The Three Levels of Intent canvas
A structured reflection tool for spotting the gap between what you say, what you decide, and how you actually behave when things get hard.
The Three Levels of Intent Canvas is a tool to help you reflect on whether what you say, what you do, and what your behaviour signals are actually all pointing in the same direction.
I've written a longer piece about why I think these three categories of intent are useful to reflect on.
When behavioural, operational, and declared intent are aligned, teams can feel real clarity and momentum, but when they're not trust erodes, priorities become harder to interpret and confusion quickly grows.
This canvas can work for individuals, teams, or leadership groups - anyone who suspects there might be a gap between intent and reality.
It works best as a guide for a facilitated conversation, because the value comes from the discussion rather than the completed boxes. That said, it's a useful solo exercise too, particularly if you want to think something through in a structured way before bringing it to a group.
You might want to use this canvas if:
- You've announced a change in direction, but things don't feel like they've actually shifted
- People on your team seem confused about what the real priorities are
- You've noticed a difference between what gets said in strategy discussions and what actually gets protected when things get busy
- A project or initiative has stalled and you're not sure whether it's a resourcing problem, a commitment problem, or something else
- You're preparing for a difficult conversation about organisational culture or ways of working and want to think it through first