The STEP Framework: Structural, Transactional, Exceptional, and Process

Organizations are constantly flooded with choices. Without a shared taxonomy, teams apply the same ad-hoc committee meetings to routine transactional questions as they do to irrevocable structural changes. The STEP Framework categorizes every organizational decision into one of four interconnected layers: - **Structural Decisions**: Foundational decisions that set boundaries, risk tolerances, core values, and governance architecture. These are slow-moving, high-stakes, and deliberate. - **Process Decisions**: Rules, workflows, approval hierarchies, and playbooks that determine how structural boundaries operate day-to-day. - **Transactional Decisions**: High-frequency operational applications of process rules (e.g., standard expense approvals, routine requisitions, standard customer refunds). - **Exceptional Decisions**: Deliberate or forced deviations where circumstances warrant stepping outside the standard process. Exceptional decisions are the most consequential because they test the boundaries of the organization. When an exceptional decision is made repeatedly without being recognized, it quietly creates shadow policy. SigmaGo tracks the interplay across these four layers.