Differences and the limits of agreement
Separate Agreement from Decision Authority
Clarify what participants can agree on and what only the responsible decision-maker can decide.
- People
- 4–20
- Session time
- 120 minutes
- Format
- In person
English session plan
Original program status: draft. Source safety category: Low; this is not a guarantee of safety.
Preparation: Standard preparation. Facilitation team: Three operating roles.
What this session can decide
Record the boundaries between consultation, proposals, consent, and approval. Do not change formal authority rules.
Outside its scope
- Do not transfer the authorised person's responsibility to participants.
- Do not require unanimity.
- Do not infer consent from people who are absent.
Primary caution: Do not transfer the authorised person's responsibility to participants.
Before starting
- Question and scope
- Clarify what participants can agree on and what only the responsible decision-maker can decide. Before starting, state the subject and period covered in one sentence.
- What this session decides
- Record the boundaries between consultation, proposals, consent, and approval. Do not change formal authority rules.
- Output recipient
- The Recorder keeps the final deferred-decision tracking table. Retain owners, deadlines, and conditions for resuming for deferred judgements, and distinguish disagreements from pending approvals. Do not include unresolved items or pending approvals among actions to implement.
- Participation and information boundaries
- Offer speaking, writing, or passing as participation choices. Keep personal information, confidential information, and attribute-based evaluation off the record surface.
- Operating roles
- Assign Lead facilitator, Recorder, and Timekeeper before starting, and confirm who announces switching and stopping.
- Next review
- Decide a review date, permitted viewers, and the person responsible for the next decision on the deferred-decision tracking table.
Who takes responsibility
- Lead facilitator
Protect the purpose and exclusions of Separate Agreement from Decision Authority and announce the start and end of each stage.
From before the start through the end
- Recorder
Record boundaries for acting, consulting, and obtaining approval, item-by-item agreement states, and the deferred-decision tracking table at each stage, then hand them to their recipients at the end.
From preparing record surfaces before the start through storage after the end
- Timekeeper
Notify the Lead facilitator 3 minutes before each stage ends and when switching to breaks or buffer time.
At the start of every stage and 3 minutes before its end
Session flow
Minutes are measured from the session start. Method time, transition time, breaks and buffer are shown separately; they are not additional overlapping activities.
0–23 minutes
Check boundaries for autonomous decisions
Method: Permission Frontier · 0–20 minutes. Transition: 20–23 minutes (3 minutes).
Separate decision items into may act, consultation required, and approval required. Mark items whose supporting rules or responsible person are unknown as needs confirmation.
Responsible: Lead facilitator; Recorder; Timekeeper
Output: Boundaries for acting, consulting, and obtaining approval
Handoff: Pass items needing consultation to the stage for checking item-by-item agreement states.
This stage may be shortened only in accordance with the stated conditions.
23–61 minutes
Separate agreement states
Method: Partial Agreement Grid · 23–58 minutes. Transition: 58–61 minutes (3 minutes).
Place each item in one of 3 columns: Agreement, Conditional agreement, or Unresolved. Within Unresolved, distinguish Judgement deferred while awaiting information needed for a decision from Disagreement. Record conditions and missing information; attach the agreement state to matters needing approval. Do not include unresolved items among actions to implement, and do not bypass required approval even when agreement is reached.
Responsible: Lead facilitator; Recorder; Timekeeper
Output: Item-by-item agreement states
Handoff: Retain deferred judgements and disagreements as distinct unresolved states, and pass them with pending approvals to the next stage. Do not include these among actions to implement.
This stage is not marked as shortenable.
66–99 minutes
Manage deferred decisions
Method: Decision Debt Ledger · 66–96 minutes. Transition: 96–99 minutes (3 minutes).
For each deferred item, write why it is held, information needed, decision-maker, and deadline. Also record the effect of not deciding by that deadline and interim arrangements.
Responsible: Lead facilitator; Recorder; Timekeeper
Output: Deferred-decision tracking table
Handoff: Give the boundary diagram, agreement states, and deferred-decision tracking table to the decision-maker.
This stage is not marked as shortenable.
What is retained and who receives it
Boundaries for acting, consulting, and obtaining approval
Owner: Recorder
Show who can proceed and how far.
Item-by-item agreement states
Owner: Recorder
Keep the 3 columns Agreement, Conditional agreement, and Unresolved. Distinguish deferred judgements and disagreements within Unresolved from required approval still pending; do not include unresolved items or pending approvals among actions to implement.
Deferred-decision tracking table
Owner: Recorder
Retain owners, deadlines, and conditions for resuming for deferred judgements. Keep disagreements distinct as disagreements; do not treat information becoming available as agreement. Distinguish pending approvals too.
