Framework 02 · Movement II — Teams & systems
Five signals, one job
The permission system: why a single clear directive almost never moves behavior, and what actually does.
You roll out a better way of working. The memo is clear, it is well-argued, and people nod. Two weeks later nothing has changed. So you send the memo again, louder. Still nothing.
A memo is one signal on one channel. Behavior change needs several signals across different modes all pointing the same way: what leaders say, what gets measured, what gets celebrated, what the tooling defaults to, and what people watch their peers actually do. Call it five signals. The number is less important than the chorus.
When the signals disagree, people do not average them. They read the loudest one, and the loudest one is almost always the incentive, not the announcement. If you ask for more experimentation but still only reward shipping, people hear the reward. The memo never had a chance.
The signals are all doing one job: granting permission to actually behave differently without it feeling risky. That is the whole mechanism. Five signals, one job. Get them to agree and the change feels obvious. Leave them in conflict and no amount of repetition will land it.
A memo is one signal. Behavior moves when five of them agree.
What to do with it
Before you mandate a change, audit the signals already in the room. Find the one that contradicts the ask, usually an incentive or a default, and fix that first. Change the system, then write the memo.
From idea to practice
This one runs as a team workshop, and it is part of the coaching.