
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+
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+ - **Decisions with no follow-through.** A commitment that nothing downstream
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+ acts on. "We'll win on service" — then no line about staffing, training, or a
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+ service metric. The decision is decoration until something carries it.
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+ - **Goals with nothing aimed at them.** An outcome or target that no initiative,
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+ action, or resource points at. Ask: what in this plan actually moves that
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+ number?
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+
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+ Gaps hide because absence is invisible. You find them by walking each commitment
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+ forward ("what happens because of this?") and each goal backward ("what here
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+ causes this?") and noting where the trail goes cold.
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+
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+ ### 5. Spot the off-topic orphan
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+
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+ Sometimes a piece shares no subject with the rest — it's about a different
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+ market, product, or problem entirely. It can't contradict, support, or gap
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+ anything, because it isn't part of this argument at all. That's not a coherence
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+ fault to resolve; it's a sign the element belongs to a *different strategy*.
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+ Flag it, say what it seems to be about, and recommend it move to its own
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+ workspace. Never delete it yourself — it may be someone else's live work,
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+ misfiled here.
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+
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+ ## Output
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+
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+ A numbered list. Each item: the fault type (contradiction / tension / gap), the
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+ exact line(s) quoted, one sentence of what's wrong, and either the fix or the
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+ question that forces the fix. Group by type. If the set is coherent, say which
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+ tensions you checked and confirmed are named — that is a real finding too.
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+
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+ ## Failure modes to avoid
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+
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+ - **Manufacturing contradictions from vague words.** If two lines only clash
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+ because a word is fuzzy, that's a language problem, not a coherence one — route
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+ it to `language.md`, don't dress it up as a contradiction.
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+ - **Resolving it for them.** You flag, they choose. Picking the winner yourself
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+ skips the judgment that is theirs to make.
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+ - **Stopping at the first find.** Walk the whole list. The expensive
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+ contradiction is usually not the obvious one.
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+ # Freshness
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+
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+ A strategy is a set of judgments made at a moment, under conditions that were
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+ true then. Time passes. The conditions move. Some judgments that were right are
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+ now stale — not wrong when written, just overtaken. This check finds them before
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+ you keep building on ground that shifted.
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+
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+ The move: for each judgment, recover the conditions it was made under, then ask
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+ *do those conditions still hold?* Where they don't, the judgment is up for
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+ re-decision. You are not attacking the old call. You are checking whether the
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+ world it assumed is still the world you're in.
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+
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+ ## Anchor the date
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+
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+ Find out when the strategy — or the part you're checking — was written or last
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+ reviewed. If it isn't dated, that is itself a finding: an undated strategy can't
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+ be kept fresh, because nobody knows how old any judgment is. Establish a rough
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+ date before you go further, from the person or from context.
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+
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+ ## Surface the conditions behind each judgment
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+
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+ Walk the load-bearing decisions and claims. For each, ask: *what had to be true
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+ about the world for this to be the right call?* Make the hidden conditions
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+ explicit. Examples:
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+
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+ - "Build our own billing" assumed no good off-the-shelf option existed **then**.
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+ - "Don't invest in mobile" assumed usage was desktop-first **then**.
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+ - "Price at $X" assumed a competitor set at $Y and a cost base of $Z **then**.
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+ - "Win on being AI-native" assumed rivals weren't **then**.
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+
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+ Most conditions are unstated. The judgment records the conclusion, not the world
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+ it depended on. Your value is reconstructing that world so you can check it.
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+
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+ ## Check what moved
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+
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+ For each condition, ask what has changed since the anchor date. Sweep the usual
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+ sources of drift:
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+
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+ - **Competitors** — new entrants, a rival that closed the gap, someone who
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+ exited.
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+ - **The market** — demand shifted, a segment grew or died, buyer behaviour
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+ changed.
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+ - **Technology** — a capability that was hard or impossible is now cheap and
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+ routine (this one dates strategies fastest).
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+ - **Your own position** — you have people, money, data, or a product you didn't
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+ have then. Constraints that shaped the old call may be gone.
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+ - **Regulation / platform / external rules** — a policy, a fee, a dependency
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+ changed under you.
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+
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+ Where a condition held then and doesn't now, flag the judgment that rode on it.
