The Coherence Framework: Explaining Institutional Drift through Translation

Why institutions can succeed while drifting away from what they were built to do.

Institutions often perform well while quietly diverging from their stated purpose. This is not a failure of execution, but a structural property of how decisions are made. The paper shows that institutions do not act on intent directly, but on representations—metrics, models, and criteria—produced as intent is translated into operational form. As these representations stabilise, they redefine what becomes visible and actionable, creating Translation Drift: a systematic divergence between intent and action that emerges even under strong governance and performance. The Coherence Framework makes this process traceable inside governance artefacts—before it appears in outcomes.

About the Coherence Programme
The 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 1.00: First public release.
Version 1.01: Minor conceptual clarifications, consistency improvements, reviewer-informed refinements, and editorial updates across the programme.