<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[What Time Binds: Pinned Terms]]></title><description><![CDATA[Pinned Terms is a weekly comic from What Time Binds about the words, thresholds, and “everyone-knows” phrases that quietly steer high-stakes teams. Each episode pins one slippery term to the wall, runs a fast reset, and leaves a decision log entry so future-us inherits the map.]]></description><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/s/pinned-terms</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5LGT!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffbebba79-2d9a-4aa6-8980-0dd22b509ab1_1280x1280.png</url><title>What Time Binds: Pinned Terms</title><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/s/pinned-terms</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 28 May 2026 02:15:53 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[jerrywwashington@substack.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[jerrywwashington@substack.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[jerrywwashington@substack.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[jerrywwashington@substack.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[The Word in a Trench Coat]]></title><description><![CDATA[Pinned Terms &#8212; Ep. 009: ACCOUNTABLE &#8212; Six people said "accountable." They meant six different things.]]></description><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/the-word-in-a-trench-coat</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/the-word-in-a-trench-coat</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 03 May 2026 04:35:37 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Em!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Em!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Em!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Em!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Em!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Em!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Em!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png" width="1456" height="2895" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/efeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:2895,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:4516064,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Three-panel comic in a conference room labeled DRIFT, THE BREAK, INSTALL. In DRIFT, six people sit around a table. The word ACCOUNTABLE is written on the whiteboard. Each person has a thought bubble: Own the outcome. Surface bad news. Stop pointing fingers. Deliver or flag it early. Be measured fairly. Do what I'm told. The corkboard on the right shows eight cards from past episodes: Aligned, Ready, Clear, Support, Bias, Assumption, Dangerous, Sourced. A caption reads: One word on the board. Six private definitions in the room already. In THE BREAK, Juno extends out of the panel frame, holds a card labeled ACCOUNTABLE, and looks directly at the reader. Three speech bubbles: You felt it too. You nodded. This one's a trench coat. Six definitions stitched into one word. Jerry wrote 1,000 words on it. Link's below. The caption reads: Same speaker. Three sentences. The strip admits the lie. In INSTALL, the whiteboard is wiped clean except for a faint smudge where ACCOUNTABLE used to be. The corkboard now has nine cards. ACCOUNTABLE has been pinned at the bottom with a yellow TRENCH COAT warning tag. A poster on the wall reads EP. 009 MOVE: DON'T PIN. UNBUTTON. Hart writes on a clipboard. Speech bubbles. Hart: Logged. Accountable showed up wearing a trench coat. We didn't pin it. We named it. Malik: So next week we pin it? Juno: Next week, we pin a smaller word. This one needs a real meeting. With your team. Tonight. The caption reads: Move-of-the-Week, Don't Pin, Unbutton.&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/i/196281100?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Three-panel comic in a conference room labeled DRIFT, THE BREAK, INSTALL. In DRIFT, six people sit around a table. The word ACCOUNTABLE is written on the whiteboard. Each person has a thought bubble: Own the outcome. Surface bad news. Stop pointing fingers. Deliver or flag it early. Be measured fairly. Do what I'm told. The corkboard on the right shows eight cards from past episodes: Aligned, Ready, Clear, Support, Bias, Assumption, Dangerous, Sourced. A caption reads: One word on the board. Six private definitions in the room already. In THE BREAK, Juno extends out of the panel frame, holds a card labeled ACCOUNTABLE, and looks directly at the reader. Three speech bubbles: You felt it too. You nodded. This one's a trench coat. Six definitions stitched into one word. Jerry wrote 1,000 words on it. Link's below. The caption reads: Same speaker. Three sentences. The strip admits the lie. In INSTALL, the whiteboard is wiped clean except for a faint smudge where ACCOUNTABLE used to be. The corkboard now has nine cards. ACCOUNTABLE has been pinned at the bottom with a yellow TRENCH COAT warning tag. A poster on the wall reads EP. 009 MOVE: DON'T PIN. UNBUTTON. Hart writes on a clipboard. Speech bubbles. Hart: Logged. Accountable showed up wearing a trench coat. We didn't pin it. We named it. Malik: So next week we pin it? Juno: Next week, we pin a smaller word. This one needs a real meeting. With your team. Tonight. The caption reads: Move-of-the-Week, Don't Pin, Unbutton." title="Three-panel comic in a conference room labeled DRIFT, THE BREAK, INSTALL. In DRIFT, six people sit around a table. The word ACCOUNTABLE is written on the whiteboard. Each person has a thought bubble: Own the outcome. Surface bad news. Stop pointing fingers. Deliver or flag it early. Be measured fairly. Do what I'm told. The corkboard on the right shows eight cards from past episodes: Aligned, Ready, Clear, Support, Bias, Assumption, Dangerous, Sourced. A caption reads: One word on the board. Six private definitions in the room already. In THE BREAK, Juno extends out of the panel frame, holds a card labeled ACCOUNTABLE, and looks directly at the reader. Three speech bubbles: You felt it too. You nodded. This one's a trench coat. Six definitions stitched into one word. Jerry wrote 1,000 words on it. Link's below. The caption reads: Same speaker. Three sentences. The strip admits the lie. In INSTALL, the whiteboard is wiped clean except for a faint smudge where ACCOUNTABLE used to be. The corkboard now has nine cards. ACCOUNTABLE has been pinned at the bottom with a yellow TRENCH COAT warning tag. A poster on the wall reads EP. 009 MOVE: DON'T PIN. UNBUTTON. Hart writes on a clipboard. Speech bubbles. Hart: Logged. Accountable showed up wearing a trench coat. We didn't pin it. We named it. Malik: So next week we pin it? Juno: Next week, we pin a smaller word. This one needs a real meeting. With your team. Tonight. The caption reads: Move-of-the-Week, Don't Pin, Unbutton." srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Em!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Em!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Em!