The framework / 03
The machinery of action
The machinery of action distinguishes kinds of work involved in pursuing a course.
Stages
- Information
- Receiving or gathering information about the situation.
- Appreciation
- Understanding what matters in the situation and how it bears on what to do.
- Principles
- Bringing general considerations to bear on judgement or action.
- Planning
- Working out how to proceed.
- Decision
- Settling a question about what to do.
- Resolve
- Being determined to carry through what one means to do.
- Execution
- Carrying out an action, with the attention and judgement it requires.
Phases and stretches
Stages can overlap and recur within different phases, the successive parts of an undertaking. Their order and interaction depend on the course of action.
Stretches concern how much of what happens is included in a description of an action.
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