A 12-minute diagnostic. A real reading of where the constraint sits.
This instrument tests your risk function against the integrated model — three load-bearing layers, fifteen short statements. It produces a maturity score for each layer, identifies which one is the binding constraint, and recommends the smallest move that would unlock the next stage of capability.
15
Statements
Five per layer. Each tests a distinct attribute that must be present for the layer to be load-bearing.
5
Maturity Levels
Absent · Emerging · Defined · Operating · Embedded. The same scale applies to every statement.
1
Report
A board-grade report identifying the binding layer and the recommended tier of engagement.
What is being assessed
Three layers, in the order they must hold to be load-bearing.
Layer 03
Decision InfrastructureThe operating layer — system of record, cadence, evidence in flight
Risk TaxonomyThe language layer — mutually exclusive categories, named ownership, comparability
Answer for the function as it operates today, not as it is described in policy.
Context
§ 02 / 07
A few details, so the report can be addressed to you.
None of these affect the score. They are used to title the report and to calibrate the language we use when interpreting it.
Layer 01
§ 03 / 07
01
The Language Layer
Risk Taxonomy
Without mutually exclusive categories, comparable signals, and named ownership, every downstream decision inherits ambiguity. You cannot aggregate what you cannot classify consistently.
Layer 02
§ 04 / 07
02
The Authority Layer
Decision Architecture
Without defined decision rights, evidentiary standards, and appetite boundaries, governance produces discussion rather than decision. Escalation becomes the default because no layer below feels empowered to act.
Layer 03
§ 05 / 07
03
The Operating Layer
Decision Infrastructure
Without a system of record, a cadence that closes loops, and evidence generated in the course of decisions rather than reconstructed after them, the architecture exists on paper but never actually runs.
Final Step
§ 06 / 07
One open question. Then your report.
The score gives the structural reading. This question gives the human one — and is the single most useful piece of context for any conversation that follows.
Diagnostic Preview · Confidential
Decision Layer Maturity Report
For your organisation
Prepared for —
Date —
Decision Layer Maturity Index
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The Three Layers · Scorecard
§ Per-layer reading
Maturity Matrix · where each layer sits
Layer · Level
1 · Absent
2 · Emerging
3 · Defined
4 · Operating
5 · Embedded
Where pressure is arriving — in your words
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The Binding Constraint
§ The layer that must move first
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Identified as binding
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Recommended Path
§ The next move
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Methodology Note
§ How this was assessed
Each layer was scored on five attributes drawn from the integrated model. The maturity index is the equally-weighted mean of all fifteen responses. The binding constraint is the lowest-scoring layer; ties resolve in favour of the layer earliest in the load-bearing sequence (01 → 02 → 03), because lower layers carry the ones above them. The recommended tier is mapped from the overall index, with the binding layer named as the focus of any scoped work. This is a structural reading, not an audit — a real diagnostic engagement validates the reading against documents, decision logs, and stakeholder interviews.
