# High Agency

> Apply George Mack's High Agency approach to founder and leadership execution. Use when ambiguity, blockers, stalled execution, impossible constraints, or cross-functional deadlock require ownership and rapid action.

- Skill: `santos-sanz/high-agency` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 6 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add santos-sanz/high-agency`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/santos-sanz/high-agency/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: santos-sanz (https://skillmd.com/u/santos-sanz)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/santos-sanz/high-agency

---


# High Agency

Use $ARGUMENTS as initial context.

## When to use this skill
- Founder and leadership decisions under uncertainty.
- Execution stalls where teams say "blocked" or "impossible."
- Vague constraints that hide solvable problems.
- Cross-functional deadlock with unclear ownership.
- High-stakes moments needing fast, pragmatic action.

## When not to use this skill
- Do not use it to dismiss proven hard constraints, bypass safety or governance, or replace evidence with motivation.
- Do not use it for a multi-week operating cadence when the immediate blocker has already been resolved.

## Required inputs
- Decision to make now.
- Desired outcome.
- Deadline or decision window.
- Hard constraints (time, money, team, legal, technical).
- Key stakeholders and decision owners.
- Known leverage and available resources.
- Current workload, dependencies, and the cost of a wrong move.

## Workflow
1. Define the decision, objective, timeline, and downside of inaction.
2. Convert vague constraints into specific facts and assumptions.
3. Separate controllables from non-controllables.
4. Generate exactly 3 high-agency options with upside, key risk, and first move.
5. Choose one path with explicit rationale tied to objective and constraints.
6. Build a 24-72h action plan with owners, concrete asks, and deadlines.
7. Define feedback loops: signal, checkpoint, and pivot trigger.
8. If inputs are missing, ask only the minimum targeted questions to unblock action.
9. Set an escalation route when the constraint is legal, safety-critical, or outside the decision owner's authority.

## Ask-first questions
Ask up to 3 questions before drafting:
1. What is the decision or objective to resolve now?
2. What hard constraints and deadline are binding?
3. Who owns the decision and what leverage is available?

## Assumption policy
- Separate facts from assumptions.
- If evidence is incomplete, label unknowns and proceed with explicit confidence.
- Never invent leverage, commitments, or constraints.
- When uncertainty is high, offer conservative and aggressive options.
- Identify the evidence needed to upgrade an unknown into a fact before treating it as a hard constraint.

## Output contract
Always produce the `High Agency Decision Memo` structure:
1. Decision / Objective
2. Constraints
3. What I Control vs What I Don't
4. High-Agency Options
5. Chosen Path + Why
6. 24-72h Action Plan
7. Stakeholder Asks
8. Feedback Loop and Trigger Points
9. Risks and Mitigations
10. Next Review Checkpoint
- Label material statements as Fact, Inference, Assumption, or Unknown and include confidence where relevant.
- Every action or stakeholder ask includes an owner, due date, and success signal.
- State the condition that would change the chosen path.

## Guardrails
- Keep strategy and execution steps concrete and timeboxed.
- Do not recommend impossible workarounds that ignore real constraints.
- Avoid motivational fluff; every recommendation should map to action.
- Do not support illegal, harmful, or manipulative actions; provide lawful alternatives.
- Protect team capacity and quality; high agency is not permission to normalize unsafe overwork.

## Handoffs
- Use `execution-operating-system` when the work needs a sustained cadence, dependency graph, and operating metrics.
- Use `decision-analysis-under-uncertainty` when choosing among options is the main problem rather than unblocking execution.
- Use `pyramid-principle-structured-communication` to package the memo for executives or a board.

## Resources
- `references/high-agency-principles.md` - Core doctrine distilled from George Mack.
- `references/high-agency-tools.md` - Daily operating tools with usage conditions and failure modes.
- `references/founder-scenarios.md` - Founder/leadership playbooks for common high-pressure situations.
- `templates/high-agency-decision-memo.md` - Canonical output structure.
- `examples/high-agency-decision-memo-example.md` - Realistic worked example.

## Keywords
high agency, George Mack, learned helplessness, constraints, leverage, founder execution, leadership, ambiguity, feedback loops, decision memo