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f_Em!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fefeeb11e-7171-45e0-b3cc-495e38ee8db1_1456x2895.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><div class="callout-block" data-callout="true"><p>Six people said &#8220;accountable.&#8221; Each one meant something different. The room nodded. Six different agreements walked out the door.</p></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><h2>A week of nods that meant six different things</h2><p>This week, the word &#8220;accountable&#8221; showed up in five different rooms and did six different jobs.</p><p>In a leadership offsite, an executive said the team needed to be &#8220;more accountable for outcomes.&#8221; Three direct reports nodded. Each one started planning a different fix.</p><p>In a performance review, a manager flagged &#8220;lack of accountability&#8221; as the headline concern. The employee heard &#8220;didn&#8217;t work hard enough.&#8221; The manager meant &#8220;didn&#8217;t surface bad news fast enough.&#8221; Two different goals walked out of the same room.</p><p>In a news cycle on a public incident, three politicians called for &#8220;accountability.&#8221; One meant resignations. One meant a public report. One meant a policy change. All three said the same word.</p><p>In a classroom debate on AI accountability, half the students meant &#8220;transparency about how the model decides.&#8221; Half meant &#8220;who pays when it gets it wrong.&#8221; Two different conversations ran in parallel for an hour, and nobody named the split.</p><p>In a Saturday text thread, a parent asked their teenager for &#8220;more accountability.&#8221; The teenager heard &#8220;tell me where you&#8217;re going.&#8221; The parent meant &#8220;follow through on what you said you&#8217;d do.&#8221; Same word. Different ask.</p><p>Five rooms. Six different jobs. The same magnet word underneath all of them.</p><p>That&#8217;s what ACCOUNTABLE is for. The crew took it on this week.</p><p>&#8220;Accountable&#8221; is a magnet word. It carries six different requests under one button-up coat. Six people can say it and mean six different things:</p><ul><li><p>Own the outcome.</p></li><li><p>Surface bad news.</p></li><li><p>Stop pointing fingers.</p></li><li><p>Deliver or flag it early.</p></li><li><p>Be measured fairly.</p></li><li><p>Do what I&#8217;m told.</p></li></ul><p>All six get offered with the same weight. The room nods. Six different agreements walk out the door.</p><p>The fix: pin a smaller word, take this one to a real meeting. Unbutton the coat before the room agrees. Ask which of the six the speaker is carrying. You&#8217;ll know which agreement your team is actually choosing.</p><p>The full unbuttoning is in this week&#8217;s What Do You Mean? essay: <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/what-do-you-mean-accountable">What Do You Mean, Accountable?</a>. 1,000 words on the six requests, what each one demands of the room, and how to choose one before the meeting ends.</p><p><strong>Move:</strong> Don&#8217;t Pin. Unbutton. <strong>Why it matters:</strong> Some words are too thick for a 30-second reset. &#8220;Accountable&#8221; is one of them. Pin a smaller word on the wall this week. Take this one to a meeting where your team can choose one of the six, on purpose, with everyone listening.</p><p><strong>Panel 1 &#8212; DRIFT</strong></p><p>Malik (thinking): &#8220;Own the outcome.&#8221;</p><p>Lila (thinking): &#8220;Surface bad news.&#8221;</p><p>Hart (thinking): &#8220;Stop pointing fingers.&#8221;</p><p>Rosa (thinking): &#8220;Deliver or flag it early.&#8221;</p><p>Amina (thinking): &#8220;Be measured fairly.&#8221;</p><p>Juno (thinking): &#8220;Do what I&#8217;m told.&#8221;</p><p>Caption: &#8220;One word on the board. Six private definitions in the room already.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Panel 2 &#8212; THE BREAK</strong></p><p>Juno breaks the frame. He holds the ACCOUNTABLE card and looks straight at the reader.</p><p>Juno: &#8220;You felt it too. You nodded.&#8221;</p><p>Juno: &#8220;This one&#8217;s a trench coat. Six definitions stitched into one word.&#8221;</p><p>Juno: &#8220;Jerry wrote 1,000 words on it. Link&#8217;s below.&#8221;</p><p>Caption: &#8220;Same speaker. Three sentences. The strip admits the lie.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Panel 3 &#8212; INSTALL</strong></p><p>The whiteboard is wiped. A faint smudge marks where the word used to be. The corkboard now holds nine cards. ACCOUNTABLE is pinned at the bottom with a yellow TRENCH COAT warning tag. The wall poster reads: &#8220;Ep. 009 Move: Don&#8217;t Pin. Unbutton.&#8221;</p><p>Hart (logging): &#8220;Accountable showed up wearing a trench coat. We didn&#8217;t pin it. We named it.&#8221;</p><p>Malik: &#8220;So next week we pin it?&#8221;</p><p>Juno (to the team): &#8220;Next week, we pin a smaller word. This one needs a real meeting. With your team. Tonight.&#8221;</p><p>Pinned Terms board updated: ALIGNED, READY?, CLEAR, SUPPORT, BIAS, ASSUMPTION, DANGEROUS, SOURCED?, ACCOUNTABLE (trench coat).</p><p>Caption: &#8220;Move-of-the-Week: Don&#8217;t Pin. Unbutton.&#8221;</p><blockquote><p>Where does &#8220;accountable&#8221; cost you the most: performance reviews, leadership offsites, news cycles, or family conversations?</p></blockquote><p>Drop it in the comments. I&#8217;ll be reading.</p><h2>How to use it this week</h2><p>Next time someone uses &#8220;accountable&#8221; in a meeting (performance review, leadership offsite, postmortem, board meeting, family conversation), pause for one breath before agreeing.</p><p>Then ask: &#8220;When you say accountable, do you mean owning the outcome, surfacing bad news, stopping the blame, delivering on time, being measured fairly, or following orders?&#8221;</p><p>You&#8217;ll get an answer that names one of the six. Sometimes two. Sometimes the speaker realizes the word came out carrying more than they meant. That moment is the unbutton.</p><p>Write the chosen meaning down where future-us can find it. Pin the one your team is choosing this week. The other five stay on the table for the next conversation.</p><p>Three breaths. One sentence. A real meeting.</p><div class="callout-block" data-callout="true"><p>&#128204; <strong>Pinned Terms publishes Saturdays.</strong> Same reset. Fresh word each week.</p></div><div><hr></div><p><strong>Pinned Terms</strong> is a weekly Meaning Repair comic from <em><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/">What Time Binds</a></em>. If this helped, share the link and tell me which word you want pinned next.</p><p><strong>Catch up on the series:</strong></p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/start-here-pinned-terms">Start Here: Pinned Terms</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-001-aligned">Ep. 001: ALIGNED</a> &#8212; Pin the term before it pins you.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-002-ready">Ep. 002: READY?</a> &#8212; Scope check: includes what, excludes what?