Glossary

The first screens of this site use plain words. One level down, the same things have proper names, and the sources on the reading list use those. Here they are side by side, plain word first.

Talk assertives and expressives: Language that describes, reports, explains, suggests, thanks, complains or jokes. It is how people think together, and when it is over nothing has to happen. Searle's assertives (saying how things are) and expressives (saying how one feels) are mostly talk.
Speech speech acts: directives, commissives, declarations: Language that does something: a request creates an expectation, a promise creates an obligation, "done" changes what is true. Austin's name for the idea; Searle's categories for the kinds. Directives ask, commissives commit, declarations change the state of affairs by being said.
The loop conversation for action: The four-move cycle every piece of work travels: a request, an agreement, a completion, an assessment. Flores and Winograd's term, from the 1980s. Drawn and explained here.
The person asking customer: Whoever wants the result. Has nothing to do with money; the boss is the customer when she asks you for something.
The person doing it performer: Whoever will produce the result. The same person is customer in one loop and performer in the next.
Who, what finished looks like, by when conditions of satisfaction: The three things a request needs so that a stranger could tell whether it had been met: the performer, a description of the result, and a time. The customer's conditions sit at the center of the loop because every other move is measured against them.
A real yes promise; acceptance: An acceptance that takes on the conditions of satisfaction, including the date. It is the moment a request becomes an obligation. The tight knot in the thread.
A hedge hedged acceptance: "I'll try." "Should be able to." "When I get a chance." A yes that keeps the speaker's options open and creates no obligation. A way of operating with uses and costs, not a fault. The loose knot.
A no decline: A clear refusal, which closes the loop cleanly. A complete move, not a failure.
A different deal counter-offer: "I can do it, but by Friday rather than Thursday." A proposal of different conditions, which the customer can accept, decline or counter in turn.
Asking what exactly is wanted request for clarification: "Which permit? Is the plan set stamped?" Often the most useful move in the loop, because it turns a vague request into one that can be promised.
Let me get back to you commit to commit: A promise to give an answer by a stated time. A small loop inside the negotiation of a larger one.
Changing the deal partway renegotiation; revocation: Coming back before the date to say the promise will not hold as given and proposing new terms, or withdrawing it. In Jensen's terms this is honoring your word when you cannot keep it: say so early and clean up the consequences.
Saying it's done declaration of completion: The performer's statement that the work is finished. The work is not complete, as far as the loop is concerned, until this is said.
Saying it's what I needed declaration of satisfaction; assessment: The customer's statement that the result met the conditions, or did not. Closes the loop, or reopens it. The move most often skipped.
A promise that lapsed breakdown; broken promise: A date that passed in silence, with no completion, no renegotiation and no word. The thread come undone. Distinct from a promise renegotiated in time, even when the work lands on the same day.
Keeping your word integrity, in the Erhard–Jensen–Zaffron sense: Honoring your word: keeping it, or, when you cannot, saying so as early as possible and cleaning up the consequences. Presented by its authors as a factor of production rather than a moral virtue.
Trust authentic trust (Solomon and Flores): Not a feeling but something people do: built by making and keeping commitments and by honest conversation about the ones that were not kept. Chosen with open eyes, including the possibility of being let down.
The network of promises commitment network: Who asked whom for what, and whether it came back, across a whole organization. Rarely matches the org chart. What the Team Report and Agent in the Loop make visible.
The book commitment ledger: The record of what was requested, promised, renegotiated, done and assessed, as entries confirmed by the people involved. Commitments, not conversations.
Clem: The coach. Reads, asks and offers; never scores, never corrects, never says "I will." An agent, and agents do not make promises.