Coherent Direction

Coherent Direction is an LCA term that forms a triadic relationship with Capacities and Constraints. Capacities are what individuals, groups and institutions bring to their activities. Constraints are the limits within which those activities take place, some arising from the person and some from the system. What counts as a capacity or a constraint depends on what is being attempted, and a direction without capacity or constraint is empty.

Capacities and Constraints both have an inner and an outer side. Some lie in what a person or institution is able or permitted to do. Others lie in how they see themselves and their situation. A constraint is also more than an obstacle. By limiting the directions activity can take, constraints help to make a coherent direction possible.

Direction operates at every scale, from one person's own choices and activities to a national educational system, and at each scale it can be coherent or incoherent. Many of the choices involved are made without anyone being aware that a choice is being made. Where direction is incoherent, there can be a great deal of activity and very little movement of the whole. The essay on momentum explains why.

Coherence says nothing about whether the direction is a good one or about how it was reached. A system can be coherent because its direction is imposed, or because it develops over time from the conscious choices, negotiation and teamwork of the individuals and groups that make up the system. How desirable the direction is becomes visible when the system is read through ACT and above all Dignity.