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+
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+ ## Rate the staleness
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+
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+ Not every changed condition matters. Sort each flagged judgment:
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+
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+ - **Stale and load-bearing** — the condition moved AND a lot rests on this
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+ judgment. Re-decide now. This is the finding that justifies the whole check.
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+ - **Stale but minor** — overtaken, but little depends on it. Note it, move on.
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+ - **Still current** — conditions hold. Say so; confirmed-fresh is a real result
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+ and stops needless churn.
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+
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+ ## Output
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+
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+ A numbered list: the judgment quoted, the condition it rested on, what changed,
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+ and the verdict (re-decide now / note / still holds). Lead with the stale-and-
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+ load-bearing ones. If the strategy is undated, say that first — it's the root
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+ cause that makes everything else guesswork.
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+
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+ ## Failure modes to avoid
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+
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+ - **Re-litigating good calls.** A judgment made under conditions that STILL hold
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+ is not stale, even if it's old. Age alone is not the fault; a moved condition
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+ is. Don't reopen settled decisions for the sake of it.
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+ - **Only checking the outside world.** The biggest change is often *your own*
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+ position — new capability, new resources. A constraint that forced the old
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+ call may simply be gone.
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+ - **Missing the tech shift.** "It was too expensive to build" ages fastest of
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+ all. Always ask whether the hard thing got cheap.
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+ - **Confusing stale with wrong.** Freshness is about conditions changing, not
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+ about the original call being a mistake. Frame it as "time overtook this", not
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+ "this was bad" — that keeps the person willing to re-decide honestly.
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+ # Language
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+
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+ Some words let two readers walk away believing different things. Everyone nods
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+ at the meeting; then they go and do different work, each sure they're following
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+ the plan. This check hunts those words down and forces one shared meaning.
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+
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+ The move is simple and slightly adversarial toward the text: for each fuzzy
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+ word, ask *could two reasonable people read this and picture different things?*
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+ If yes, it's a leak. You plug it by making the person say exactly what they mean,
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+ then writing that back into the line.
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+
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+ ## The words to hunt
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+
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+ Read the strategy slowly and stop on any word that sounds like agreement but
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+ carries no fixed meaning. The usual suspects:
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+
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+ - **Scale words** — "scale", "grow", "significant", "meaningful". Grow to what,
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+ by when, measured how?
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+ - **Quality words** — "best-in-class", "world-class", "seamless", "delightful",
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+ "robust". By whose standard? Shown how?
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+ - **Direction words** — "leverage", "optimize", "streamline", "double down",
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+ "focus on". These describe motion without saying the actual action.
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+ - **Boundary words** — "soon", "some", "most", "enterprise", "the market",
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+ "power users". Which ones exactly? Where's the line?
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+ - **Weasel qualifiers** — "essentially", "basically", "kind of", "where
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+ appropriate", "as needed". These smuggle in an escape hatch. Whose judgment
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+ fills the blank, and when?
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+
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+ A fast test: could you hold this word to account in six months? "We'll grow" —
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+ you can never be wrong. "We'll reach 500 paying teams by Q3" — you can. Words you
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+ can't be wrong about are words that aren't saying anything.
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+
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+ ## The move, per word
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+
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+ 1. **Point at it.** Quote the line, underline the word.
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+ 2. **Ask the question that exposes the fork.** Not "what do you mean?" — too
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+ open. Ask the specific one: "scale to how many?", "seamless compared to
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+ what?", "which customers count as enterprise — draw me the line." Make them
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+ commit to a number, a name, or a test.
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+ 3. **Watch for the tell.** If they answer instantly and precisely, the word was
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+ just shorthand — fine, tighten it and move on. If they pause, or two people
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+ in the room answer differently, you found a real one. The disagreement in
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+ the room IS the finding.
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+ 4. **Rewrite the line** with the precise meaning in place. "Improve onboarding"
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+ becomes "get a new user to their first saved element in under five minutes."
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+ Now it can be built, and it can be checked.
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+
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+ ## A special catch: the same word, two meanings
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+
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+ Worse than one vague word is one word used two ways in the same document.
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+ "Platform" meaning the tech in one section and the business model in another.
