The Green Dashboard Trap: Why Institutions Lose Sight of Their Own Intent

Everything can look fine while the organisation is already drifting. Performance indicators can improve while meaning quietly erodes. This paper introduces the Green Dashboard Trap: when metrics signal success even as alignment is lost. Because institutions act on what is measured, dashboards can stabilise drift instead of revealing it. The result is systems that look healthy while moving away from their purpose. 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 1.00: First public release of the programme pre-fix essay. This manuscript provides a narrative introduction to the research programme and does not present empirical datasets or formal measurement instruments. These are developed in the subsequent programme papers.Version 1.01: Title updated from Part −1 to Prologue to align naming conventions across the programme. No changes to content, arguments, or structure.Version 1.02: 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 1.03: Terminology harmonisation and minor structural refinements to improve consistency across the Coherence Programme. No changes to the theoretical framework, constructs, or research design.Version 1.04: Minor conceptual clarifications, consistency improvements, reviewer-informed refinements, and editorial updates across the programme.