Chapter 8 — Tools, Techniques & Practices

The technique catalog for Handbook v10. Most tools support ACT, GTM, or both. Tools are meant to sequence, not stand alone.

Browse by category below. Each item has its own page in techniques/ or concepts/.

Facilitation

ACT–GTM Matrix — Table matching tools to ACT, GTM, or both — pick and sequence by situation.
Ideal Group Process — Diverge → analyze → debate → converge loop with rotating ACT/GTM tools.
1-2-4-Whole Group — Individual → pairs → fours → whole group; staged inclusion of every voice.
1 on 1, 2 on 2, Exchange Emissaries — Subgroup dialog with emissaries cross-pollinating between groups.
Circle of Voices — Round-robin: each speaks once before anyone speaks twice.
Circular Response — Structured response pattern ensuring respectful listening and ordered contribution.
Fishbowl — Inner group discusses, outer observes; swap roles to surface dynamics.
Think-Write-Share — Silent individual write before any discussion — defeats anchoring.
Troika Consulting — Client presents; three consultants discuss while client listens.
Gallery Walk — Post ideas; participants silently annotate and build on others’ work.
Dot Voting — Allocate limited votes across options for quick prioritization.
Sequence / Playbooks — Chain /redteam commands for a decision type and the time available.

Divergent

Brainstorming — Volume-first idea generation with deferred judgment.
5 Will Get You 25 — Each person generates five ideas; combine for quantity before quality.
Yes, And… — Build on prior ideas without blocking — improv rule for ideation phases.
Outside-In Thinking — Import solutions or frames from unrelated domains.
Mind Mapping — Branching visual map from a central concept.
String of Pearls — Sequential “what if” chain along a narrative thread.
What If? Analysis — Explore consequences when a key variable changes.
My 15% — Each person owns the slice of the problem they can influence.
Appreciative Interview — Explore what works before fixing what doesn’t — expands solution space.

Analytical

5 Whys — Iterative why-questions to reach root causes and hidden assumptions.
Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH) — Matrix scoring evidence against mutually exclusive hypotheses.
Key Assumptions Check — List what must be true for the plan to work; flag critical unvalidated beliefs.
Assumption Sensitivity Analysis — Rank assumptions by what happens if each is wrong (collapse vs. absorb).
Argument Deconstruction — Separate premises, inference, and conclusion; test each link.
Frame Audit — Examine the lens defining the problem — scope, metrics, causality, values.
4 Ways of Seeing — Reframe as problem, polarity, pattern, or opportunity.
Problem Restatement — Rephrase the problem multiple ways before solving.
6 Words — Distill the issue to six words — forces clarity.
SEE-I — State, Elaborate, Exemplify, Illustrate — clarify before debate.
Analogy Suitability Analysis — Test whether the analogy in use actually fits.
Logic of Failure — How can well-intentioned system logic still produce failure?
Critical Variables (CVs) — Dynamic factors that drive outcomes — often mapped to an Operating Landscape Map.
Who Else? — Whose perspective is missing from this analysis?
Who Am I? — Introspective identity/bias surfacing before engaging others.
Outside View / Reference Class Forecasting — Use base rates from similar past attempts to test an inside-view forecast.
Incentive & Goodhart Analysis — Examine how metrics and incentives may be gamed or create perverse second-order effects.
Ladder of Inference — Separate observable data from interpretation and conclusion.
Calibration — Grade claims as fact, inference, or guess; attach confidence and disconfirmers.
RFC Review — Review engineering decisions for options, reversibility, and operational consequences.
Cognitive Bias Catalog — Find biases and the counter-techniques or commands that address them.

Adversarial

Devil’s Advocacy — Structured strongest-case against the prevailing view.
Premortem Analysis — Assume failure; work backward to causes and preventions.
Team A / Team B Analysis — Two teams argue opposing options, then swap and defend the other side.
BATNA — Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement — know your walk-away before negotiating.
Divergence–Convergence — Explicit separate phases for generating vs. narrowing options.
Inversion — Ask what would guarantee failure, then turn the answers into avoidance rules.
Steelman — Build the strongest version of each side before debate or devil’s advocacy.
Misuse & Abuse Cases — Examine how an artifact could be misused, gamed, or harm vulnerable users.

Strategic

Alternative Futures Analysis — Multiple plausible futures against which to stress-test the plan.
Indicators / Signposts of Change — Early warnings that a given future is emerging.
High Impact / Low Probability Analysis — Tail risks — unlikely but catastrophic scenarios.
SWOT Analysis — Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats for an option or entity.
Stakeholder Mapping — Who decides, who influences, who blocks, who suffers consequences.
Shifting the Burden — Push past the obvious fix to ask who or what structurally bears the load.
Launch Readiness — Check product go-live readiness across operations, communications, metrics, rollback, and misuse.
Reversibility — Classify one-way and two-way doors, then match the decision process to the cost of reversal.

Extension

Reference Class Forecasting — Estimate from the distribution of outcomes in similar past cases.
Pre-parade — Imagine surprising success; surface hidden upside dependencies.
Cynefin Domain Check — Classify context as clear, complicated, complex, or chaotic.
Polarity Mapping — Manage ongoing tensions (poles) instead of false either/or solutions.
Discovery-Driven Planning — Learning milestones to test assumptions before scaling.
Kill Criteria — Explicit tripwires that trigger stop, pivot, or rollback.
Second-Order Effects — Consequences of consequences; systemic feedback.
Narrative vs Evidence Audit — Where compelling story outruns disconfirmable data.
Decision Journal — Personal log of decisions and confidence for later calibration.

Cultural

Cultural Perception Framework — How different cultural actors perceive the same events.
Onion Model — Peel cultural layers from artifacts to deep assumptions.
6 Empathetic Questions — Questions that build understanding of another’s frame without judgment.
Deception Detection — MOM-POP-EVE-MOSES checklist + ACH when active deception is plausible.
TRIZ — Systematic inventive problem-solving from contradictions (Altshuller).
Culture / Worldview Mapping — Map what stakeholders see, value, fear, and want to expose worldview collisions.

Communication

Storytelling — Narrative form to communicate findings and alternatives persuasively.
Decision Record — Capture the decision, assumptions, dissent, tripwires, and review date in an ADR-style artifact.

RedTeam commands

/redteam tools — browse and recommend techniques
See individual pages for mapped commands (premortem, ach, outside-view, etc.)
/redteam outside-view
/redteam invert
/redteam incentives
/redteam ladder
/redteam steelman
/redteam calibrate
/redteam sequence
/redteam culture
/redteam launch
/redteam rfc
/redteam misuse
/redteam reversibility
/redteam record

RedTeam note

v9-origin techniques and v10-native commands live in one catalog. AI-specific process guidance is in Chapter 7 — Red Teaming with AI & Humans in the Loop.