</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-003-clear">Ep. 003: CLEAR</a> &#8212; Grounding verification beats consensus without content.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-004-support?r=uftxy&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web">Ep. 004: SUPPORT </a>&#8212; Role Map: one sentence each on what &#8220;support&#8221; actually looks like.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-005-bias?r=uftxy&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web">Ep. 005: BIAS</a> &#8212; Definition Split: write the meanings as separate lines.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-006-assumption?r=uftxy&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web">Ep. 006: ASSUMPTION?</a> &#8212; The word that hides inside every other word.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-007-dangerous?r=uftxy&amp;utm_campaign=post&amp;utm_medium=web">Ep. 007: DANGEROUS</a> &#8212; One word, five newsrooms, five different stories.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-008-sourced">Ep. 008: SOURCED?</a> &#8212; Citation Check, Not Vibe Check.</p></li><li><p>Ep. 009: ACCOUNTABLE &#8592; you are here</p></li></ul><blockquote><p>Shared reality doesn&#8217;t maintain itself. We maintain it, one pinned term at a time.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p></blockquote>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Word That Travels Three Rooms Before It Arrives]]></title><description><![CDATA[Pinned Terms &#8212; Ep. 008: SOURCED? &#8212; Four people said "sourced." They meant four different things.]]></description><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/the-word-that-travels-three-rooms</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/the-word-that-travels-three-rooms</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 18 Apr 2026 21:01:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/270ebe1b-b294-438e-9dd5-23beda6b6692_1600x1074.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!c7vP!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa67e6da7-46c5-4bed-816e-e1b0634fcf8b_1600x3493.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!c7vP!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa67e6da7-46c5-4bed-816e-e1b0634fcf8b_1600x3493.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!c7vP!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa67e6da7-46c5-4bed-816e-e1b0634fcf8b_1600x3493.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!c7vP!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa67e6da7-46c5-4bed-816e-e1b0634fcf8b_1600x3493.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!c7vP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa67e6da7-46c5-4bed-816e-e1b0634fcf8b_1600x3493.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!c7vP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa67e6da7-46c5-4bed-816e-e1b0634fcf8b_1600x3493.png" width="1456" height="3179" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a67e6da7-46c5-4bed-816e-e1b0634fcf8b_1600x3493.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a6d52e80-27c4-4f6f-b775-1f77dcc484d5_1600x3493.png&quot;,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:3179,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:6240997,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot; Three-panel comic in an ops room labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, Malik stands at the table and says \&quot;Legal said the contractor exemption is in the new policy. We're clear to proceed.\&quot; Five teammates raise different questions &#8212; where the source is, what it says, whether anyone actually read it. A caption reads \&quot;One claim. Four definitions of 'sourced' in the room already.\&quot; In REPAIR, Amina writes three column headers on the whiteboard &#8212; \&quot;Read the source,\&quot; \&quot;Read a quote of the source,\&quot; \&quot;Someone I trust said it.\&quot; Malik admits he read the Slack thread, not the policy. Rosa adds that the thread was quoting a summary. Hart observes the claim has traveled three rooms to get here. In INSTALL, the team installs the move. Juno holds up three fingers: \&quot;Three questions. Thirty seconds. Saves thirty hours.\&quot; The whiteboard now reads \&quot;Source-Pin: 3 Questions &#8212; Where did you read it? The source, or a quote of it? What does the source actually say?\&quot; Hart pins a new amber card on the corkboard that reads SOURCED? and says \&quot;Logged. Card eight.\&quot; Rosa addresses the reader: \&quot;L&amp;D teams &#8212; next time someone drops 'Legal said' or 'the research shows' in a meeting, run the three questions before you build on it.\&quot;&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/i/194587419?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa6d52e80-27c4-4f6f-b775-1f77dcc484d5_1600x3493.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt=" Three-panel comic in an ops room labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, Malik stands at the table and says &quot;Legal said the contractor exemption is in the new policy. We're clear to proceed.&quot; Five teammates raise different questions &#8212; where the source is, what it says, whether anyone actually read it. A caption reads &quot;One claim. Four definitions of 'sourced' in the room already.&quot; In REPAIR, Amina writes three column headers on the whiteboard &#8212; &quot;Read the source,&quot; &quot;Read a quote of the source,&quot; &quot;Someone I trust said it.&quot; Malik admits he read the Slack thread, not the policy. Rosa adds that the thread was quoting a summary. Hart observes the claim has traveled three rooms to get here. In INSTALL, the team installs the move. Juno holds up three fingers: &quot;Three questions. Thirty seconds. Saves thirty hours.&quot; The whiteboard now reads &quot;Source-Pin: 3 Questions &#8212; Where did you read it? The source, or a quote of it? What does the source actually say?&quot; Hart pins a new amber card on the corkboard that reads SOURCED? and says &quot;Logged. Card eight.&quot; Rosa addresses the reader: &quot;L&amp;D teams &#8212; next time someone drops 'Legal said' or 'the research shows' in a meeting, run the three questions before you build on it.&quot;" title=" Three-panel comic in an ops room labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, Malik stands at the table and says &quot;Legal said the contractor exemption is in the new policy. We're clear to proceed.&quot; Five teammates raise different questions &#8212; where the source is, what it says, whether anyone actually read it. A caption reads &quot;One claim. Four definitions of 'sourced' in the room already.&quot; In REPAIR, Amina writes three column headers on the whiteboard &#8212; &quot;Read the source,&quot; &quot;Read a quote of the source,&quot; &quot;Someone I trust said it.&quot; Malik admits he read the Slack thread, not the policy. Rosa adds that the thread was quoting a summary. Hart observes the claim has traveled three rooms to get here. In INSTALL, the team installs the move. Juno holds up three fingers: &quot;Three questions. Thirty seconds. Saves thirty hours.