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+ "Customer" meaning the buyer here and the end-user there. Scan for repeated
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+ key terms and confirm each use points at the same thing. When it doesn't, either
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+ split the word into two, or pick one meaning and enforce it throughout.
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+
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+ ## Output
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+
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+ A numbered list: the vague term, the line it's in, the fork (the two+ things it
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+ could mean), and the sharpened rewrite — or the question still open if the person
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+ needs to decide. End with any word-used-two-ways findings called out separately,
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+ since those cause the most expensive confusion.
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+
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+ ## Failure modes to avoid
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+
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+ - **Sharpening words that don't carry weight.** Not every adjective needs a
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+ ruler. Target the words that decisions and accountability hang on. Fuzz in a
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+ throwaay line is fine; fuzz in the goal is not.
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+ - **Accepting a synonym as a definition.** "By seamless we mean frictionless" is
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+ not a definition. Push until you get a test, a number, or a concrete example.
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+ - **Doing the deciding.** If "enterprise" has no line drawn, you don't draw it —
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+ you make them draw it. The vagueness is often hiding a decision they haven't
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+ made. Surface that; don't paper over it.
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+ - **Confusing this with coherence.** If the problem is two lines disagreeing,
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+ that's `coherence.md`. Here the problem is one line meaning two things.
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+ ---
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+ name: skhema-communicate
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+ description: "Use when a strategy already exists and now has to move to people who didn't build it — a board, a team, a new hire, an investor. Packages the same strategy at the right resolution for each audience: a board update, a team brief, a one-page decision brief, or an adaptation pass across several audiences at once."
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+ ---
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+
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+ # Communicate
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+
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+ The strategy exists. Now it has to move — to a board that oversees it, a
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+ team that executes it, a new hire who inherits it, an investor who funds
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+ it. Your job is not to re-decide the strategy or improve it. Your job is
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+ to make the same strategy land with people who will each do something
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+ different with it.
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+
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+ There is one cardinal rule, and every capability here obeys it: **same
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+ strategy, different resolution — never a different strategy per audience.**
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+ A board sees less detail than a team, a new hire sees less than the board;
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+ none of them sees a version that contradicts another. The moment two
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+ audiences would disagree about what the strategy IS, you have stopped
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+ communicating and started spinning, and the credibility bill comes later.
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+
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+ ## The first move: who, and what must they DO with it?
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+
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+ Before you write anything, answer two questions out loud:
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+
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+ > **Who** is this for, and **what do they need to DO** with the strategy —
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+ > oversee it, execute it, sign off on one decision, or fund it?
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+
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+ What they need to do decides what they see. An audience that oversees needs
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+ decisions, risks, and asks. An audience that executes needs to know what
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+ changes Monday morning. Someone signing off on one fork needs that one
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+ decision, not the whole strategy. Get the "what must they do" wrong and you
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+ hand a board a work plan or hand a team a governance report — both bounce.
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+
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+ | The audience needs to… | Route to |
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+ |---|---|
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+ | Oversee and back the strategy — a board, a steering group, a governance body | `references/board-update.md` |
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+ | Execute it — the team or teams who will do the work | `references/team-brief.md` |
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+ | Sign off on, or record, one specific decision | `references/decision-brief.md` |
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+ | Several of the above at once, or you're unsure how much to show whom | `references/audience-adaptation.md` |
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+
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+ ## How to pick
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+
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+ - They asked for "an update for the board / the investors / the leadership
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+ group" — people who hold you accountable but don't do the work →
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+ **board-update**. Decisions, evidence, risks, asks. No theatre.
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+ - They asked to "tell the team" or "roll this out" — the people who execute
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+ → **team-brief**. What we're doing, what we're not, and what changes
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+ Monday.
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+ - It's really about **one** choice — a build-or-buy, a hire, a shutdown —
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+ that needs a yes and a paper trail → **decision-brief**. One decision,
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+ one page.
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+ - There are multiple audiences, or the question is "how much do I tell
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+ each of them" → **audience-adaptation** first. It sets the altitude for
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+ each audience, then routes you into the others per audience.
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+
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+ If you have several audiences, run **audience-adaptation** first — it keeps
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+ every downstream rendering coherent with the others. Then produce each
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+ artifact.
