Bias to Action
Moves before the conditions are settled.
Evidenced in
3 cases
4 people
shown in decision, move
Agency Index
Eight behaviours, not eight virtues.
A field guide to what high agency looks like when you read what people actually did. Each trait here exists only through specific moments in specific cases — never as a label attached to a person.
Nothing on these pages is scored or ranked. The counts say how much evidence the archive currently holds, which is a fact about our research rather than about the traits themselves.
24 assertionsacross 9 published casesevery one tied to a documented chain link
Resourcefulness
Works with what is already there instead of waiting for the right conditions.
2 cases
3 people
shown in decision, move
Self-Authorship
Writes their own brief rather than accepting the one they were handed.
Evidenced in
4 cases
4 people
shown in decision, move
Persistence
Stays with the same work across years rather than weeks.
Evidenced in
3 cases
3 people
shown in move, result
Clear Thinking
Reads the situation as it is, including when that is inconvenient.
Evidenced in
4 cases
6 people
shown in problem, constraint, decision
Disagreeability
Holds a position the room does not share, and carries the cost of it.
2 cases
3 people
shown in constraint, decision
Community Building
Builds the thing that lets other people act.
Evidenced in
3 cases
4 people
shown in decision, move
Craft & Skill
Earns the outcome through depth of practice rather than positioning.
Evidenced in
3 cases
3 people
shown in move