Diagnosis
What did the signal hide?
- Product signal
- Approved
- Relied-upon promise
- Someone with the right authority accepted the request and can make the next state real.
- Reliance
- The relying person stops seeking alternatives and acts as if the decision is final.
- Carrier
- Approval workflow, dashboard status, policy system, manager notification.
- What must happen
- Approval must be backed by actual authority, eligibility, and executable next steps.
- Missing proof
- Evidence that the approving carrier had authority and that downstream execution is accepted.
- Betrayal
- The workflow says approved while the real authority boundary has not been crossed.
- Pressure
- Policy exceptions, delegated authority, overloaded reviewers, split systems.
- Repair owner
- The owner of the authority boundary must refuse, escalate, or re-promise truthfully.