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+
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+ ## What "communicated" means
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+
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+ A capability is done when the audience can act on the strategy without
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+ coming back to ask what it means — the board can vote on the asks, the team
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+ knows what to do Monday, the signer can say yes or no. And when you could
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+ read every version you produced aloud in one room without contradicting
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+ yourself. If a reader has to reconstruct the strategy from your words, you
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+ under-resolved. If two audiences would argue about what it says, you
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+ over-adapted. Each reference file gives you the shape for its audience and
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+ the failure modes to catch.
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+
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+ ## Without a live respondent
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+
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+ Run headless, with no one to answer? Don't invent their answers. Make the
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+ minimal reasonable assumption, mark it in the output as yours ("assumed: …"),
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+ and list the questions only the owner can settle — what's in scope, what a word
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+ means, whose dissent to record — at the end instead of papering over them. A
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+ marked assumption is honest work; a silent one is a guess you built on.
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+
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+ ## Sharpen with Skhema
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+
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+ Communicating well is really re-resolving typed judgments for an audience:
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+ a board wants the decisions (the commands) and the risks (the assumptions
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+ still open); a team wants the guiding policy (a command) turned into
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+ actions. If your strategy is written as typed elements, you already know
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+ which pieces each audience needs — you're filtering by type, not
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+ rewriting. `npm i @skhema/method` gives you that typed vocabulary, so
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+ "what does the board see versus the team" becomes a filter over the same
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+ elements instead of a fresh draft you have to keep in sync by hand. You
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+ don't need it to run this skill — but it is what stops the board version
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+ and the team version from silently drifting apart.
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+
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+ Every capability here ends by saving its artifact as a **workspace
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+ document** (`skhema document create`) — the narrative stays tethered to the
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+ elements it cites instead of dying in a chat log.
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+ # Audience adaptation
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+
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+ You have one strategy and several audiences — a board, a team, a new hire,
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+ an investor. This capability decides how much each of them sees, and keeps
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+ every version honest against the others. Run it first, before you produce
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+ any single artifact, whenever more than one audience is in play.
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+
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+ The one rule that governs everything here: **same strategy, different
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+ resolution — never a different strategy per audience.** A board sees the
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+ decisions and the risks; a team sees what changes Monday; a new hire sees
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+ the through-line and where they fit. Those are different zoom levels on one
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+ map. They are not different maps. The instant two versions would contradict
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+ each other, you have two strategies and a credibility failure waiting to
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+ surface.
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+
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+ ## The moves
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+
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+ 1. **List the audiences.** Everyone who has to receive this strategy.
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+ 2. **For each, ask what they must DO with it.** Decide, execute, fund,
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+ join, comply? This is the whole basis for adaptation — not seniority,
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+ not politeness. What they do determines what they need to see.
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+ 3. **Set the altitude from the job.** Give each audience exactly the
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+ resolution their job requires — no more (detail they can't act on is
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+ noise), no less (missing what they need forces them to guess).
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+ 4. **Pick the format per audience.** Route each to the right artifact:
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+ board → `board-update.md`, team → `team-brief.md`, a single sign-off →
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+ `decision-brief.md`. A new hire or an investor may need a custom one-pager
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+ built on the same principle.
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+ 5. **Run the coherence check** (below). This is the step that separates
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+ adaptation from spin. Do not skip it.
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+
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+ ## Altitude by job
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+
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+ | Audience | What they must do | What they see (resolution) |
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+ |---|---|---|
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+ | Board / investors | Oversee, back, fund | The decisions, the evidence, the risks carried, the asks |
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+ | Team | Execute | The guiding policy, what's cut, what changes Monday, the why |
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+ | New hire | Join and orient | The through-line, why it's the direction, where they fit |
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+ | Signer of one call | Approve one decision | That decision, its evidence, its reversibility |
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+ | Regulator / partner | Comply / rely on | The commitments that bind us, no internal deliberation |
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+
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+ Same strategy underneath every row. Only the resolution changes.
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+
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+ ## The coherence check
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+
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+ Line up every version you've produced and test them against each other:
47
+
48
+ - **Every claim in the short version must be true in the long version.**
49
+ The new-hire one-liner is a compression of the board's decisions, not a
50
+ softer or bolder claim than them.
