The Lexicon
The words I keep reaching for. Plain names for the boring, real mechanics of staying capable, a few borrowed from how the brain actually works.
- Capability debt The gap between what your people can do and what the work now demands.
- Capability under load Whether people can still do the work when change and pressure spike at once.
- Functional connectivity (of a team) A team's capability is how well its parts stay in sync, not the sum of its parts.
- Learning velocity How fast a team converts change into capability.
- Organizational whiplash The reactive thrash when a team lurches between priorities faster than it can absorb them.
- The augmentation gap The difference between AI that replaces people and AI that makes them more capable.
- The onboarding cliff The capability drop-off around week six, when the welcome fades and the real work starts.
- Training half-life How fast a skill decays after training, without reinforcement.