Standing instructions

Three layers, one hierarchy#

All three resolve through the same four tiers — workspace, channel, endpoint, contact — which is why a direction set against one contact behaves the way an autonomy exception on that contact behaves: it wins over anything wider. Learning the hierarchy once buys you all three.

Writing one that can be acted on#

• Say what to do, not how you feel about it. "Be more professional" cannot be checked against an output. "Do not use first names with new contacts" can.
• Pick the tier deliberately. A house rule belongs at workspace tier. A rule about one difficult account belongs on that contact, where it will not quietly change every other conversation.
• Prefer one direction to several overlapping ones. Two rules that partially contradict each other produce behaviour nobody predicted and nobody can debug.
• Write the boundary as well as the instruction. "Offer a call when the customer mentions a deadline" is better than "offer calls", because it says when not to.

The strongest evidence that a direction is needed is a repeated edit in the approval queue. If you have corrected the same sentence four times, the correction is a rule the business holds and Connect has never been told — see Editing before approving.

How it differs from a memory entry#

The practical test is whether the statement would still be true if Connect did not exist. "The warehouse closes at noon on Fridays" is a fact about the business and belongs in memory, where it can inform any reply on any channel. "Do not promise Friday afternoon collection" is a direction, derived from that fact, telling Connect what to do about it.

Recording the fact is usually the better move, because one fact serves many situations while one direction serves one. Record the direction as well when the desired behaviour does not follow obviously from the fact, or when it is a preference rather than a consequence.

Blocking is the case where the two blur. A block is stored as a memory entry with the tag block:<channel>, and Connect's directive lookup reads the tag list rather than the text of the note. It is knowledge shaped so that it acts like a direction — which is why writing "do not contact" in the body of a memory entry accomplishes nothing at all.

Reviewing and removing them#

1. Read what is set at every tier for a piece of work, not just the one you last touched.

   Result An empty tier is shown as empty rather than omitted, so "nothing is set here" is an answer you can see instead of infer.

2. Remove directions whose reason has passed.

   Result Durable means durable: a rule written for one busy quarter keeps applying through the quiet ones.

3. Watch the next few conversations after any change.

   Result If behaviour has not moved, the direction was set at the wrong tier or is not specific enough to act on.

A person can read everything Connect knows at every tier and forget any of it, from the mailbox row, the channel screen or the contact panel. The Connect Assistant can add and remove entries on request too — within rights narrower than a person's, and never to clear a do-not-contact entry.

Questions#

Related#

• Exceptions to a rule
• Editing before approving
• The four autonomy modes
• Memory in Connect
• Knowledge in Connect
• Making a correction actually change behaviour