Appendices
Canvas, Operating Model Dimensions, and Behavior Change
Appendix A: Canvas
This template offers a simple way to scan an organization across four core dimensions: Context, Intent, Collaboration, and Investment. Each dimension includes guiding questions and sub-areas that reveal how the real operating system works in practice.
Context
“What's going on around us that shapes our choices?”
- Opportunities: What could we make progress on.
- Insights: What do we know that should shape our choices.
- Value Models: How we understand value.
This section surfaces external forces, internal signals, and beliefs about value that influence decisions.
Intent
“What are we trying to achieve, and how will we do it?”
- Focus Areas: Where the organization is concentrating time and attention.
- Objectives: What we are trying to accomplish.
- Work: What we plan to do about it.
This captures the organization's intent graph: priorities, goals, and the work connected to them.
Collaboration
“How do we work together to get things done?”
- Team Structures: How teams are organized and grouped.
- Collaboration: How teams coordinate.
- Skills & Capabilities: What capabilities exist within the org.
This dimension clarifies how people align, coordinate, and bring complementary skills together.
Investment
“How do we invest our time, money, and focus?”
- Unit of Funding: What we invest in, and at what level.
- Horizons & Cycles: What time spans and rhythms guide decisions.
- ROI: How we reflect on impact and adjust.
This shows how the organization allocates resources and learns from outcomes.
Rituals, Artifacts, and Interactions (Cross-Cutting)
These elements show how the four core dimensions come to life.
- Rituals & Mechanisms: Cadences and events where teams align, decide, and reflect.
- Artifacts: Plans, roadmaps, dashboards, docs, and other items used to guide decisions.
- Interactions & Behaviors: How people engage, decide, collaborate, and uphold norms.
These help teams see the real mechanisms that shape how work flows.
Appendix B: 16 Operating Model Dimensions
This appendix is a quick way to get the lay of the land. Every organization has patterns in how strategy flows, how decisions get made, how work moves, and how people stay aligned. Some of these patterns are explicit. Many are not.
The tables that follow are meant as a simple scan tool. They help you look across core dimensions of your operating model and note what is happening today. You are not trying to complete everything or create a perfect map. You are just making the invisible a bit more visible.
Use this section to spot what is clear, what is fuzzy, and what is missing. The goal is orientation, not evaluation, so the rest of the Dotwork discovery can build on a shared sense of how things actually work.
1. Strategy Cascade
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Classical Corporate Strategy | Mission → Vision → Strategic Priorities → Initiatives → Projects / Workstreams |
| OKR-Linked Strategy | Objectives (Qual) → Key Results → Themes → Focus Choices → Initiatives → Work / Capacity |
| Portfolio-Driven Strategy | Portfolio Vision → Strategy → Value Streams → Themes → Epics → Work Items |
| Systems Strategy | System Purpose → Key Outcomes → Capabilities → Workflows → Improvements → Delivery |
| Value Stream–Specific Strategy | Value Stream → Strategic Themes → Epics → Features → Work |
2. Goal Cascades
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Top-Level OKRs | Company OKRs → Department OKRs → Team OKRs → Initiatives → Actions |
| Impact Mapping | Goal → Actor → Impact (Desired Behavior Change) → Deliverables |
| Laddered Success | North Star → Input Metrics → Drivers → Team KPIs → Work |
| 4-Part Metric Model | Strategic Intent → Outcome → Leading Indicator → Lagging Indicator |
| Tiered KPI Chains | Goal → Subgoal → Milestone → Deliverable |
3. Decision Making
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| RAPID / RACI | Recommend → Agree → Perform → Input → Decide |
| DACI Model | Driver → Approver → Contributor → Informed |
| 1-Way / 2-Way Door | High Impact / Reversible → Low Impact / Irreversible → Decision Mechanism |
| Levels of Review | Team Framing → Manager Review → Leadership Review → Alignment |
| Threshold-Driven Decisions | Threshold Set → Data Check → Governance Review → Decision Finalized |
4. Governance
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Portfolio Governance | Enterprise Strategy → Investment Buckets → Roadmap → Decision Forums → Review Cadence |
| Steering Committee Model | Charter → Committee Membership → Meeting Cadence → Decisions Logged |
| Policy → Control → Check | Principle → Policy → Controls → Evidence → Audit |
| Architecture Governance | Architecture Vision → Standards → Reviews → Exceptions Process |
| Exec Governance Cadence | Exec Alignment → Priority Review → Portfolio Refresh → Update Cascade |
5. Organizational Frames
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Customer-Centered Model | Customer Segment → Need → Value Proposition → Experience → Work |
| Product-Based Model | Portfolio → Product Area → Product → Feature → Work Item |
| Service-Driven Model | Service → Capability → Process → Workflow → Task |
| Domain-Driven Model | Domain → Subdomain → Bounded Context → Functionality → Work |
| OKR Team Model | Mission → Team → Priorities → Work → Review |
6. Artifact Anchoring
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Annual RFP/ARA | Annual Plan → Portfolio → Products → Initiatives → Tasks |
| Company Strategy Narrative | Narrative → Themes → Focus Areas → Priorities → Work |
| Anchor Docs Model | Anchor Doc → Supporting Docs → Roll-ups → Meeting Pre-Reads → Notes |
| Quarterly Review Packet | Business Review → KPI Snapshot → Initiative Review → Decisions |
| Safe Lean Cadence Cycle | Epic → Features → Stories → Tasks |
7. Prioritization