&quot; The whiteboard now reads &quot;Source-Pin: 3 Questions &#8212; Where did you read it? The source, or a quote of it? What does the source actually say?&quot; Hart pins a new amber card on the corkboard that reads SOURCED? and says &quot;Logged. Card eight.&quot; Rosa addresses the reader: &quot;L&amp;D teams &#8212; next time someone drops 'Legal said' or 'the research shows' in a meeting, run the three questions before you build on it.&quot;" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!c7vP!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa67e6da7-46c5-4bed-816e-e1b0634fcf8b_1600x3493.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!c7vP!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa67e6da7-46c5-4bed-816e-e1b0634fcf8b_1600x3493.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!c7vP!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa67e6da7-46c5-4bed-816e-e1b0634fcf8b_1600x3493.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!c7vP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa67e6da7-46c5-4bed-816e-e1b0634fcf8b_1600x3493.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><div class="callout-block" data-callout="true"><p style="text-align: center;">Legal said. The research shows. The CEO's position is. Thirty seconds that save your week.</p></div><h2>A week of claims with other people&#8217;s names on them</h2><p>This week, I watched the same pattern show up in four conversations in a row.</p><p>Someone drops a claim. &#8220;Legal said&#8230;&#8221; &#8220;The research shows&#8230;&#8221; &#8220;The CEO&#8217;s position is&#8230;&#8221; &#8220;Anthropic announced&#8230;&#8221; The room nods. The work starts building on it.</p><p>And nobody asks the one question that would save the week: <strong>did you read the actual source, or did you read someone quoting it?</strong></p><p>A meme landed with a quote attributed to a public figure. A headline about an AI announcement got reframed by five different newsrooms, each telling a different story about the same two words. A policy memo got summarized in Slack, then the summary got summarized in a meeting, then the meeting summary became the basis for a decision. A citation in an OECD paper turned out to be stretching the original argument in a direction the source never made.</p><p>Four separate conversations. One quiet pattern. The same magnet word underneath all of them.</p><p>That&#8217;s what SOURCED? is for. The crew took it on this week.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>&#8220;Sourced&#8221; is a magnet word.</strong> It sounds like verification. It&#8217;s actually a confidence wrapper that hides how the claim traveled. Four people can say it and mean four different things:</p><ol><li><p>I read the primary document.</p></li><li><p>I read a quote of the document.</p></li><li><p>Someone I trust said it.</p></li><li><p>I saw it in a Slack thread this morning.</p></li></ol><p>All four get offered with the same weight. Only one holds up when you push on it.</p><p>The fix: <strong>source-pin the claim before you build on it.</strong> Three questions. Thirty seconds. You&#8217;ll know whether the thing you&#8217;re treating as load-bearing is actually load-bearing.</p><p><strong>Move:</strong> Source-Pin &#8212; run three questions before treating any claim as load-bearing. <strong>Why it matters:</strong> A claim that has traveled three rooms has usually dropped a condition along the way. Thirty seconds up front prevents a week of building on a summary of a summary.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Panel 1 &#8212; DRIFT</strong></p><ul><li><p>Malik: &#8220;Legal said the contractor exemption is in the new policy. We&#8217;re clear to proceed.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Lila: &#8220;Where&#8217;s the source sitting right now?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Rosa: &#8220;I saw the same thing in a Slack thread this morning.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Amina: &#8220;Before we build on it&#8230;&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno: &#8220;That word &#8216;sourced&#8217; just walked in wearing a trench coat.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Hart: &#8220;You read the policy, or you read someone reading it?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Caption: &#8220;One claim. Four definitions of &#8216;sourced&#8217; in the room already.&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 2 &#8212; REPAIR</strong></p><ul><li><p>Amina writes three column headers on the whiteboard: <em>Read the source</em> / <em>Read a quote of the source</em> / <em>Someone I trust said it</em>.</p></li><li><p>Amina: &#8220;Which &#8216;sourced&#8217; are we standing on?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Malik: &#8220;&#8230;I read the Slack thread. Not the policy.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Rosa: &#8220;And the thread was quoting a summary. Not the policy either.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Lila: &#8220;Pin which one we meant before we move.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno: &#8220;Trench coat unbuttoned. There&#8217;s three words under there.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Hart: &#8220;So, the claim has traveled three rooms before it got here.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Pinned Terms board visible: ALIGNED, READY, CLEAR, SUPPORT, BIAS, ASSUMPTION, DANGEROUS.</p></li><li><p>Caption: &#8220;Same word. Three different kinds of knowing. The split is now on the wall.&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 3 &#8212; INSTALL</strong></p><ul><li><p>Whiteboard updated: <strong>Source-Pin: 3 Questions</strong> &#8212; (1) Where did you read it? (2) The source, or a quote of it? (3) What does the source actually say?</p></li><li><p>Lila: &#8220;That&#8217;s why we pin the source, not the vibe.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Malik: &#8220;&#8230;turns out the exemption has a condition nobody mentioned.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Rosa (to the reader): &#8220;L&amp;D teams &#8212; next time someone drops &#8216;Legal said&#8217; or &#8216;the research shows&#8217; in a meeting, run the three questions before you build on it.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno (two fingers up): &#8220;Three questions. Thirty seconds. Saves thirty hours.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Amina: &#8220;The move: before we treat a claim as load-bearing, we source-pin it.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Hart: &#8220;Logged. Card eight.&#8221; <em>(pins the new amber SOURCED? card on the corkboard)</em></p></li><li><p>Caption: &#8220;Move-of-the-Week: Citation Check, Not Vibe Check.&#8221;</p></li></ul><div><hr></div><blockquote><p><strong>Where does &#8220;sourced&#8221; cost you the most &#8212; in meetings, memos, news cycles, or the research you&#8217;re citing in your own work?</strong></p></blockquote><p>Drop it in the comments. I&#8217;ll be reading.