Segmentation of Power
Power made visible, weighed, reviewable.
Match authority to competence at the right weight. Keep oversight cold and human conversation warm.
Inside the letter S
Segmentation of Power makes authority an explicit object. Every decision is classified by weight in the Gravity Decision Model: Feather, Stone, Boulder, Mountain. Authority is matched to competence at the right weight. A separate Governance function checks the system in a cold, data-driven way — numbers, facts, patterns, nothing personal. When Governance finds something, it hands the matter to Leadership, which works through it with the affected people in co-active coaching: clear, direct, and on equal footing.
The trap
Invisible power concentrates. Big decisions get made by whoever happens to be in the room, and there is no clean way to review them later.
Mechanics
- 01Gravity Decision Model: Feather, Stone, Boulder, Mountain — every decision is classified by weight and routed to the matching authority.
- 02Competence and decision power are explicitly matched and reviewable.
- 03Governance as a separate function: cold, data-driven oversight of the whole system — facts, numbers, patterns.
- 04Hand-off to Leadership: Governance findings are worked through with the affected people in co-active coaching, not announced from above.
Rooted in research
Each source with a short, plain-language summary of what their work actually says.
- Ostrom — Polycentric Governance
Nobel-winning research showing that durable governance of complex systems works best with multiple, clearly defined decision arenas at different scales — not a single central authority. Decisions are routed to the level that has the information and the stake.
- Montesquieu — Separation of Powers
Long-lived institutions split the power to set rules, execute them and review them across different bodies. The same logic stabilises companies.
- Whitworth — Co-Active Coaching
Coaching is most effective when coach and client meet as equals, the client is treated as resourceful, and the focus is on the whole person and their context.
In practice
You know which decisions are yours, who reviews them and why. Power stops being a mystery.
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