The interpersonal agreements that make federated systems, distributed decisions, and high visibility work possible #
Technical systems run on code – federated systems run on trust. A Human Contract is the “interpersonal scaffolding” that prevents political friction from becoming a technical outage. It defines who owns the boundary, how we escalate, and what “done” actually means.
1. Purpose of Human Contracts #
Human contracts define how people behave at boundaries.
They are the interpersonal scaffolding that makes technical architecture workable.
They exist because:
- every interface involves two people or two teams
- expectations differ across roles and altitudes
- political visibility creates pressure that distorts behavior
- leadership demands often arrive faster than systems can adapt
- boundary friction grows unless expectations are explicit
Technical contracts govern the data.
Human contracts govern the humans who must produce and manage that data.
When organizations do not define human contracts, people interpret boundaries differently.
Misalignment becomes predictable.
2. Why Human Contracts Matter #
Crucially, leadership must be a net gain. If the team is just as effective without you as with you, you are not leading; you are overhead.
This hits hard because it gives the reader (or a practitioner) a diagnostic they can apply immediately: “Does my presence make the team faster or just more managed?”
Human contracts:
- stabilize relationships
- reduce conflict
- protect mission tempo
- protect timelines
- prevent leadership driven thrash
- create predictable communication
- clarify ownership
- reduce political heat
- reduce fear based behavior
- enable distributed decisions
- reduce decision drag
You need human contracts when:
- leadership expectations shift
- partners interpret requirements differently
- visibility is high and tolerance for error is low
- politics distort priorities
- teams feel pressure from outside stakeholders
Human contracts soften political turbulence.
3. The Five Elements of a Human Contract #
A complete human contract contains five agreements.
1. Ownership #
Two named owners, one on each side of the boundary.
2. Responsiveness #
A shared expectation for how quickly people respond, both during normal operations and during heightened demand.
3. Change communication #
A predictable routine for announcing changes, deviations, outages, schema adjustments, and timeline shifts.
4. Escalation pathway #
A defined sequence of steps that prevents unnecessary panic, unnecessary meetings, and unnecessary leadership involvement.
5. Interpretation of intent #
A shared understanding of the underlying mission or legal purpose so both sides act in harmony and do not drift into superficial compliance.
4. Human Contract Altitudes #
Human contracts must align across three altitudes.
Altitude 1: Operators #
Day to day producers, analysts, editors, ingest owners, or clerks.
Altitude 2: Managers #
People who shape workflows, timelines, resource allocation, and process consistency.
Altitude 3: Leadership #
People who shape intent, define strategic outcomes, and introduce new requirements.
Human contracts collapse when:
- operators agree but managers disagree
- managers align but leadership changes direction
- leadership aligns but operators do not receive the message
This altitude drift is exactly what happened in your FRN experience.
5. How Human Contracts Support the Doctrine #
Human contracts are not optional. They directly support:
- federation
- useful interoperability
- distributed decisions
- commitment over compliance
- portfolio thinking
- degraded operations
- decision altitude
- clear intent
- architecture as acceleration
Failures in doctrine almost always map to failures in human contracts.
Examples:
- a partner publishes an update without notice
- leadership introduces a new requirement without understanding impact
- a team withholds information because they fear blame
- a supervisor enforces a rule that contradicts strategic intent
- a manager overcorrects because expectations are unclear
Human contracts cure these.
6. Business Example: Federal Register Notices (FRN) as a High-Visibility Human Contract Failure #
The FRN environment is the perfect example of high-profile, low-Tier operational value work where human contracts matter even more than technical contracts.
The failures we saw were classic human contract failures:
- leadership added fields based on personal preference rather than business need
- operators received new requirements with no warning
- timelines were dictated externally
- process expectations differed across teams
- the meaning of “correct” shifted depending on who asked
- oversight bodies expected perfection without understanding constraints
- responsibilities were unclear
- escalation routes were unpredictable
The workflow became unpredictable because altitude was confused and expectations drifted.
To stabilize it, our team unconsciously created a set of human contracts:
- declared owners for each section or field
- set realistic expectations for timeline and revision cycles
- established predictable change notification routines
- created a clear and mutual escalation path
- agreed on what was non negotiable (legal compliance)
- agreed on what was negotiable (stylistic preferences)
- aligned everyone on the real intent of the notice
- reduced leadership thrash by clarifying impacts and tradeoffs
We did not call these agreements human contracts at the time.
But that is exactly what they were.
Human contracts were what allowed our team to deliver FRNs under pressure and maintain quality despite shifting demands.
7. System Example: iCAV’s Human Contract Layer #
In iCAV, human contracts were less explicit but deeply real:
- each partner had a liaison
- ingest owners and partner publishers communicated regularly
- deviations were announced quickly
- outages were acknowledged without blame
- analysts trusted ingest to handle drift
- leadership trusted analysts to act within intent
- expectations were consistent
- boundaries were understood
This human contract layer absorbed:
- partner drift
- schema changes
- stale data
- political pressure
- inconsistent publishing
- degraded operations
Without these human contracts, iCAV would have collapsed during activations.
8. Human Contract Template (Refined) #
Paste this as a reusable block.
Human Contract Template
Purpose:
Describe the mission or regulatory outcome this partnership supports.
Owners:
Partner owner:
Our owner:
Responsibilities:
Partner responsibilities:
Our responsibilities:
Communication Expectations:
Normal operations:
During high visibility periods or activations:
Channels:
Change Notifications:
Advance notice required:
Required details:
Fallback behavior if notice cannot occur:
Escalation Ladder:
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3:
Final escalation if unresolved:
Interpretation of Intent:
What the system or process is trying to achieve:
What must never be violated:
What tradeoffs are acceptable:
Boundaries:
Inside scope:
Outside scope:
9. Cross Links #
Human contracts directly support:
- Annex B: Data Contracts
- Annex C: Interface Ownership
- Principle 7: Interfaces
- Principle 17: Clear Intent
- Principle 19: Commitment over compliance
In FRN work, human contracts prevent leadership-driven thrash.
In mission work, human contracts prevent operational drift.
10. For Reflection: #
Ask yourself:
Where in your current systems are human expectations unspoken?
Where does leadership pressure create unnecessary friction?
Where are operators forced to guess?
Write the contract.
Reduce the friction.
Align the altitudes.
If you would like, I can now generate Annex B. Data Contracts, or we can refine Annex A further to include other non-mission, high-visibility work like:
- FOIA responses
- Congressional Requests
- Annual reports
- Public transparency portals
Last Updated on December 5, 2025
