How you act.
What people see on a normal week. Ten measures, each between two poles.
The method
Four layers, ten measures, no good end.
The report is built from short statements about how you actually work, scored the same way for everyone, and written up by an AI from those scores and nothing else.
THE FOUR LAYERS
The four layers
What you need from other people.
What the people around you have to do for that to stay true. It's often different from what you show, and the gap is where most friction lives.
What a hard week does.
What happens when the need goes unmet for long enough. Named as a pattern, not a verdict.
What gives you energy.
Separate from the first three. It asks what you'd enjoy, not what you're good at.
MOVE THE MARKER
One measure, both ends
Pick a measure and drag the marker. Each end has something it makes easy and something it makes hard, and the middle means you go either way.
QuickTempoDeliberate
Strong Quick
Shine: Things move; nothing waits on you.
Cost: Speed can land as pressure on someone who needed a day.
Drag, or use the arrow keys.
BOTH ENDS, ALWAYS
Quick
Decide now, fix later. A day without a reply feels wrong.
Shine: Things move; nothing waits on you.
Cost: Speed can land as pressure on someone who needed a day.
Deliberate
Sit with it. Right beats fast, and rushing costs more than it saves.
Shine: The answer is right when it arrives.
Cost: Silence reads as a problem to someone Quick.
Tempo. Strong Quick. Shine: Things move; nothing waits on you. Cost: Speed can land as pressure on someone who needed a day.
There is no good end here. Wherever the marker sits, one thing gets easier and one thing gets harder, and the report says both.
THE TEN MEASURES
The ten measures
Tempo · Quick and Deliberate
QuickTempoDeliberate
Quick
Decide now, fix later. A day without a reply feels wrong.
Shine: Things move; nothing waits on you.
Cost: Speed can land as pressure on someone who needed a day.
Deliberate
Sit with it. Right beats fast, and rushing costs more than it saves.
Shine: The answer is right when it arrives.
Cost: Silence reads as a problem to someone Quick.
Context · Headline and Full picture
HeadlineContextFull picture
Headline
One line and an ask. If they need more, they'll ask.
Shine: The ask is always clear.
Cost: A one-liner can land as a puzzle.
Full picture
Tell me why before what. Forwarding a thread with 'thoughts?' sends me reading for twenty minutes.
Shine: People know why, so they can get behind it.
Cost: The ask can get buried under the story.
Channel · Talk it out and Write it down
Talk it outChannelWrite it down
Talk it out
A ten-minute call beats ten messages. Ideas arrive mid-sentence.
Shine: Ideas arrive mid-sentence; a call unblocks a thread.
Cost: Decisions made out loud drift.
Write it down
If it wasn't written after the meeting, it didn't happen. Send me the doc first.
Shine: There's a record people can rely on later.
Cost: A thread can run on when a call would have ended it.
Deciding · Move, then loop in and Align, then move
Move, then loop inDecidingAlign, then move
Move, then loop in
If it's in my lane, I decide and tell people after. Consensus is where good ideas go to die.
Shine: Things that are yours get done.
Cost: Someone finds out after it landed.
Align, then move
Check with the people it touches first, even if that's slower. Finding out afterward stings more than the decision.
Shine: Nobody is surprised.
Cost: Waiting can look like stalling to someone Quick.
Candor · Straight and Gentle
StraightCandorGentle
Straight
If it isn't working, I say so, to the person, even when it's awkward.
Shine: People always know where they stand.
Cost: It can land harder than you meant.
Gentle
How it lands matters as much as whether it's right. Sometimes the kind thing is to hold it.
Shine: People trust you with things they wouldn't say elsewhere.
Cost: The hard thing goes unsaid, or gets said to someone else.
Recharge · Solo and Together
SoloRechargeTogether
Solo
A full day of people costs me. I get my energy back on my own.
Shine: Depth. You do your best thinking without an audience.
Cost: Reads as distant; people stop dropping by, so the news stops reaching you.
Together
A full day alone costs me. I get my energy back around people.
Shine: Warms a room and brings people in.
Cost: Needs the room to think; quiet days drain you.
Method · Improvise and Plan
ImproviseMethodPlan
Improvise
Give me the goal and let the day find its shape. A plan is a starting point.
Shine: Adapts fast; thrives when the plan breaks.
Cost: Follow-through can slip.
Plan
Give me the steps and I'll follow through. A plan is how I relax.
Shine: Finishes; nothing falls through.
Cost: A changed plan costs more than it looks.
