Understanding how institutions translate strategic intent into coordinated action—and how that translation changes as decisions propagate through governance systems.A research programme studying how institutional decision systems learn, drift, and realign under conditions of complexity and delayed feedback.Introduction
The Coherence Programme investigates how organisations translate strategic intent into coordinated action through governance structures, prioritisation mechanisms, and decision signals.Rather than analysing individual decisions or performance outcomes, the programme treats the institutional decision system itself as the primary object of study: the structures, signals, and interpretive processes through which intent becomes action..This site serves as the canonical overview and reference point for the Coherence Programme and its associated publications.
Even well-governed organisations gradually lose alignment between strategic intent, funding decisions, and operational execution.This phenomenon—referred to here as the coherence problem—emerges when meaning, priorities, and interpretations drift as decisions propagate across governance layers.The research programme investigates:* how these translation dynamics emerge
* how coherence and drift can be observed empirically
* how institutions learn to detect and correct drift before it becomes visible in organisational outcomes
Institutional Decision Systems:The research programme conceptualises organisations as institutional decision systems through which priorities, meaning, and resources propagate across governance layers.Strategic intent is translated through a chain of institutional artefacts — strategy frameworks, funding decisions, prioritisation mechanisms, and operational execution.This chain forms what the programme describes as a decision spine, where coherence determines whether strategic intent remains interpretable and actionable as it moves through the organisation.The research investigates how coherence within such systems can be observed, measured, and improved through institutional learning.
The programme explores a set of core research questions concerning institutional decision systems and governance learning:1. Translation dynamics: How do organisations translate strategic intent into operational priorities through governance structures and decision signals?2. Coherence and Drift: Why does alignment between strategy, funding decisions, and operational action gradually deteriorate even in well-governed organisations?3. Observability: How can translation coherence within institutional decision systems be measured and observed empirically?4. Early Detection: Can strategic drift be detected through governance signals before it becomes visible in performance outcomes?5. Institutional Learning: Under what conditions do organisations learn to recognise and correct translation drift within their own decision systems?
The programme approaches institutional decision systems as scientifically tractable objects of study.Drawing on traditions in organisational learning, decision science, and sociotechnical systems research, the work develops conceptual architectures and measurement approaches that make governance processes empirically observable.The aim is not to prescribe organisational reform or replace human judgement with algorithms, but to improve the observability and learning capacity of institutional decision systems.
The research programme is organised into three layers, each representing a distinct type of scientific contribution.1. Conceptual Architecture: Formal specification of institutional decision-system structure, translation mechanisms, and boundary conditions.
These papers define the scientific object of study and the causal mechanisms under investigation.2. Measurement and Methods: Development of psychometric instruments, longitudinal measurement approaches, and analytical methods for observing translation coherence and decision-system learning over time.3. Field Protocols and Empirical Studies: Field protocols and pilot studies designed to test whether increased observability of translation dynamics influences governance learning under real or simulated decision conditions.
Selected papers from the Coherence ProgrammeReaders new to the programme may wish to begin with the Conceptual Overview, which introduces the conceptual foundations and overall research arc.The subsequent papers examine the coherence problem in institutional decision systems, the mechanisms through which translation drift emerges, and the methodological approaches developed to observe these dynamics empirically, including direct demonstration in real-world governance systems.1. The Coherence Programme: A Conceptual Overview and Entry Point to the Research Programme — Introduces the core concepts, research questions, and structure of the programme.2. The Coherence Problem: How Institutions Learn, Drift, and Realign — Defines the coherence problem and explains why alignment between strategy and execution degrades over time.3. Why Strong Governance Still Drifts: Translation Drift in Institutional Decision Systems — Examines how translation drift emerges as decisions propagate through governance structures.4. Making Meaning Measurable: Observing Translation Coherence in Decision Systems — Develops conceptual and methodological approaches for measuring translation coherence.5. Translation Dynamics in Public Policy and Governance: A Replicable Method for Observing How Concepts Become Decision Criteria in European Programmes (RRF, Galileo, Erasmus+) — Provides an empirical demonstration of how translation dynamics can be directly observed across European Union programmes.6. Detecting Strategic Drift Before Outcome Failure: A Longitudinal Governance Diagnostic — Proposes a framework for detecting strategic drift through governance signals before outcomes deteriorate.Programme Citation* When referencing the research programme as a whole, please cite the programme overview paper: Mertens, R. E. U. (2026). The Coherence Programme: A Conceptual Overview and Entry Point to the Research Programme.
This paper provides the conceptual overview and serves as the primary entry point to the research programme.* Supporting materials, figures, and programme documentation are available through the Coherence * Programme Open Science Framework (OSF) repository
* Programme website: thecoherenceprogramme.carrd.co
Supporting materials, figures, and working documentation are maintained through the programme workspace on the The Coherence Programme Open Science Framework (OSF) Project.The repository includes:* conceptual architectures
* methodological notes
* field protocols
* measurement instruments
* visual models supporting interpretation and communication of the researchThe OSF project functions as the programme hub and archival record for materials associated with the research programme.
The Coherence Programme is an independent research initiative investigating how institutional decision systems translate strategic intent into coordinated action, and how organisations learn to detect and correct strategic drift.The programme studies governance structures, decision signals, and translation processes through which priorities propagate across organisational layers. Its aim is to develop conceptual and empirical approaches that make these dynamics observable and scientifically tractable.The programme is developed by Robin Edgard Ulrik Mertens, a practitioner–researcher working on governance, institutional decision systems, and long-horizon value creation in complex organisations.The work draws on professional experience across life sciences, public institutions, and global technology environments, and seeks to contribute practitioner-informed perspectives to research on governance integrity, institutional learning, and responsible strategy execution.The programme operates as an open research effort, with papers, materials, and methodological artefacts shared through public research infrastructure.
Research outputs and supporting materials from the Coherence Programme are shared openly through public research repositories and scholarly infrastructure.Research infrastructure* Robin Edgard Ulrik Mertens ORCID profile
* Zenodo – The Coherence Programme Community with all Programme Papers
* Zenodo – The Coherence Programme Entry Paper
* The Coherence Programme Open Science Framework (OSF) ProjectWriting and commentary* Substack – The Coherence Programme (Essays & Commentary)
* Medium– Public EssaysScholarly profiles* Philpapers
* Research Gate
* Google Scholar
* SSRNProfessional* LinkedIn ProfileFor collaboration, academic inquiries, or discussion related to the research programme, feel free to connect through any of the platforms above.