How Decision Systems Learn What Matters: Building Purpose-Aligned Governance

What organisations learn to measure becomes what they optimise. Institutions do not act on purpose—they act on what becomes measurable. This paper shows how purpose is translated into criteria, metrics, and allocation rules through the Operating Spine. As these representations stabilise, they define what the system learns to prioritise. Alignment is therefore built—or lost—inside the decision architecture itself. About the Coherence ProgrammeThe Coherence Programme studies why institutions drift despite appearing aligned. It shows that decisions are made not on intent itself, but on how intent is translated into criteria, metrics, and allocation rules. Using the Operating Spine, the programme traces how purpose becomes action across governance layers, making drift and coherence directly observable within decision systems. The research applies to public institutions, capital allocation, and AI-mediated environments, where the durability of decision rules determines long-term institutional reliability.Programme citation: Mertens, R. E. U. (2026). The Coherence Programme: A Conceptual Overview and Entry Point to the Research Programme. Resources: Coherence Programme OSF repository and https://thecoherenceprogramme.org Version 1.01 clarified terminology, strengthened falsifiability statements, and improved conceptual definitions without changing the underlying architecture. No empirical datasets are associated with this version. Measurement instruments, code scaffolds, and empirical studies will be released in subsequent linked records.Version 1.03 update: This version restored the intended architectural manuscript file. Version 1.02 contained a mistakenly uploaded file that did not reflect substantive changes to this record. No conceptual, methodological, or structural content was altered relative to Version 1.01.Version 2.00: This release consolidates the manuscript within the full research programme structure. Cross-paper terminology has been harmonised, the unit-of-analysis statement has been standardised across the series, and reference architecture has been aligned. No changes have been made to the formal decision-learning architecture, measurement logic, boundary conditions, or theoretical claims.Version 2.01: consolidates the manuscript within the full research programme structure. Cross-paper terminology has been harmonised, titles and references have been aligned with the programme statement, and internal cross-references have been updated. No changes have been made to the formal decision-learning architecture, measurement logic, boundary conditions, or theoretical claims. Empirical studies, measurement instruments, and field applications are in preparation and will be released in subsequent linked records.Version 2.02: Programme Consolidation Update: This version consolidates the manuscript within the unified Coherence Programme structure.Titles, terminology, and internal cross-references have been harmonised across the series to stabilise the programme’s core constructs: Translation Drift (mechanism) Translation Coherence (metric) Interpretive Maintenance (governance function) Distributed Coherence (theoretical integration) No changes have been made to the formal architecture, boundary conditions, methodological logic, or theoretical claims.The update improves cross-paper traceability, indexing consistency, and conceptual coherence across the programme.Version 2.03: Terminology harmonisation and minor structural refinements to improve consistency across the Coherence Programme. No changes to the theoretical framework, constructs, or research design.Version 2.04: Minor conceptual clarifications, consistency improvements, reviewer-informed refinements, and editorial updates across the programme.