Focus · One thing and Many things
One thingFocusMany things
One thing
One thing at a time, done properly. An interruption costs me twenty minutes.
Shine: Deep concentration; finishes what's started.
Cost: A change lands hard.
Many things
Three things going at once keep me sharp. One thing all day puts me to sleep.
Shine: Responsive; handles the unexpected.
Cost: Things get started and not finished.
Feeling · Matter-of-fact and Heartfelt
Matter-of-factFeelingHeartfelt
Matter-of-fact
Tell me what happened and what we do next. How we feel about it can wait.
Shine: Steady in a crisis; goes to the fix.
Cost: Can miss how something landed.
Heartfelt
How people feel is part of the facts. I notice it first and I say it.
Shine: People confide in you; you catch the mood early.
Cost: A hard week gets carried home.
Lead · Ask and Tell
AskLeadTell
Ask
I put it as a question, even when I have a view. People find their own way to yes.
Shine: People feel heard; low drama.
Cost: Slow to take charge.
Tell
I say what I think should happen. People know where I stand.
Shine: Clear direction; decisions don't drift.
Cost: Can crowd out other voices.
Every position is a strength somewhere and a cost somewhere else. The basic report measures Tempo, Context, Channel, Deciding and Candor; the advanced report adds Recharge, Method, Focus, Feeling and Lead.
HOW SCORING WORKS
How scoring works
Every statement moves one measure a little. Your score on a measure is a number from 0 to 100 between its two poles, with a range around it that says how tight the number is. Between 42 and 58 you flex: you go either way depending on the day, and the report says so. Four of the five basic-report measures give you a four-letter code, one letter for the side of the middle your marker sits on. All five together point you to one of six patterns, and the report says how strongly. No pattern is better than another; each is one way good work gets done.
The basic report also asks, more briefly, what you need from other people. The advanced report tightens it, adds five more measures, asks what gives you energy, and asks what a hard week does. Where what you show and what you need pull apart by a wide margin, the report says so.
Scores are computed by fixed rules, the same for everyone. An AI writes the sentences from those scores and a bank of approved phrases. It never sees your answers and never changes a number.
BUILD THE CODE
Four letters, one per measure
Drag any of the four rows. The letters, the sentence and the pattern all follow the marks.
YOUR CODE
I'm Quick and Straight.
You work like a Straight Talker.
A strong lean this way.
- QuickTempoDeliberate
Strong Quick
- Talk it outChannelWrite it down
Flexes
- Move, then loop inDecidingAlign, then move
Strong Move, then loop in
- StraightCandorGentle
Strong Straight
Drag, or use the arrow keys.
THE SIX PATTERNS
I'm Quick and Straight. You work like a Straight Talker.
Context is measured the same way and held at the middle here, because it moves with Tempo and the badge stays four letters.
ACT AND NEED
How you act, what you need
Two marks on one track. The filled one is how you act, the ring is what you need. Drag either one.
StraightCandorGentle
How you act: Strong Straight
What you need: Strong Gentle
THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THEM
On Candor you tend to say the hard thing plainly, to the person, but what you need from other people is a little care in how the hard thing is said.
Drag, or use the arrow keys.
On Candor you tend to say the hard thing plainly, to the person, but what you need from other people is a little care in how the hard thing is said.
The sentence changes when the two marks sit far enough apart and on opposite sides of the middle. That is the distance the report calls out.
YOUR MAP
Your map
Channel isn't on the map; all five have a line of their own.
WHAT IT IS AND ISN'T
What it is and isn't
It is
- a self-report profile of work-style preferences
- symmetric, with no good end
- built for the next conversation
- yours: nobody sees your answers, and you choose what to share
It isn't
- a test you can pass or fail
- a measure of ability, intelligence or character
- a clinical or medical instrument
- a tool for hiring, reviews or pay, and our terms forbid that use
QUESTIONS
Questions
Can I take it more than once?
Yes. A retake replaces your current report and keeps the old one in your history. Most people's reports move a little and settle; a large move usually means a different week, not a different person.
Why isn't there a good end?
Because there isn't one. Quick gets things moving and can land as pressure; Deliberate gets it right and can look like silence. The report tells you where you sit and what each position costs the people around you, so you can decide what to do about it.
How do you check it?
We publish what we can stand behind. Today that is: every score comes with its range; scoring is deterministic and unit-tested; the AI's sentences are validated against the scores before you see them. As people do the report we measure how consistent the statements are with each other and how stable a report is over time, and we'll publish those numbers here when there are enough to mean something.