Society · Coordination
LowLateralityExit
Build in points where one party alone can stop or change course, so that ending an activity never needs everyone to switch at once
Definition
Mechanism
In an OrganisationGame, the best joint move sometimes becomes stopping: the conversation has run its course, the project is no longer worth doing. If stopping requires every participant to change strategy at the same time, high Laterality, each must know that the others also see the value has gone, and uncertainty keeps the activity going: zombie projects and death marches continue although their workers know they are a waste. Build in moments at which stopping is unilateral: pauses in a conversation in which either party can end it, review points at which one accountable person can halt a project, defaults that let a single team withdraw. These positions keep the most likely next move cheap.
Invariants
- At designated points, one party can end or change the activity without others' agreement
- Exit points recur often enough to catch a drop in value
- An exit at one point does not need knowledge of every other party's valuation
Risks
Failure modes
Policies that make everyone fill every gap, so no one can exit alone
Exit points so rare that wasted effort accumulates between them
Exits that one party can trigger but no one feels entitled to use
Relationships
Builds on
References
The number of functional units that must coordinate for an action to happen; the more units, the less likely it happens
A pure coordination game in which the best joint strategy keeps changing, so the key is how cheaply players can move to the next game
Nothing in this library builds on this pattern yet.