51
+ - **No version may contradict another.** If the board hears "steady
52
+ progress" and the team hears "urgent turnaround", those aren't two
53
+ altitudes, they're two stories. Pick the true one and resolve both from
54
+ it.
55
+ - **Differences are resolution, not substance.** Detail dropped for a higher
56
+ audience must be detail, never a different decision, a different risk
57
+ posture, or a different level of confidence.
58
+
59
+ The test in one sentence: **could you put every audience in one room and
60
+ read all your versions aloud without contradicting yourself?** If yes, you
61
+ adapted. If you'd have to hope they never compare notes, you spun, and the
62
+ comparison always eventually happens.
63
+
64
+ ## What good looks like
65
+
66
+ - Each audience gets the altitude their job needs and no other.
67
+ - The versions nest cleanly: zoom out from the team brief and you land on
68
+ the board update; zoom out again and you land on the through-line.
69
+ - You would be comfortable if any audience saw any other's version.
70
+
71
+ ## Failure modes to catch
72
+
73
+ - **Two stories.** Optimism for the board, alarm for the team, or vice
74
+ versa. One true account, resolved differently. Never two.
75
+ - **Different decision per audience.** Telling one group you'll build and
76
+ another you might buy. That's not adaptation — the strategy itself is
77
+ moving. Fix the strategy, then communicate it.
78
+ - **Flat resolution.** Everyone gets the same altitude, so the board drowns
79
+ in execution detail and the team gets strategic fog. Set altitude per
80
+ job.
81
+ - **Tone-only adaptation.** You changed the warmth and the vocabulary but
82
+ gave every audience the same depth. Adapt the resolution, not just the
83
+ register.
84
+ - **Skipping the coherence check.** Each version was written well in
85
+ isolation and never lined up against the others. Line them up; that is
86
+ where the drift shows.
87
+
88
+ ## Save it as a workspace document
89
+
90
+ In the Skhema environment, the artifact you just wrote has a home: save it
91
+ as a workspace document so it stays versioned with the strategy and cites
92
+ the elements it stands on.
93
+
94
+ ```sh
95
+ echo '{"title":"<title>","docType":"<board_update|team_brief|decision_brief|custom>","content":"<the markdown you wrote>","elementRefs":["<element-id>", "…"]}' > doc.json
96
+ skhema document create --workspace <workspace-id> --file doc.json
97
+ ```
98
+
99
+ Put every element you drew on into `elementRefs` — that tether is what lets
100
+ a later calibration pass tell the reader which briefs were built on a
101
+ judgment that has since gone stale. Working outside the Skhema environment?
102
+ The artifact is still complete as a file; save it wherever your team keeps
103
+ decisions.
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
1
+ # Board update
2
+
3
+ The audience oversees the strategy; they do not execute it. They carry
4
+ accountability for it and hold resources you need. What they must DO with
5
+ your update: satisfy themselves the strategy is still sound, decide on the
6
+ asks you bring, and knowingly accept the risks that are being carried. Give
7
+ them exactly what those three acts require, and nothing that only flatters.
8
+
9
+ A board update is not a status report. Activity is not the unit; decisions,
10
+ evidence, risk, and asks are. If a line doesn't help them govern, cut it.
11
+
12
+ ## The moves
13
+
14
+ 1. **Get the baseline.** Ask: what did the board last see, and when? A board
15
+ update is a delta. If there is no prior, state the strategy's through-line
16
+ in one paragraph so the rest has an anchor.
17
+ 2. **Ask what actually changed.** Since the last update: what did you decide,
18
+ what did you learn, what got riskier or safer? Everything below comes from
19
+ this, not from a calendar of what happened.
20
+ 3. **Draft the five sections** below, in this order.
21
+ 4. **Force every ask to have an owner and a default.** An ask with no
22
+ decision attached is theatre. See section 5.
23
+ 5. **Strip the theatre.** Read it back and delete anything that is there to
24
+ impress rather than to inform a governance decision.
25
+
26
+ ## The shape
27
+
28
+ Five sections. One page if you can.
