Glossary
The operating vocabulary, defined before it is used.
Human Dependency Tax
The accumulated coordination cost of work that runs on someone remembering: the quote waiting in a text thread, the client request copied between systems, the answer only the owner knows.
Operational Straitjacket
What a generic platform becomes when a business bends its workflow to fit the software instead of the other way around — and the best people are the first to revolt.
Gatekeeper Logic
A closeout rule that keeps a job open until its required evidence exists. Work is not complete because someone tapped a button.
Handoff
The moment work moves between people or systems. A handoff is not complete because someone sent a message — it is complete when the receiver accepts it with the context needed to act.
Exception
Work the normal rule cannot handle. A healthy system keeps exceptions visible with a named owner; an unhealthy one routes them all to the founder.
Record of truth
The one place a fact lives. Every workflow needs one, plus a rule for what may update it — otherwise every tool holds a slightly different version.
Owner (of work)
The single named person accountable for the next action. Not a team, not a channel — a person with due context.
Decision boundary
What a role may decide alone, what facts they need, and what escalates. Delegation without a boundary is another way to route work back to the founder.
Operating rhythm
The recurring review where numbers meet decisions: a weekly cadence with owners, due dates, and evidence — not a status recital.