How to Diagnose ID in 10 Minutes
A field guide for spotting Information Dysfunction without a meeting, workshop, or transformation plan.
Information Dysfunction (ID) sounds like a big idea, but diagnosing it is surprisingly simple.
Once you know what to look for, you can spot ID faster than you can find a meeting room that isn’t booked.
You don’t need a survey.
You don’t need a maturity model.
You don’t need a framework.
You just need ten minutes and the willingness to observe how decisions actually happen — not how the process diagram claims they happen.
There are five questions that reveal everything.
Each corresponds to one of the Five D’s of Information Dysfunction.
Let’s get to it.
1. Divergence
Does the plan match the actual constraints?
Ask the team:
“What’s the real constraint right now?”
Then compare that answer to:
the plan
the roadmap
the OKR
the last leadership message
If the lived constraint and the official story don’t match, you have Divergence.
Red flags:
“The plan says X, but we’re blocked by Y.”
“Leadership thinks A, but we’re constrained by B.”
“We’re following the model, but the model is outdated.”
Divergence is usually the first crack in the system.
2. Dilution
Does meaning weaken as it travels across the organization?
Ask three people in different functions:
“What does this goal mean for you?”
Not the words of the goal — the implications.
If every retelling gets:
softer
vaguer
less actionable
more conditional
…you’ve found Dilution.
Red flags:
“We took that as optional.”
“We assumed it didn’t apply to us.”
“I’m not sure what this changes.”
Meaning does not scale as fast as information does.
3. Decoherence
Do teams interpret the same directive in incompatible ways?
Take any shared artifact — a roadmap, a strategy slide, a priority — and ask:
“What decision does this commit us to?”
If the answers contradict each other, you’ve found Decoherence.
Red flags:
Team A: “Critical.”
Team B: “Nice to have.”
Leadership: “We’ll revisit this next quarter.”
Same inputs.
Different realities.
This isn’t disagreement — it’s decoherence.
4. Decay
Has the rationale for past decisions evaporated?
Pick a decision made 30–90 days ago and ask:
“Why did we take this path instead of the alternatives?”
If:
nobody remembers
everybody remembers something different
the reasoning isn’t documented
the logic has quietly drifted
…you’ve found Decay.
Red flags:
“I think that was tied to something else…”
“That was before I joined.”
“Good question — let me check.”
The organization remembers what but forgets why — and that’s where judgment breaks down.
5. Duplication
Are we recreating meaning instead of reusing it?
Ask a few teams for “the latest version” of:
the plan
the strategy
the priority
the timeline
the definition of a term
If you receive multiple answers — all plausible, all different — that’s Duplication.
Red flags:
“We made our own version.”
“Here’s the deck we use.”
“Leadership has a separate doc.”
“We weren’t sure which one was real.”
Duplication is ID made visible.
Your ID Snapshot (10-Minute Output)
Score each dimension:
No issue → 0
Some signs → 1
Clear problem → 2
Chronic pattern → 3
Then total your score.
0–3: Local Disconnects
You have friction, not dysfunction.
A few clear owners can fix most issues.
4–7: Systemic Friction
The organization produces more information than it can absorb.
Context Stewards would transform you.
8–11: Structural Breakdown
Execution relies on heroics.
Decision rights are ambiguous.
Meaning is unstable.
You’re living the ID pattern.
12–15: Full Information Dysfunction
Everything looks fine in documents.
Nothing lines up in reality.
This isn’t a communication problem — it’s structural.
ID defines the system.
The Punchline
There’s no such thing as an “information problem.”
There is only:
Divergence of models
Dilution of meaning
Decoherence of interpretation
Decay of rationale
Duplication of work
Those five create the sixth D:
Dysfunction — the surface-level symptom of deep disconnect.
Ten minutes is all you need to see it.
Once you can see ID,
you can start to fix it.