29
+
30
+ 1. **The through-line.** One short paragraph: what this strategy is and
31
+ whether it has changed. If it hasn't changed, say so in a sentence — that
32
+ itself is information the board needs.
33
+ 2. **Decisions made.** What you decided since last time, each with the
34
+ judgment behind it in one line — not just the outcome, the reason. The
35
+ board is accountable for the direction; they need the "why", not just the
36
+ "what".
37
+ 3. **Evidence moved.** What you learned that changed your confidence. A bet
38
+ that paid off or didn't, a number that came in, an assumption now
39
+ confirmed or killed. State which way it moved your confidence and what you
40
+ did about it.
41
+ 4. **Risks carried.** The live risks, each with an owner and a trigger —
42
+ "if X happens, we do Y". A risk with no owner and no trigger is a worry,
43
+ not a managed risk, and the board can't accept it.
44
+ 5. **Asks.** The specific decisions or resources you need FROM the board.
45
+ Each ask states: what you're asking for, the decision it unblocks, and
46
+ **the default if they don't act**. The default is what turns a discussion
47
+ into a decision.
48
+
49
+ ## What good looks like
50
+
51
+ - A board member could vote on every ask without asking a clarifying
52
+ question first.
53
+ - Every decision reported comes with its reason, so the board can challenge
54
+ the reasoning, not just the outcome.
55
+ - Every risk has a name next to it and a stated trigger.
56
+ - The asks are up top or clearly flagged, never buried in paragraph six.
57
+ - It is shorter than they expected and they still know more.
58
+
59
+ ## Failure modes to catch
60
+
61
+ - **Activity dump.** "Here's everything we did." The board governs
62
+ decisions and risk, not effort. Replace the timeline with the four
63
+ substantive sections.
64
+ - **Buried ask.** The thing you actually need is in the last sentence. Move
65
+ it up; a board update exists to get the asks decided.
66
+ - **Ownerless risk.** Risks listed with no owner and no trigger. The board
67
+ cannot knowingly accept a risk nobody owns. Add both or drop the line.
68
+ - **Vanity metrics.** Numbers that go up and flatter but wouldn't change any
69
+ governance decision. If a metric wouldn't alter an ask or a risk, it
70
+ doesn't belong in a board update.
71
+ - **No confidence direction.** Evidence reported without saying which way it
72
+ moved you. "We ran the pilot" is activity; "the pilot missed, so we've cut
73
+ our confidence in the channel and paused spend" is evidence moved.
74
+ - **Reassurance in place of asks.** A whole update that reports comfort and
75
+ asks for nothing. If there is genuinely nothing to decide, that is a
76
+ one-line update, not a deck.
77
+
78
+ ## Save it as a workspace document
79
+
80
+ In the Skhema environment, the artifact you just wrote has a home: save it
81
+ as a workspace document so it stays versioned with the strategy and cites
82
+ the elements it stands on.
83
+
84
+ ```sh
85
+ echo '{"title":"<title>","docType":"board_update","content":"<the markdown you wrote>","elementRefs":["<element-id>", "…"]}' > doc.json
86
+ skhema document create --workspace <workspace-id> --file doc.json
87
+ ```
88
+
89
+ Put every element you drew on into `elementRefs` — that tether is what lets
90
+ a later calibration pass tell the reader which briefs were built on a
91
+ judgment that has since gone stale. Working outside the Skhema environment?
92
+ The artifact is still complete as a file; save it wherever your team keeps
93
+ decisions.
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
1
+ # Decision brief
2
+
3
+ One decision. One page. The audience reads it to say yes or no, and to have
4
+ a record of why later. What they must DO with it: judge the reasoning — not
5
+ just receive the recommendation — and be able to reconstruct, months from
6
+ now, what was known and what was merely believed when the call was made.
7
+
8
+ The discipline that makes a decision brief work: **evidence before
9
+ recommendation, and reversibility called out first.** A reader handed the
10
+ recommendation first can only agree or disagree with you; a reader handed
11
+ the evidence first can form their own view and then check yours against it.
12
+
13
+ ## The moves
14
+
15
+ 1. **State the decision as a command, in one sentence.** "We will build X in
16
+ house." Not "should we build or buy?" — a brief resolves a fork, it
17
+ doesn't host the debate.
