The Coherence Advantage: Why Good Organizations Drift — and How It Can Be Studied

The minimal architecture that reveals where alignment breaks. Institutions must act in real time while learning under delayed feedback. This paper introduces the Operating Spine as the minimal causal architecture for locating where intent, decision criteria, and outcomes begin to diverge. Rather than treating drift as a retrospective outcome, it shows how misalignment can be identified structurally—inside the decision system itself. Drift becomes observable at the point where intent is translated into criteria, and where those criteria begin to decouple from outcomes. About the Coherence ProgrammeThe Coherence Programme studies why institutions drift despite appearing aligned. It shows that decisions are made not on intent itself, but on how intent is translated into criteria, metrics, and allocation rules. Using the Operating Spine, the programme traces how purpose becomes action across governance layers, making drift and coherence directly observable within decision systems. The research applies to public institutions, capital allocation, and AI-mediated environments, where the durability of decision rules determines long-term institutional reliability.Programme citation: Mertens, R. E. U. (2026). The Coherence Programme: A Conceptual Overview and Entry Point to the Research Programme. Resources: Coherence Programme OSF repository and https://thecoherenceprogramme.org Version 1.0 : First public release (Preprint).Version 1.01: Terminology harmonisation and minor structural refinements to improve consistency across the Coherence Programme. No changes to the theoretical framework, constructs, or research design.