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Impact Alignment (RoadmapFit) | Vision → Strategic Alignment → Expected Impact → Work |
| WSJF | Cost of Delay → Duration → WSJF Score → Order |
| RICE | Reach → Impact → Confidence → Effort → Score |
| Buy-a-Feature | Fictional Money Allocation → Feature Choice → Prioritization |
| Value Lens (Top-Down Pull) | Leadership Themes → Portfolio Themes → Team Priorities |
8. Dependency / Alignment
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Coordination Layer Model | Dependencies → Risks → Owners → Resolution |
| Integrated Workstreams | Portfolio Vision → Interlocking Themes → Dependency Mapping → Risk Tracking |
| Meet-Fix-Move Cadence | Identify → Meet → Fix → Communicate → Move Forward |
| Team-of-Teams Model | Team → Cross-Team Planning → Owners → Coordination Cadence |
9. Funding
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Project-Based Funding | Annual Budget → Project Proposals → Approval → Team Assignment |
| Product-Based Funding | Portfolio → Product Areas → Budgets → Ongoing Delivery |
| Time-Based / Capacity Funding | Team Capacity → Time Allocation → Work Buckets |
| Outcome-Based Funding | Outcome → Hypothesis → Investment → Review |
| Value Stream Funding | Value Stream → Budget Pool → Teams → Work |
10. Work Cascades
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Jobs-To-Be-Done Delivery | Customer Job → Need → Feature → Story → Solution |
| Initiative Model | Portfolio → Initiative → Deliverable → Story → Status |
| Program Model | Program → Component Projects → Tasks |
| Simple Feature Chains | Feature → Stories → Implementation → QA |
| Impact-OKR Cascade | Objective → Key Result → Opportunities → Solutions → Work |
11. Metrics / KPI Structures
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| North Star Metrics | North Star Metric → Input Metrics → Driver Metrics → Leading Indicators |
| KPI Families | Category → KPI → Target → Owner |
| Impact / Output / Outcome | Initiative Output → Customer Behavior → Business Outcome |
| Portfolio Health Model | Value → Cost → Risk → Capacity → KPI Set |
| OKR Integration | Objectives → Key Results → Metrics → Work |
12. Risk
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Risk Register Model | Strategic Objective → Risk → Mitigation Plan → Owner |
| Risk Framing | Risk Category → Value at Risk → Impact → Likelihood → Owner |
| Operational Risk Model | Capability → Risk → Trigger → Process Change |
| Continuous Risk Review | Discovery → Assessment → Mitigation → Check-ins |
13. Planning
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Stepwise Annual Planning | LRP → Strategy Update → Budget → Annual Priorities → Q1 Plan |
| Rolling Planning | Rolling Roadmap → Quarterly Review → Adjustment → Work |
| Integrated Planning | Strategy → Portfolio → Team Plan → Execution Plan |
| Event-Triggered Planning | Trigger → Assessment → Plan → Execution |
14. Discovery Frame
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Dual-Track Discovery | Opportunity → Insight → Hypothesis → Experiment → Delivery |
| Opportunity Backlog | Theme → Opportunity → Insight → Evidence → Work |
| Customer-Insight Loop | Research → Synthesis → Framing → Test → Learning |
| Risk-Driven Discovery | Risk → Unknown → Hypothesis → Prototype → Next Steps |
15. Commercialization
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Go-To-Market Model | Positioning → Messaging → Enablement → Launch Plan → Tracking |
| Sales-Led GTM | Value Prop → Packaging → Sales Motion → Enablement → Forecast |
| Product-Led GTM | Trigger → In-Product Experience → Adoption → Expansion |
| Multi-Channel GTM | Segment → Channel → Campaign → Execution |
16. Delivery Metrics
| Frame Name | Cascade Flow (Big → Small) |
|---|---|
| Flow-Efficiency Metrics | Flow Item → Start → Flow Time → Cycle Time → Delivery Rate |
| Delivery Health Metrics | Work Types → Throughput → Lead Time → Change Fail Rate |
| Service Level Metrics | Service → SLO → Indicators → Alerts |
| Experimentation Metrics | Experiment → Metric Movement → Insight → Follow-up Work |
Appendix C: Good Games vs. Barriers to Behavior Change
Changing how an organization works is never just about telling people what to do. It is about shaping environments where good behaviors feel natural, supported, and rewarding. A helpful way to think about this comes from two angles:
- What makes something feel like a “good game”
- What commonly thwarts behavior change, based on Julie Dirksen's well-known list.
Together, they offer a quick diagnostic lens for any workflow, ritual, or operating model design.
What “Good Games” Get Right
Use this to check whether a workflow or ritual feels playable, learnable, and motivating:
- Clear, attainable goals that people actually understand
- A good balance of difficulty—not too easy and not impossibly hard
- Timely feedback that helps people adjust
- Engaging mechanics that hold attention
- Visible signs of small progress (progress bars, checkpoints, incremental wins)
- Meaningful choices that create a sense of agency
- An environment or narrative that feels compelling
- A calibrated learning curve that promotes mastery
- Variety to keep engagement high
- Social interactions that make the experience richer
- Accessibility for different skill levels and contexts
- High replayability so the activity still works the 5th or 50th time
What Commonly Blocks Behavior Change
From Julie Dirksen. Use this to check whether friction lives in skills, incentives, context, or emotion:
- Lack of feedback
- Unclear goals
- Unlearning an existing behavior
- Unawareness of consequences or the bigger picture
- Lack of environment or process support
- Anxiety, fear, or discomfort
- Lack of confidence or belief in one's own capabilities
- Mistrust
- Social proof working in the wrong direction
- Lack of autonomy or ownership
- Learned helplessness
- Misaligned incentives
- Lack of identity or value alignment
- Emotional reaction