18
+ 2. **Classify reversibility first.** One-way door or two-way door? Can we
19
+ undo this cheaply, or are we stuck with it? This sets how much rigour the
20
+ rest of the brief deserves — over-analysing a reversible call wastes
21
+ everyone; under-analysing an irreversible one is how disasters get
22
+ waved through.
23
+ 3. **Lay out the evidence before your recommendation.** Separate what is
24
+ known from what is assumed, and mark the confidence on each. The reader
25
+ should be able to reach the recommendation themselves from the evidence
26
+ you show.
27
+ 4. **Show the options you rejected, each as a claim, with why.** A decision
28
+ with only one option shown isn't a decision, it's an announcement.
29
+ 5. **Record the dissent.** Who disagreed, and their actual reason, in their
30
+ terms — not smoothed into consensus. Disagreement erased from the record
31
+ is disagreement you'll relitigate later with no memory of why.
32
+ 6. **State the revisit trigger.** What would make us reopen this — a number,
33
+ an event, a date.
34
+
35
+ ## The shape (one page)
36
+
37
+ 1. **The decision.** One sentence, imperative. What we will do.
38
+ 2. **Owner and date.** Who is accountable, and when it was decided.
39
+ 3. **Reversible or not.** Two-way door (undo cheaply) or one-way (committed).
40
+ Say which, and let it set the depth of everything below.
41
+ 4. **The evidence.** Facts first, each marked known or assumed, with
42
+ confidence. This comes before the recommendation, deliberately.
43
+ 5. **Options considered.** Each stated as a claim, each with why it was
44
+ rejected — including the option of doing nothing.
45
+ 6. **Recommendation.** The call, and the judgment that gets you from the
46
+ evidence to it.
47
+ 7. **Dissent.** Who disagreed and why, recorded straight.
48
+ 8. **Revisit trigger.** What would make us reopen this.
49
+
50
+ ## What good looks like
51
+
52
+ - A reader could reach your recommendation from your evidence section
53
+ before they read your recommendation.
54
+ - The reversibility call is explicit and the depth of analysis matches it.
55
+ - Facts and assumptions are visibly separated; no assumption is dressed as
56
+ a fact.
57
+ - The strongest objection is on the page in its own words.
58
+ - A year later, someone can see exactly what was known and believed at
59
+ decision time.
60
+
61
+ ## Failure modes to catch
62
+
63
+ - **Recommendation first.** The call leads and the evidence is arranged to
64
+ support it. The reader can only rubber-stamp. Put evidence first.
65
+ - **No reversibility call.** The brief agonises over a two-way door, or
66
+ nods through a one-way one. Classify it and match the rigour.
67
+ - **Assumptions as facts.** Beliefs stated in the confident voice of
68
+ evidence. Mark each one; a claim with no evidence behind it is an
69
+ assumption and gets labelled as one.
70
+ - **Straw options.** Alternatives listed only to be knocked down. Show the
71
+ real case for each before the reason it lost.
72
+ - **Sanded-off dissent.** "The team is aligned" when someone wasn't. Record
73
+ the objection; consensus theatre destroys the paper trail's whole value.
74
+ - **No revisit trigger.** The decision is framed as permanent when it isn't.
75
+ State what would reopen it, so a changed world reopens it on purpose
76
+ rather than by crisis.
77
+
78
+ ## Save it as a workspace document
79
+
80
+ In the Skhema environment, the artifact you just wrote has a home: save it
81
+ as a workspace document so it stays versioned with the strategy and cites
82
+ the elements it stands on.
83
+
84
+ ```sh
85
+ echo '{"title":"<title>","docType":"decision_brief","content":"<the markdown you wrote>","elementRefs":["<element-id>", "…"]}' > doc.json
86
+ skhema document create --workspace <workspace-id> --file doc.json
87
+ ```
88
+
89
+ Put every element you drew on into `elementRefs` — that tether is what lets
90
+ a later calibration pass tell the reader which briefs were built on a
91
+ judgment that has since gone stale. Working outside the Skhema environment?
92
+ The artifact is still complete as a file; save it wherever your team keeps
93
+ decisions.