How decisions are made, changed, and enforced.
Decision types
- Operational Day-to-day decisions; reversible; low risk.
- Strategic Medium-term direction; resource allocation; partially reversible.
- Constitutional Changes to core rules, purpose, or invariants; high threshold.
Mechanisms
How a decision is made. Purpose: match decision risk to decision method.
- Consent (no reasoned objection)
- Vote (majority / supermajority)
- Delegation (role-based authority)
- Proposal + review + adoption
Authority boundaries
Who can decide. Purpose: avoid decision paralysis and power leakage.
- Individual – autonomy within role
- Role – defined responsibilities
- Circle / Domain – scoped authority
- Whole community – constitutional matters
Artifacts
- Decision Matrix
- Prevents arguments about how to decide
- Makes authority explicit
- Reduces emotional escalation
- Governance Protocol (short law document)
- Decision types & thresholds
- Roles and domains
- Proposal lifecycle
- Escalation and appeal paths
- Emergency powers (if any)
Layer Invariants
- Invariant 2.1: Decision type precedes decision content How a decision is made must be agreed before what is decided.
- Invariant 2.2: Authority must be explicit No one may exercise decision power without a defined role, mandate, or consent.
- Invariant 2.3: Constitutional rules outrank all others Operational or strategic decisions cannot override constitutional agreements.
- Invariant 2.4: Decisions are reviewable All decisions must be traceable to their authority, method, and record.
Explicitness Rules
MUST be explicit
- Decision types (operational / strategic / constitutional)
- Who decides what (authority boundaries)
- Decision mechanisms and thresholds
- Escalation paths
Why: governance ambiguity equals informal hierarchy.
MAY be explicit
- Meeting facilitation style
- Proposal templates
- Emergency procedures
MUST remain optional
- Governance philosophy (consensus vs sociocracy, etc.)
- Emotional tone of meetings