Decision Layer · for businesses of 50 people or more
Your biggest calls are hiding
in the gaps between departments.
We start from your goals, then connect every department’s systems, read-only, and show your executive team where the work has drifted from them: the conflicts, roadblocks, double-ups and misdirections between departments that nobody has raised yet.
It runs on the Context Install and the Context Layer, which have to be live first. From 15 people, Decision Deployment runs the same loop with the owner.
It runs on the Context Install and the Context Layer, which have to be live first.
From 15 people, Decision Deployment runs the same loop with the owner.
Decision Layer · 90-person business
Week of 5 October 2026 · 4 departments
Client services · 7 signals this week
Owner: head of client services · Metric: new client work started on time
- MovedThe new client onboarding checklist went live on Tuesday.Project tool6 Oct
- StoppedThe client portal migration has had no update since 14 September.Project tool14 Sep
- Pulling against each otherSales booked a new client’s start date before operations had anyone free to start it.In the October packCRM and processes/7 Oct
- Late3 client jobs are past their due date.Project tool8 Oct
- Client newsA client’s renewal was logged as moving part of its work to another firm from November.CRM8 Oct
- CompetitorA competitor published fixed fees for the same service.Their website5 Oct
- UnactionedA referral logged on 2 September has had no follow-up, past the 30-day line.A referral logged on 2 September has had no follow-up,
past the 30-day line.CRM2 Sep
Feeds the October executive pack
October, department by department
Prepared for the executive team of a 90-person business. An example.
Departments
- Client servicesHead of client servicesNew client work started on time
- SalesSales directorProposals answered within 2 working days
- OperationsOperations managerJobs closed on schedule
- FinanceFinance managerInvoices paid within 30 days
Decision Layer · 90-person business
Week of 5 October 2026 · 4 departments
Client services · 7 signals this week
Owner: head of client services · Metric: new client work started on time
Feeds the October executive pack
October, department by department
Prepared for the executive team of a 90-person business. An example.
Departments
- Client servicesHead of client servicesNew client work started on time
- SalesSales directorProposals answered within 2 working days
- OperationsOperations managerJobs closed on schedule
- FinanceFinance managerInvoices paid within 30 days
An example week for one department of a 90-person business, and the monthly pack it feeds. The business, its departments, roles, dates and figures are illustrative.
We start from your goals, so every signal is read against them.
Before the Decision Layer runs, your executive team sets where AI should create value, what gets funded, who owns each initiative and when to stop. Each department’s measures go into the brain with a baseline and the date. From 50 people, this usually happens at the Decision Discipline Workshop.
Goals file
Grow new client work without slipping start dates
Set 1 October by the executive team
- Funded
- The new client start process, owned by the sales director
- Departments
- Sales, Operations, Client services
- Measures
- Proposals answered within 2 working days. New client work started on time.
- Stop line
- Checked at the Q4 board review. Stopped if on-time starts fall 2 months running.
- Written into
- goals/2026-q4.md
Goals file
Grow new client work without slipping start dates
Set 1 October by the executive team
- Funded
- The new client start process, owned by the sales director
- Departments
- Sales, Operations, Client services
- Measures
- Proposals answered within 2 working days. New client work started on time.
- Stop line
- Checked at the Q4 board review. Stopped if on-time starts fall 2 months running.
- Written into
- goals/2026-q4.md
What each department is read against
Each measure starts from a baseline, with its date.
- departments/sales.mdBaseline set 1 October
Baseline set 1 October
Proposals answered within 2 working days. Baseline: 3 to 4 days.
- departments/client-services.mdBaseline set 1 October
Baseline set 1 October
New client work started on time. Baseline: 6 of the last 10.
- departments/operations.mdBaseline set 1 October
Baseline set 1 October
Jobs closed on schedule. Baseline: 7 of the last 10.
The same example 90-person business. Goals, measures and baselines are illustrative.
The executive team gets
one pack a month.
The weekly reading behind
it sits with us.
Each department keeps its own owner and metrics, and its signals come from the systems it already works in.
One quarter of the rhythm, from October to December. Dates are illustrative.
The rhythm
- 1. At the start
Your executive team sets where AI should create value, what gets funded, who owns each initiative and when to stop. Each department’s metrics are written down with a baseline and the date.
- 2. Every week
We read each department’s signals from the shared brain and your work systems, read-only.
- 3. Every month
The executive team gets a pack that goes department by department, with the calls waiting on it.