</p><div><hr></div><h2>How to use it this week</h2><ol><li><p>Next time someone drops a claim with a name attached &#8212; &#8220;Legal said,&#8221; &#8220;HR said,&#8221; &#8220;the research shows,&#8221; &#8220;the CEO&#8217;s position is&#8221; &#8212; don&#8217;t argue with the claim yet. Ask the three questions.</p></li><li><p>If the person can&#8217;t answer question two, the claim is a quote of a quote. Treat it as a lead, not a fact.</p></li><li><p>Log what the source actually says somewhere future-us can find it.</p></li></ol><p>Thirty seconds. One card on the wall.</p><div><hr></div><p>&#128204; <em>Pinned Terms publishes Saturdays. Same reset. Fresh word each week.</em></p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Pinned Terms</strong> is a weekly Meaning Repair comic from <em><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/">What Time Binds</a></em>. If this helped, share the link and tell me which word you want pinned next.</p><p><strong>Catch up on the series:</strong></p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/start-here-pinned-terms">Start Here: Pinned Terms</a></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-001-aligned">Ep. 001: ALIGNED</a> &#8212; Pin the term before it pins you.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-002-ready">Ep. 002: READY?</a> &#8212; Scope check: includes what, excludes what?</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-003-clear">Ep. 003: CLEAR</a> &#8212; Grounding verification beats consensus without content.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-004-support">Ep. 004: SUPPORT</a> &#8212; Role Map: one sentence each on what &#8220;support&#8221; actually looks like.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-005-bias">Ep. 005: BIAS</a> &#8212; Definition Split: write the meanings as separate lines.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-006-assumption">Ep. 006: ASSUMPTION?</a> &#8212; The word that hides inside every other word.</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-007-dangerous">Ep. 007: DANGEROUS</a> &#8212; One word, five newsrooms, five different stories.</p></li><li><p><strong>Ep. 008: SOURCED? &#8592; you are here</strong></p></li></ul><div><hr></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p><em>Shared reality doesn&#8217;t maintain itself. We maintain it &#8212; one pinned term at a time.</em></p><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Pinned Terms — Ep. 007: DANGEROUS]]></title><description><![CDATA[Comic panel showing six team members reacting to the same AI headline with four different interpretations. Caption: One headline. One word. The room is already in four places. Pinned Terms Ep. 007 from What Time Binds.]]></description><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-007-dangerous</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-007-dangerous</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 11 Apr 2026 17:01:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/4c2d77a4-55b9-4eca-afc7-09e1d5d640ee_1280x720.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-ADD!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-ADD!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-ADD!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-ADD!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-ADD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-ADD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png" width="1456" height="2676" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:2676,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:5655545,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Three-panel comic strip in an ops room, labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, six team members sit around a conference table. Rosa holds up her phone and says an AI company called its own model \&quot;too dangerous\&quot; to release. Four team members react differently: Malik wants leadership to slow down AI adoption, Juno is excited and wants access, Amina asks what kind of danger they mean, and Lila watches the split unfold. A caption reads \&quot;One headline. One word. The room is already in four places.\&quot; In REPAIR, Amina stands at the whiteboard running a Definition Split with three columns: Threatens jobs, Threatens accuracy, Threatens the status quo. Lila says five newsrooms printed the same two words and told five different stories. Rosa turns toward the viewer and says they just proved the word does the same thing in a six-person room. Juno says \&quot;Another trench coat.\&quot; In INSTALL, Hart pins the seventh card &#8212; DANGEROUS &#8212; to the Pinned Terms wall, which now shows ALIGNED, READY, CLEAR, SUPPORT, BIAS, ASSUMPTION, and DANGEROUS. A Post-it reads \&quot;Move: Word Audit.\&quot; Lila delivers a five-step audit protocol. Juno looks at the viewer and tells L&amp;D teams to run the audit before they run the meeting. The footer reads \&quot;Move-of-the-Week: Word Audit.&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/i/193864362?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Three-panel comic strip in an ops room, labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, six team members sit around a conference table. Rosa holds up her phone and says an AI company called its own model &quot;too dangerous&quot; to release. Four team members react differently: Malik wants leadership to slow down AI adoption, Juno is excited and wants access, Amina asks what kind of danger they mean, and Lila watches the split unfold. A caption reads &quot;One headline. One word. The room is already in four places.&quot; In REPAIR, Amina stands at the whiteboard running a Definition Split with three columns: Threatens jobs, Threatens accuracy, Threatens the status quo. Lila says five newsrooms printed the same two words and told five different stories. Rosa turns toward the viewer and says they just proved the word does the same thing in a six-person room. Juno says &quot;Another trench coat.&quot; In INSTALL, Hart pins the seventh card &#8212; DANGEROUS &#8212; to the Pinned Terms wall, which now shows ALIGNED, READY, CLEAR, SUPPORT, BIAS, ASSUMPTION, and DANGEROUS. A Post-it reads &quot;Move: Word Audit.&quot; Lila delivers a five-step audit protocol. Juno looks at the viewer and tells L&amp;D teams to run the audit before they run the meeting. The footer reads &quot;Move-of-the-Week: Word Audit." title="Three-panel comic strip in an ops room, labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, six team members sit around a conference table. Rosa holds up her phone and says an AI company called its own model &quot;too dangerous&quot; to release. Four team members react differently: Malik wants leadership to slow down AI adoption, Juno is excited and wants access, Amina asks what kind of danger they mean, and Lila watches the split unfold. A caption reads &quot;One headline. One word. The room is already in four places.