The Coherence Programme: A Conceptual Overview and Entry Point to the Research Programme

A map of how institutions stay aligned—or drift—over time. Why do institutions that begin aligned gradually drift? This paper introduces the Coherence Programme, which studies how intent changes as it is translated through decision systems. It presents the Operating Spine—the structure linking purpose to strategy, portfolio decisions, and signals—and shows how translation across this architecture produces alignment or drift. This paper provides the conceptual entry point to that process. About the Coherence ProgrammeThe Coherence Programme studies why institutions drift despite appearing aligned. It shows that decisions are made not on intent itself, but on how intent is translated into criteria, metrics, and…