02 · The Mandate Brief
A short reference document the principal and the desk agree on before any policy is signed. It captures the decisions that everything else hangs off: the operating model, the decision rights, the buckets, the bands, and the cadence. Once signed, it is the working version the office refers back to.
The trigger,
in plain words.
Once a diagnostic has produced its findings, and before any structural work or drafting of the policy statement begins. Used whenever a principal wants to reset what the office is for.
The artefacts
the desk writes.
- A written record of the operating model: who decides what, with which approval rights.
- Strategic and discretionary buckets, with bands and trigger thresholds for each line.
- Reporting cadence, IC quorum, and escalation paths.
- A short reference document, signed by the principal and the desk, that the rest of the work is built against.
The shape of
the working document.
Two cells, one document. The brief is the working document the principal and the desk sign before any policy is written. The depth read sits below the schematic.
01
A written record of the operating model: who decides what, with which approval rights.
02
Strategic and discretionary buckets, with bands and trigger thresholds for each line.
03
Reporting cadence, IC quorum, and escalation paths.
04
A short reference document, signed by the principal and the desk, that the rest of the work is built against.
The sections of
the working document.
The brief is a short reference document, signed on the first day of an engagement. The list below is what the desk writes into the brief on a retained mandate, in the order the principal and the desk read it. The decisions, the bands, and the cadence are mandate-specific; the rooms themselves are not.
- Section 01
Parties and the work in scope
The principal, the desk, the existing advisors named in the brief, and the workstreams in scope for the season. The brief names who is at the table, who is on call, and which rooms belong to which party. Anything not named here is out of scope, by writing.
- Section 02
The engagement shape in use
The shape of the work, drawn from the six the desk runs. Diagnose, Design, Structure, Build, Operate, or Oversee, in the order the brief intends. The shape is not the deliverable; it is the cadence the brief is signed against.
- Section 03
Decision rights and approval thresholds
Who decides what, with which approval threshold, and at what level. The brief writes the rights in the affirmative: the principal signs, the committee confirms, the desk acts, and the limits of each are stated in writing before any room opens.
- Section 04
Buckets, bands, and the discretionary perimeter
The strategic and discretionary buckets, the bands around each, and the trigger thresholds at which the desk reserves to the principal. The perimeter is read in posture, not in figure: the brief names what the perimeter is for, not the numbers that live inside it.
- Section 05
Deliverables, the schedule, and the cadence
The artefacts the season produces, in order, with the date each is read against. Cadence is written here: how often the desk writes, how often the principal reads, and how often the brief is re-opened against the cycle.
- Section 06
Escalation paths and the decline language
What the desk does when a line is out of band, when a corridor is approached, and when a mandate falls outside the brief. The decline language is written here in advance, so the conversation on the day runs from the brief, not from the heat of the moment.
- Section 07
Signature, the cycle, and the review date
The principal and the desk sign the brief on the same page. The cycle is named in writing. The next review date is named in writing. Anything that lives outside the brief is held back, or belongs in a later brief.
The brief,
the pack, the map.
The Mandate Brief is the front-edge document. It is written on the first day of an engagement, before any policy is signed, and it names the work the season intends to do. The brief is the contract the principal and the desk both sign against. It is re-opened only when the season changes.
The IC Pack is the quarterly operating instrument. It is written on a fixed cadence, every cycle, on a retained operating mandate, and it carries the same twelve pages in the same order, regardless of what the season has done. The pack reads the brief in the background and runs the decisions the brief reserved to the committee.
The Treasury Corridor Map is the operating posture for the cash and FX book. It is drawn against the Treasury Policy, re-read quarterly, and updated without a re-signature of the policy unless the bands move. The map reads the brief in the background and runs the cash and FX decisions the brief reserved to the desk.
A brief without an IC pack expires inside the cycle. A pack without a brief has no authority to act. A corridor map without either is an open question. The three documents are read together, in this order, on every retained mandate.
The brief is
where the rooms open.
The brief names the engagement shape in writing, in posture terms rather than figure. Diagnose, Design, Structure, Build, Operate, or Oversee, in the order the season intends. The shape is then read against the six rooms the practice runs on, so the work that flows from the brief is auditable from the first working session.
If this framework
is the next room,
We maintain a small number of retained mandates and open new mandates selectively. Write to the private office. We reply with care, and without obligation.
For how the framework is run on a mandate, see the practice.