&quot; In REPAIR, Amina stands at the whiteboard running a Definition Split with three columns: Threatens jobs, Threatens accuracy, Threatens the status quo. Lila says five newsrooms printed the same two words and told five different stories. Rosa turns toward the viewer and says they just proved the word does the same thing in a six-person room. Juno says &quot;Another trench coat.&quot; In INSTALL, Hart pins the seventh card &#8212; DANGEROUS &#8212; to the Pinned Terms wall, which now shows ALIGNED, READY, CLEAR, SUPPORT, BIAS, ASSUMPTION, and DANGEROUS. A Post-it reads &quot;Move: Word Audit.&quot; Lila delivers a five-step audit protocol. Juno looks at the viewer and tells L&amp;D teams to run the audit before they run the meeting. The footer reads &quot;Move-of-the-Week: Word Audit." srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-ADD!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-ADD!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-ADD!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-ADD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F446ef368-ea89-4de9-8c02-1063c1abf3e1_1488x2735.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p><strong>&#8220;Dangerous&#8221; is a magnet word.</strong> This week, an AI company called its own model &#8220;too dangerous&#8221; to release. Five newsrooms printed the same two words and told five incompatible stories. One said a real capability line just got crossed. Another said it was a brand-positioning moment before an IPO. A third said the clock just started for every competitor. A fourth said it was a geopolitical argument dressed as a safety notice. A fifth said we&#8217;ve seen this press strategy before.</p><p>Every reading had evidence behind it. Every reading pointed in a different direction. The word &#8220;dangerous&#8221; sat in the middle holding everyone&#8217;s attention and nobody&#8217;s actual meaning.</p><p>The same thing happens in smaller rooms every day. A leader sends an AI headline into Slack and says &#8220;we need to talk about this.&#8221; One person hears job security. Another hears opportunity. A third hears compliance risk. Everyone nods. Everyone walks out with a different plan.</p><p>The fix: <strong>word audit</strong> &#8212; before the team reacts to a headline or announcement, audit the word carrying the weight. Find the word. Read three sources. Check if it&#8217;s doing more than one job. Write what it means for your decision. Name what would change your mind.</p><p><strong>Move:</strong> Word audit. <strong>Why it matters:</strong> A word doing five jobs at once will produce five reactions that look like disagreement but are actually five people responding to five different meanings. Two minutes of audit prevents a week of misaligned work.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Panel 1 &#8212; DRIFT</strong></p><ul><li><p>Rosa holds up her phone: &#8220;Did you all see this? An AI company just called its own model &#8216;too dangerous&#8217; to release.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Malik: &#8220;Good. Maybe leadership will pump the brakes on forcing AI into every workflow.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno: &#8220;Dangerous must mean is super smart. When do we get access?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Amina: &#8220;&#8217;Dangerous&#8217; how? To our data? Our jobs? Our judgment?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Caption: &#8220;One headline. One word. The room is already in four places.&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 2 &#8212; REPAIR</strong></p><ul><li><p>Lila: &#8220;Hold on. Five newsrooms printed the same two words and told five different stories.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Amina runs a Definition Split on the whiteboard: Threatens jobs / Threatens accuracy / Threatens the status quo</p></li><li><p>Rosa (turned toward the reader): &#8220;The article said the word was doing five jobs at once. We just proved it does the same thing in a six-person room.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno: &#8220;Another trench coat.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Caption: &#8220;Same word. Different fears. The split is now visible.&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 3 &#8212; INSTALL</strong></p><ul><li><p>Hart pins the seventh card &#8212; DANGEROUS &#8212; to the Pinned Terms wall: &#8220;Logged. Card seven.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Malik: &#8220;So, the move is, before the team reacts to a headline, audit the word carrying the weight.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Lila delivers the five-step protocol: &#8220;Five-step audit. Find the word. Read three sources. Check if it&#8217;s doing more than one job. Write what it means for your decision. Name what would change your mind.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno (looking at the reader): &#8220;L&amp;D teams. The next time leadership drops an AI announcement in your Slack, run the audit before you run the meeting.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Post-it on the board: &#8220;Move: Word Audit&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Footer: &#8220;Move-of-the-Week: Word Audit.&#8221;</p></li></ul><blockquote><p><strong>What word landed in your team&#8217;s Slack this week that meant something different to every person who read it?</strong></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><p>This episode extends Friday&#8217;s essay, <a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/jerrywwashington/p/anthropic-said-its-new-ai-is-too?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&amp;utm_medium=web">&#8220;Anthropic Said Its New AI Is &#8216;Too Dangerous.&#8217; Five Newsrooms Heard Five Different Warnings.&#8221;</a> The essay is the evidence. The strip is the install. If you haven&#8217;t read it yet, start there, then come back and steal the move.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Pinned Terms</strong> is a weekly Meaning Repair comic from <em><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/">What Time Binds</a></em>. If this helped, share the link and tell me which word you want pinned next.</p><p><strong>Catch up on the series:</strong> <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/start-here-pinned-terms">Start Here: Pinned Terms</a> | <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-001-aligned">Ep. 001: ALIGNED</a> &#8212; Pin the term before it pins you. | <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-002-ready">Ep. 002: READY?</a> &#8212; Scope check: includes what, excludes what? | <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-003-clear">Ep. 003: CLEAR</a> &#8212; The word that ends conversations before they start. | <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-006-assumption">Ep. 006: ASSUMPTION?</a> &#8212; The word that hides inside every other word.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Pinned Terms — Ep. 006: ASSUMPTION?]]></title><description><![CDATA[The word that hides inside every other word.]]