Define the ceiling
State the current limit, affected people or systems, and evidence showing why it matters now.
CHAPTER 6 - PROTOCOL 3
Ceiling Raising
TIME60 minutes plus 30-day test
OWNERPrincipal or leadership team
ARTIFACTThirty-day ceiling-raising plan
- The plan targets one clearly defined ceiling.
- The lever matches the cause rather than merely adding activity.
- Ownership and capacity extend beyond the principal.
- The plan defines evidence, a return date, and conditions for adaptation.
Choose the lever
Determine whether the strongest response is a leader habit, skill, relationship, structure, routine, or capacity-building move.
Design the thirty-day test
Create one bounded action with ownership, support, milestones, and evidence of changed capacity or continuation.
Return and decide again
Review the evidence and decide whether to continue, adapt, transfer, scale, or stop.
WORKING ORGANIZER
Run the protocol.
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REFLECTION PROMPTS
- Does this plan raise the ceiling or simply increase my effort?
- What capability must exist in others for the change to last?
- What could disconfirm our theory of the ceiling?
EQUITY GUARDRAILS
- Do not transfer responsibility without authority, time, skill, and support.
- Avoid using sustainability language to justify understaffing or withdrawal of needed leadership.
- Monitor whether the new arrangement distributes opportunity and burden equitably.