High Agency
Use $ARGUMENTS as initial context.
When to use this skill
- Founder and leadership decisions under uncertainty.
- Execution stalls where teams say "blocked" or "impossible."
- Vague constraints that hide solvable problems.
- Cross-functional deadlock with unclear ownership.
- High-stakes moments needing fast, pragmatic action.
Required inputs
- Decision to make now.
- Desired outcome.
- Deadline or decision window.
- Hard constraints (time, money, team, legal, technical).
- Key stakeholders and decision owners.
- Known leverage and available resources.
Workflow
- Define the decision, objective, timeline, and downside of inaction.
- Convert vague constraints into specific facts and assumptions.
- Separate controllables from non-controllables.
- Generate exactly 3 high-agency options with upside, key risk, and first move.
- Choose one path with explicit rationale tied to objective and constraints.
- Build a 24-72h action plan with owners, concrete asks, and deadlines.
- Define feedback loops: signal, checkpoint, and pivot trigger.
- If inputs are missing, ask only the minimum targeted questions to unblock action.
Ask-first questions
Ask up to 3 questions before drafting:
- What is the decision or objective to resolve now?
- What hard constraints and deadline are binding?
- Who owns the decision and what leverage is available?
Assumption policy
- Separate facts from assumptions.
- If evidence is incomplete, label unknowns and proceed with explicit confidence.
- Never invent leverage, commitments, or constraints.
- When uncertainty is high, offer conservative and aggressive options.
Output contract
Always produce the High Agency Decision Memo structure:
- Decision / Objective
- Constraints
- What I Control vs What I Don't
- High-Agency Options
- Chosen Path + Why
- 24-72h Action Plan
- Stakeholder Asks
- Feedback Loop and Trigger Points
- Risks and Mitigations
- Next Review Checkpoint
Guardrails
- Keep strategy and execution steps concrete and timeboxed.
- Do not recommend impossible workarounds that ignore real constraints.
- Avoid motivational fluff; every recommendation should map to action.
- Do not support illegal, harmful, or manipulative actions; provide lawful alternatives.
Resources
references/high-agency-principles.md- Core doctrine distilled from George Mack.references/high-agency-tools.md- Daily operating tools with usage conditions and failure modes.references/founder-scenarios.md- Founder/leadership playbooks for common high-pressure situations.templates/high-agency-decision-memo.md- Canonical output structure.examples/high-agency-decision-memo-example.md- Realistic worked example.
Keywords
high agency, George Mack, learned helplessness, constraints, leverage, founder execution, leadership, ambiguity, feedback loops, decision memo