></description><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-006-assumption</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-006-assumption</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 05:54:59 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/54ceef52-6cd3-42ab-8637-b11295704d6c_1280x720.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LyH7!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LyH7!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LyH7!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LyH7!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LyH7!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LyH7!,w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png" width="1200" height="2112.8048780487807" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:false,&quot;imageSize&quot;:&quot;large&quot;,&quot;height&quot;:2310,&quot;width&quot;:1312,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:1200,&quot;bytes&quot;:3704890,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Three-panel comic strip in an ops room, labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, six team members sit around a conference table. Rosa holds a sticky note and says a reader wants them to pin \&quot;assumptions.\&quot; Three team members each give a different definition: checking, unspoken beliefs, and undocumented agreements. A caption reads \&quot;'Assumption' just arrived &#8212; and already means three different things.\&quot; In REPAIR, Amina stands at the whiteboard leading a Definition Split with three columns: Unchecked guess, Unspoken belief, Undocumented agreement. Malik points to Column A. Rosa says every card on the Pinned Terms wall was an assumption before they pinned it. Juno grins and says \&quot;Three meanings in a trench coat. Again.\&quot; In INSTALL, Hart pins the sixth card &#8212; ASSUMPTION &#8212; to the Pinned Terms wall, which now shows ALIGNED, READY, CLEAR, SUPPORT, BIAS, and ASSUMPTION. A Post-it reads \&quot;Move: Assumption Flush.\&quot; Juno looks directly at the viewer and says \&quot;Mario &#8212; your instinct was right. You just described our whole job.\&quot; The footer reads \&quot;Move-of-the-Week: Assumption Flush.&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/i/192695253?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;center&quot;,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-large" alt="Three-panel comic strip in an ops room, labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, six team members sit around a conference table. Rosa holds a sticky note and says a reader wants them to pin &quot;assumptions.&quot; Three team members each give a different definition: checking, unspoken beliefs, and undocumented agreements. A caption reads &quot;'Assumption' just arrived &#8212; and already means three different things.&quot; In REPAIR, Amina stands at the whiteboard leading a Definition Split with three columns: Unchecked guess, Unspoken belief, Undocumented agreement. Malik points to Column A. Rosa says every card on the Pinned Terms wall was an assumption before they pinned it. Juno grins and says &quot;Three meanings in a trench coat. Again.&quot; In INSTALL, Hart pins the sixth card &#8212; ASSUMPTION &#8212; to the Pinned Terms wall, which now shows ALIGNED, READY, CLEAR, SUPPORT, BIAS, and ASSUMPTION. A Post-it reads &quot;Move: Assumption Flush.&quot; Juno looks directly at the viewer and says &quot;Mario &#8212; your instinct was right. You just described our whole job.&quot; The footer reads &quot;Move-of-the-Week: Assumption Flush." title="Three-panel comic strip in an ops room, labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, six team members sit around a conference table. Rosa holds a sticky note and says a reader wants them to pin &quot;assumptions.&quot; Three team members each give a different definition: checking, unspoken beliefs, and undocumented agreements. A caption reads &quot;'Assumption' just arrived &#8212; and already means three different things.&quot; In REPAIR, Amina stands at the whiteboard leading a Definition Split with three columns: Unchecked guess, Unspoken belief, Undocumented agreement. Malik points to Column A. Rosa says every card on the Pinned Terms wall was an assumption before they pinned it. Juno grins and says &quot;Three meanings in a trench coat. Again.&quot; In INSTALL, Hart pins the sixth card &#8212; ASSUMPTION &#8212; to the Pinned Terms wall, which now shows ALIGNED, READY, CLEAR, SUPPORT, BIAS, and ASSUMPTION. A Post-it reads &quot;Move: Assumption Flush.&quot; Juno looks directly at the viewer and says &quot;Mario &#8212; your instinct was right. You just described our whole job.&quot; The footer reads &quot;Move-of-the-Week: Assumption Flush." srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LyH7!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LyH7!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LyH7!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LyH7!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2ffcd00a-c22d-48e1-89ae-7780ab6f5ddc_1312x2310.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p><strong>&#8220;Assumption&#8221; is a magnet word.</strong> One person hears &#8220;the thing we should be checking.&#8221; Another hears &#8220;the thing nobody says out loud.&#8221; A third hears &#8220;the agreement we made and forgot to write down.&#8221; The room keeps moving. Three different meanings ride along unexamined.</p><p>The fix: <strong>assumption flush</strong> &#8212; after you pin any term, ask the room what was hiding under it before you pinned it. Every card on the Pinned Terms wall was an assumption before someone surfaced it.</p><p><strong>Move:</strong> Assumption flush. <strong>Why it matters:</strong> Assumptions are what every magnet word used to be. A 30-second flush after each pin turns invisible drift into a visible decision.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Panel 1 &#8212; DRIFT</strong></p><ul><li><p>Rosa: &#8220;We got a request. Someone following the show wants us to pin &#8216;assumptions.&#8217;&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Malik: &#8220;Easy. Assumptions are the stuff we should be checking.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Amina: &#8220;Assumptions are the stuff we agreed on and forgot to write down.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno: &#8220;Assumptions are the stuff nobody says out loud.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Caption: &#8220;&#8217;Assumption&#8217; just arrived &#8212; and already means three different things.&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 2 &#8212; REPAIR</strong></p><ul><li><p>Amina: &#8220;Reset. Which meaning are we pinning?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Whiteboard shows three columns: Unchecked guess / Unspoken belief / Undocumented agreement</p></li><li><p>Malik: &#8220;For my team, it&#8217;s usually Column A. The guess nobody tested.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Rosa: &#8220;Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s interesting. Every card on that wall was an assumption before we pinned it.