Method, not headcount
The work follows one documented method, so it does not depend on large teams of consultants. Anyone can trace an output back to the same steps, sources and assumptions.
Methodology
The Method
The method is the product. Everything built on the Spine follows one documented way of deciding, and people make every decision in it.
Most decision work stops at description: a dashboard, a report, an opinion. This method carries an organisation further, from enabling a single decision, to making its decisions cohere, to executing them and learning from what actually happened.
I The position
Decision enablement is the first step, not the destination. Each stage depends on the one before it, and the last returns to the first as correction.
Ingqiqo works as a nudger, in the tradition of libertarian paternalism: it shapes how choices are presented so better decisions are easier, while leaving the choice with the people who own it. Its buyers are the choice architects inside organisations.
II Three commitments
These are what let a small firm deliver the kind of clarity that used to arrive only in a boardroom binder.
Instruments, not one-off reports
Every offering is a repeatable instrument. It can be run again next quarter, and the results compared, instead of ageing on a shelf.
Working shown, not hidden
Every figure traces to its source, its assumptions and its range. A client can check it, challenge it and reuse it.
III The Disciplined Decision Cycle
IDDC, the Ingqiqo Disciplined Decision Cycle, turns evidence and business meaning into decisions that can be checked, contested and repeated. It begins from an established data-modelling discipline and extends past it into execution and outcome learning.
- Discover. Find the decision, the people who hold it, and the evidence that exists.
- Connect. Tie the evidence to shared meaning: terms, entities and relationships.
- Review. Test the evidence and the assumptions against a clear standard.
- Facilitate. Bring the decision-holders together on the same picture.
- Compare. Lay out the alternatives, and what each one gives up.
- Consolidate. Settle on one decision, recorded with its evidence and authority.
- Publish. Release it as a governed record that others can rely on and contest.
- Execute. Carry it out within declared bounds, watching for deviation.
- Learn. Score the outcome separately from the process, and feed the difference back.
The cycle sits where business architecture, knowledge engineering, decision intelligence, operations research and AI governance meet. Its constitution sets out roles, evidence standards, an epistemic ladder, decision contracts, solver policies, contestation and outcome learning, and it grows by addition rather than by removing what came before.
IV Three rules
These hold in every engagement, at every size.
- One run, many viewsEach engagement produces one canonical result. Every stakeholder gets a view shaped for their role, but nobody gets a different number.
- Every figure has a pedigreeEach number is labelled: observed, declared by someone, taken from a published table, or estimated by a model. Estimates carry ranges, so it is always clear how much weight a figure can bear.
- People decideThe instruments calculate, compare and explain. They name the decision required and who holds the authority to make it, and stop there.
V Human in the loop, by design
The method uses AI and automation hard, for speed and reach, and never lets them do the thinking. The cognitive work of deciding stays with people at every step of the cycle.
| Step | The person | The machine |
|---|---|---|
| Discover · Connect | Names the decision and who owns it | Finds and links the evidence, with its source |
| Review · Compare | Judges what counts and what is protected | Calculates options, ranges and trade-offs |
| Facilitate · Consolidate | Weighs, chooses and signs | Proposes, explains and records each proposal |
| Publish · Execute | Holds the authority and answers for it | Watches for deviation within declared bounds |
| Learn | Decides what the outcome teaches | Scores process and outcome separately |
No model sets a weight, asserts a constraint or issues a decision. That is the promise to a client: the speed of AI, with judgement and accountability kept where a board, a regulator or a court will look for them.
VI How decisions are understood
Not every decision is a calculation. The method distinguishes how a decision is produced before it judges whether it was good.
Rational
Deliberate weighing of options against stated objectives and constraints: the territory of optimisation and the solver.
Behavioural
Choices shaped by framing, reference points and bias. The method debiases openly; it never nudges a principal toward its own recommendation.
Nature-driven
Outcomes produced by thresholds, selection and emergence rather than by anyone choosing. These are named as such, so nobody is blamed for a decision nobody made.
A second axis runs across all three: ordinary, tradeable values versus protected values. Protected values are treated as hard limits on what may be chosen, never as heavy weights that a large enough gain could buy out.
VII From method to practice
The method shapes every offering, every offering produces a governed decision record, and what is learned flows back into the method.
| Layer | What it gives an organisation |
|---|---|
| The method (IDDC) | Consistency: every output traces to the same steps, sources and assumptions |
| Assessments and diagnostics | A baseline: where decisions are costly, exposed or undocumented |
| Decision products | Control: decision logic installed and owned inside the client's own systems |
| Decision platforms | Scale and memory: every decision calculated the same way and kept on record |
| Decision governance | Accountability: who decided, on what, under what authority, and when it is reviewed |
| Learning and research | Capability: the client's own people learn to work this way |
Institutional accountability in the method draws on the Moloto Framework, used with the kind consent of Thabang Sir Moloto, with thanks.
The architecture it runs on → The engineering discipline → The work →
VIII A short glossary
The words the method relies on, in plain terms.
| Pedigree | Where a figure came from, and how far it can be trusted: observed, declared, published or estimated. |
| Stakeholder view | A version of one canonical result written for a specific role, such as the CFO, the COO or organised labour. Different weightings, never different numbers. |
| Decision record | A dated account of what was decided, on what information, by whose authority, with a review date. |
| Decision Canvas | A twelve-field record for a significant decision, with eight-, five- and three-field variants for lower stakes. |
| Decision Governance Standard | Seventeen principles for governing decisions, in four pillars: integrity, accountability, coherence and learning. |
| Organisational debt | Any unfinished rule, definition, system or decision that makes today's work slower or riskier. |
| Carrying cost | The annual cost of work done to compensate for unfinished past decisions, above a normal coordination allowance. |
| Coordination floor | The share of time treated as the normal cost of working together, and excluded from carrying cost. |
| Truck factor | How many people could leave before a critical rule set can no longer be applied. |
| Cost of acceptance | The employer's full first-year cost of a hire: recruitment, onboarding, ramp-up and total cost to company. |
| Decision IR | The single typed record every decision compiles into: intent, evidence, assumptions, objectives, constraints and authority. |
| Decision Warranty | A warranty that the process was followed and the record is true. It doesn't promise an outcome, and it isn't insurance. |
Want your decisions run this way?
Start with one decision that matters. You keep the judgement and the authority; the method gives you the evidence, the options and a record that will stand up to scrutiny.