- 4. When a call is approved
We write it into the brain as updated context, workflows, skills and instructions, and the record names who approved it and when.
- 5. Every quarter
At the board review, every initiative is marked fix, fund, scale or stop against the baseline.
Who we need
- Your executive team, for each monthly pack and the quarterly board review. Each department’s owner holds that department’s metrics.
- Whoever holds admin access to your work systems, to connect them read-only before the first week.
What we do on our side
- Before the first week: the connections to your work systems set up read-only, and each department’s baseline written down and dated.
- Before each board review: the funded list set against the baseline, in a pack your board can read.
The Decision Layer takes the loop department by department.
It runs the same loop as Decision Deployment. What changes between them is how far into the business the loop reaches.
Decision Deployment
We run the loop with the owner.
Decision Deployment
- Who’s in the loop
- The owner and a handful of seniors.
- Rhythm
- A monthly brief and decision session, with a quarterly review.
- What’s observed
- The business as one unit.
Decision Layer
We run the loop with the executive team.
Decision Layer
- Who’s in the loop
- The executive team, department by department.
- Rhythm
- Weekly signals, with a monthly pack and a quarterly board review for the executive team.
- What’s observed
- Each department, with its own owner and metrics.
Each approved call goes into the brain with who owns it and by when.
The decision record and the files it changed sit in the brain everyone reads, in your own storage. Nothing that shapes how your team’s Claude answers changes until someone with authority approves it.
Decision record
Sales books start dates only after operations confirms who’s free
Approved 28 October by the managing director
- From
- October executive pack
- Owner
- Sales director, by 30 November
- Departments
- Sales, Operations, Client services
- Written into
- processes/new-client-start.md, templates/proposal.md
- Reaches
- 38 people
Decision record
Sales books start dates only after operations confirms who’s free
Approved 28 October by the managing director
- From
- October executive pack
- Owner
- Sales director, by 30 November
- Departments
- Sales, Operations, Client services
- Written into
- processes/new-client-start.md,
templates/proposal.md - Reaches
- 38 people
What changed in the brain
The same call, as it landed in the files.
- processes/new-client-start.mdUpdated 28 October
Updated 28 October
Start dates are booked from the operations calendar, not from the proposal.
- templates/proposal.mdUpdated 28 October
Updated 28 October
The proposal shows a confirmed start date, not an estimate.
The same example business. File names, roles, dates and counts are illustrative.
A steering committee can recommend.
Only an owner can decide.
A steering committee can recommend. Only an owner can decide.
The Decision Layer runs on the brain, so the install and the Context Layer come first.
The loop reads the brain alongside your systems and writes its calls back into it, so the brain has to be built and kept current before the Decision Layer starts.
At this size, we usually start with the Decision Discipline Workshop, so the executive team agrees where AI goes before anything is built.
Not sure where your executive team stands? Answer 4 questions- 1. Context Install
- Builds the brain and each person’s Claude, and is always the first build.
- 2. Context Layer
- Keeps the brain current, and has to be live before Decision Deployment or the Decision Layer can start.
- 3. Decision Discipline Workshop
- An optional add-on at any size, on its own or beside the install.
One room of 5 to 15 people who can fund a decision and kill one. - 4. Decision Deployment or the Decision LayerThis page
- We run the loop with the owner from 15 people, or with the executive team from 50.
The loop that runs on the brain, and what we read while it runs, is set out step by step on How it works.
The loop that runs on the brain, and what we read while it runs, is set out step by step on
How it works.
The Decision Layer is one monthly fee for the business, with a 12-month minimum.
It sits on top of the Context Install and the Context Layer, and each keeps its own price. We work out who’s included with you on the call, and your quote comes from it.
- Decision Layer
- Per business, per month
- Minimum term
- 12 months
- Context Layer
- Per person, per month
- Context Install, shared brain
- Once per business
- Context Install, each person’s setup
- Per person by role, once
Questions executive teams
ask about the Decision Layer
It works through the pack each month and makes the calls it carries, while the weekly reading and the write-back sit with us. Each quarter, every initiative is marked fix, fund, scale or stop at the board review.
Book a call with Joel
Joel and the MethodWorks team put AI into the daily work of Australian businesses in financial advice, retail, logistics, education and software. Bring your headcount and the AI tools your team uses today, and you’ll leave the call knowing what would need to be in place before the Decision Layer could start.