Materials and setup
Material names, quantities, groups and handling instructions retain the fixed draft's original helper-derived guidance. Where a format is marked “Source material specification”, the entire bound English source material entry takes precedence over the old helper-derived format guidance. This format-only correction does not resolve other instruction or safety concerns. English names are not substituted into a Japanese-keyed lookup.
Everyday tools
- Dark writing implements
Quantity: 1 per person
Format: Dark broad-tip pens or whiteboard markers
Check that ink flows and place them within participants' reach. Avoid pale-coloured pens.
- Floor tape
Quantity: 1 roll per group
Format: Low-tack masking tape
Check removability on an inconspicuous part of the floor or wall. Keep edges flat and do not obstruct routes.
- Issue sticky notes
Quantity: 3 per person
Format: Sticky notes about 75 × 75 mm, or A4 copy paper cut into 4 pieces
Prepare them blank before starting. In use, write one issue to decide now or action to begin after a decision per note, in broad lettering.
- Writing implements
Quantity: 1 per person
Format: Dark broad-tip pens or whiteboard markers
Check that ink flows and place them within participants' reach. Avoid pale-coloured pens.
- Sticky notes for individual deferred decisions
Quantity: 4 per person
Format: Sticky notes about 75 × 75 mm, or A4 copy paper cut into 4 pieces
Do not buy a special product; write One deferred decision at the top of paper pieces. If participants fill them in, use one item per card and handwrite needed headings before starting.
Sheets to prepare by hand
- Common-action copy cards
Quantity: 3 per person
Format: Sticky notes about 75 × 75 mm, or A4 copy paper cut into 4 pieces
Do not buy a special product; write Common-action copy at the top of paper pieces. If participants fill them in, use one item per card and handwrite needed headings before starting.
- Headings separating how actions are decided
Quantity: 3 per group
Format: Source material specification: Three band signs per group for autonomy, consultation, and approval, approximately A3
Source-bound format display correction; the other fixed helper-derived guidance is unchanged.
Write Decide autonomously, Decide after consultation, and Decide with approval on separate pieces, preparing enough of each type. Distinguish them by written headings even when using the same colour.
- Additional-information cards
Quantity: 6 per group; 2 per common action
Format: Sticky notes about 75 × 75 mm, or A4 copy paper cut into 4 pieces
Do not buy a special product; write Additional information at the top of paper pieces. If participants fill them in, use one item per card and handwrite needed headings before starting.
- Programme-specific table separating agreement, conditional agreement, and unresolved items
Quantity: 1 per group plus 1 for whole-group consolidation
Format: Source material specification: One A3 grid per group with agreement, conditional agreement, and disagreement columns, plus one for whole-group integration
Source-bound format display correction; the other fixed helper-derived guidance is unchanged.
For this programme, create 3 columns from left to right: Agreement, Conditional agreement, and Unresolved. Leave space for checks needed, owner, and deadline in Conditional agreement. Within Unresolved, use text to distinguish Judgement deferred while awaiting information needed for a decision from Disagreement. Do not include unresolved items among actions to implement; record required approval still pending separately too. Do not alter the existing method's diagram.
- Checking-owner cards
Quantity: 1 per conditional-agreement item
Format: Sticky notes about 75 × 75 mm, or A4 copy paper cut into 4 pieces
Write 3 fields from top to bottom: checking owner, person or information source to check, and reply deadline. Place it beside the item that can be agreed when conditions are met.
- Deferred-decision review table
Quantity: 1 per group plus 1 for whole-group consolidation
Format: Source material specification: A3 ledger sheets (1 per group plus 1 for whole-group consolidation)
Source-bound format display correction; the other fixed helper-derived guidance is unchanged.
Divide the work surface into 7 fields: deferred decision, what is lost while it is held, information needed to resume, state allowing a resumption decision, future handling, information-gathering owner, and review date. Write headings in text rather than relying only on colour.
- Deferred-decision review-date sticky notes
Quantity: 1 per held item
Format: Sticky notes about 75 × 75 mm, or A4 copy paper cut into 4 pieces
Write Review date, Information to check by then, and Checking owner, and place it beside the relevant held item.
Information to gather before the session
- Common-action originals
Quantity: 3 items per group
Format: A4 copy paper or viewing data with the same content
State the content, creation date, and person who checked it. If distributing it, also prepare a large-print version or viewing data with identical content.
Setup for each method
Permission Frontier
- One to five groups of 4–10
- One floor area per group at least 3 m wide for placing the three bands of autonomy, consultation, and approval side by side
- Nine areas per group for stacking and comparing duplicate cards by action, three areas per band
Partial Agreement Grid
- One three-column work surface per group with the disagreement column the widest
- Two display surfaces at least 1 m apart for keeping the scope of action and disagreement separate
- One island table per group where no more than 6 people can gather around the grid
Decision Debt Ledger
- A vertical surface at least 60 cm high per group, arranged with the oldest deferral at the top
- One tabletop surface per group divided into decide, wait, and withdraw areas
- One wall surface for rearranging items in order of the nearest review date
When to switch or stop
Fallbacks
- There are more than fifteen decision items.
