Bring something you’ve made far enough that it can answer back.
It might be a draft, a prototype, a decision put into practice, or work that has met the people it was intended for.
Place what you intended beside what now exists. Use the actual wording, artifact, observation, or result where possible. Give yourself—and anyone returning with you—something shared to examine.
Ask:
- What were we trying to make possible?
- What has the work actually become?
- What did we encounter that we had not understood at the beginning?
- Has that changed the work, our understanding of the intention, or both?
- What still matters from the original intention?
- What needs to come back into conversation, and who needs to be there?
- Given what we understand now, what should live—and who has the authority to decide?
You do not need to defend the first intention or replace it simply because something new appeared. Look at what the encounter supports. Sometimes the work fulfills the intention. Sometimes it reveals another way to serve it. Sometimes the intention itself needs to be reconsidered.
If the next direction changes what has been authorized, bring it to the participant who holds that decision before proceeding.
Record what you decide and why, including what remains open. That gives the next return something to meet.
We return to the intention with the experience of having done the work. We are looking again, from where we are now.
sits in Human–agent development cycle · Manual Chief of Staff operating contract
current and provisional. the approach can change as we learn.
changes: Sep 2026 .