Robin Edgard Ulrik Mertens
As decision-making speed increases, it becomes harder to detect the gap between an organization's intent and its actual behavior; this gap accumulates and becomes locked in as systemic error. This paper provides a theoretical framework explaining this phenomenon.
There is a lack of theoretical tools to explain why organizations appear aligned on the surface but actually drift away from their intended direction. In particular, shorter decision cycles reduce opportunities to detect and correct such drift.
The concept of 'Translation Half-Life' is introduced to measure how quickly interpretive changes that occur when intent is translated into criteria, metrics, and allocation rules become embedded in the organization. The 'Operating Spine' framework traces the transmission of intent across governance layers.
The paper theoretically establishes that decision-making speed is not neutral but is a key factor determining the possibility of organizational alignment. It provides a foundation for analyzing how the durability of decision rules affects long-term reliability in public institutions, capital allocation, and AI-mediated environments.