Limit the scope to items that need decisions over the next month.
Method guide: Permission Frontier
Stop conditions
- Agreement is treated as a decision while the approver designated by the rules is still unknown.
- Remove the decision label and assign someone to check authority.
- Consent or responsibility is inferred for an absent person.
- Return it to unconfirmed and decide how to check with the person concerned.
Sources, rights and limits
This site has composed this programme's purpose, connections between methods, facilitation, roles, outputs, and switching conditions. See each method's individual page for its sources and licence.
Original source records and their required notices are retained below. Their presence does not mean a new legal or cultural-safety clearance. Original citation titles are kept in their source language.
Sources and required notices for the 3 methods used
Permission Frontier
- 対話の譜面編集部: 許可の境界線 — Original description and diagrams
- Source: Taiwa no Fumen Editorial Team: Permission Frontier | Original description and diagrams
- Attribution: Taiwa no Fumen Editorial Team | This site's text and diagrams
- Cultural caution: open-method screening complete: No closed, ritual, or sacred cultural practice is used as a source; declining participation, sensitive information, and power differences are addressed in each method's limits and branches.
- Limits of this record: The editorial team independently created the text, procedure, and diagram. No exclusive rights are claimed over general dialogue operations or ideas themselves.
Partial Agreement Grid
- 対話の譜面編集部: 部分合意の格子 — Original description and diagrams
- Source: Taiwa no Fumen Editorial Team: Partial Agreement Grid | Original description and diagrams
- Attribution: Taiwa no Fumen Editorial Team | This site's text and diagrams
- Cultural caution: open-method screening complete: No closed, ritual, or sacred cultural practice is used as a source; declining participation, sensitive information, and power differences are addressed in each method's limits and branches.
- Limits of this record: The editorial team independently created the text, procedure, and diagram. No exclusive rights are claimed over general dialogue operations or ideas themselves.
Decision Debt Ledger
- 対話の譜面編集部: 決定の負債台帳 — Original description and diagrams
- Source: Taiwa no Fumen Editorial Team: Decision Debt Ledger | Original description and diagrams
- Attribution: Taiwa no Fumen Editorial Team | This site's text and diagrams
- Cultural caution: open-method screening complete: No closed, ritual, or sacred cultural practice is used as a source; declining participation, sensitive information, and power differences are addressed in each method's limits and branches.
- Limits of this record: The editorial team independently created the text, procedure, and diagram. No exclusive rights are claimed over general dialogue operations or ideas themselves.
Confirmed programme clarification
The user confirmed the current programme text and programme-specific material instructions. Original methods, quantities, timing and print diagrams are unchanged. Earlier fixed notes are retained below as historical notes; they are not removed or treated as independently resolved. User confirmation of programme wording is distinct from independent acceptance of its English translation, rendered screens, rights and release checks.
Historical fixed-draft notes
The original fixed draft notes are retained without deletion as historical records of those fixed source versions. Current material format corrections are separately identified above; these notes do not imply that other concerns have been resolved.
- Catalog practice names four agreement states, including judgement deferred, while the prepared grid has three columns and does not explicitly place the deferred state. Both source descriptions remain without adding a fourth column.
Japanese resources and historical source records
Original Japanese plan and its print view · Japanese operation pack or starter materials
An English print edition is not provided here. The linked plans, print views and operation materials are Japanese resources.
Historical recorded publication holds
The following original hold statements are retained verbatim with their fixed source versions. They are not a statement of current acceptance, nor does this historical label resolve a source-specific restriction.
- English translation and rendered-page independent acceptance pending
- Method dependency source/text SHA binding and current source-specific rights verification pending
- Publication not cleared
Historical fixed-source and English-draft provenance
Japanese program SHA-256: 4e82d3e01902a42782dcb32a6c116f9f9cb4f883973dd8dc731fe365fcba4368
Fixed source context SHA-256: 90b2833033fb39a0afaf85986576b3f0a899d853d0fac657d93de4e50f83485f
English draft SHA-256: 968413b4e82948259a4ecafecb68fe074d22d49ea2802bff291cb06c674422e9
- decision-debt-ledger: source
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63b7038c1670e1acb3b9fd1101839c6054c50f0284c1e5d358bcefec5c168156; English draft2c33874bd21672a45a8f649b55e2862f9de8ab57f634eee275c5afb5ccc71e40 - permission-frontier: source
424228f83b7b24c1a3bbbc142bc1c9ebfd24afb5df3fc749f67507469f93624e; English draft5d9bb771ed471394d4a20a9fd8d7475a46961bd7e380f0af8e38c69b8e08e9a9
These hashes identify the checked inputs; they do not grant independent acceptance or publication clearance.