Earned, not given
What a person came from does not decide how he works in a room. What decides it is whether he can give an account of that history without going flat and without coming apart, and the account gets built later,
decision point
Meaning
Temporal markers in a sequence designate the exact moment where the ability to reverse a choice is lost. Every decision point acts as a threshold that converts potential options into a fixed path. Once a person in the seat crosses this line, the resources committed cannot be recovered for other uses.
Selection Load
Choosing between two paths creates a specific burden on the person holding the seat. Before a decision point is reached, the energy goes into gathering information and comparing the likely outcomes of each path. After the selection, the energy shifts to managing the consequences of that single path and defending the choice to others in the room.
This shift represents a change in the type of capacity consumed.
Outcome Bound
Fixing a direction limits the range of future responses. A decision point establishes the baseline against which the future success or failure of the work is measured. If the chosen path fails to produce the movement, the record shows the delta between the stated goal and the actual result.
Path Fixity
If a process becomes rigid, the person who made the choice carries the weight of its momentum. The record of a decision point identifies who is responsible for the direction taken. This accountability holds even if the conditions that made the choice look correct have changed since the moment of selection.