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno: &#8220;Three meanings in a trench coat. Again.&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 3 &#8212; INSTALL</strong></p><ul><li><p>Hart: &#8220;Logged. Card six.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Malik: &#8220;So, the move is, after you pin the word, ask what was hiding under it.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Lila: &#8220;Assumptions are what every pinned term used to be.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno (looking at the reader): &#8220;Mario &#8212; your instinct was right. You just described our whole job.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Pinned Terms wall updated: ALIGNED, READY, CLEAR, SUPPORT, BIAS, <strong>ASSUMPTION</strong></p></li><li><p>Post-it: &#8220;Move: Assumption Flush&#8221;</p></li></ul><blockquote><p><strong>What assumption is your team carrying right now that nobody has named out loud?</strong></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><p><strong>Pinned Terms</strong> is a weekly Meaning Repair comic from <em><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/">What Time Binds</a></em>. If this helped, share the link and tell me which word you want pinned next.</p><p><strong>Catch up on the series:</strong> <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/start-here-pinned-terms">Start Here: Pinned Terms</a> | <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-001-aligned">Ep. 001: ALIGNED</a> &#8212; Pin the term before it pins you. | <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-002-ready">Ep. 002: READY?</a> &#8212; Scope check: includes what, excludes what? | <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-003-clear">Ep. 003: CLEAR</a> &#8212; The word that ends conversations before they start.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading What Time Binds! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Pinned Terms — Ep. 005: BIAS]]></title><description><![CDATA[Move-of-the-Week: Definition Split. When a word carries multiple valid meanings, write them as separate columns and ask each person to point to the one they meant.]]></description><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-005-bias</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-005-bias</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 02:34:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BlMl!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8e18fda-f4c4-47b7-bb56-d0c8a6018229_1024x1536.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BlMl!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8e18fda-f4c4-47b7-bb56-d0c8a6018229_1024x1536.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BlMl!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8e18fda-f4c4-47b7-bb56-d0c8a6018229_1024x1536.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BlMl!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8e18fda-f4c4-47b7-bb56-d0c8a6018229_1024x1536.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BlMl!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8e18fda-f4c4-47b7-bb56-d0c8a6018229_1024x1536.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BlMl!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8e18fda-f4c4-47b7-bb56-d0c8a6018229_1024x1536.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BlMl!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8e18fda-f4c4-47b7-bb56-d0c8a6018229_1024x1536.png" width="1024" height="1536" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BlMl!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8e18fda-f4c4-47b7-bb56-d0c8a6018229_1024x1536.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BlMl!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8e18fda-f4c4-47b7-bb56-d0c8a6018229_1024x1536.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BlMl!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8e18fda-f4c4-47b7-bb56-d0c8a6018229_1024x1536.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BlMl!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8e18fda-f4c4-47b7-bb56-d0c8a6018229_1024x1536.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><div><hr></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p>&#8220;Bias&#8221; is a magnet word &#8212; and this week it carried three completely different payloads into the same room. One person meant their favorite KPop member (a term of affection). Another meant unfair preference in a decision (a procedural flaw to correct). A third meant cognitive distortion (a structural problem to design around). Same six letters. Three galaxies of meaning. The room agrees to &#8220;check our bias&#8221; and immediately splits into three separate conversations.</p><p>The fix: a definition split. Write the competing definitions on the board as separate columns. Ask each person to point to the one they meant. When three people point to three different columns, the drift is visible &#8212; and you can pin the right definition for this decision.</p><p><strong>Move:</strong> Definition Split. <strong>Why it matters:</strong> &#8220;Bias&#8221; without a column is a word doing triple duty. A 30-second split turns one loaded term into a clear operating definition.</p><p><strong>Panel 1 &#8212; DRIFT</strong></p><ul><li><p>Malik calls the final HallyuDayz lineup meeting: &#8220;We need to check our bias on the performer picks.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno looks up from his phone: &#8220;My bias is Jimin.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Rosa, holding her rubric: &#8220;We can&#8217;t have bias in the selection process. That&#8217;s the whole point of a rubric.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Lila catches it: &#8220;Those are three different words wearing the same outfit.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Pinned Terms wall: ALIGNED, READY, CLEAR, SUPPORT</p></li><li><p>Caption: &#8220;&#8217;Bias&#8217; carries three definitions and zero warning labels.&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 2 &#8212; REPAIR</strong></p><ul><li><p>Amina runs the reset: &#8220;Definition split. Three columns. Point to the one you meant.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Three columns on the board: Fandom (Identity. Joy. No fixing required.), Fairness (Procedural problem. Fix it with criteria.), Cognition (Structural. Manage it with design.)</p></li><li><p>Rosa points to both Fairness and Cognition: &#8220;I meant both. The rubric handles B, but C is why we need someone outside the fan community to review.&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 3 &#8212; INSTALL</strong></p><ul><li><p>Lila: &#8220;Five weeks of this and I still catch myself assuming we mean the same thing.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>The BIAS card goes up on the Pinned Terms wall: Fairness in performer selection. Rubric scores decide. One external reviewer included.</p></li><li><p>Definition pinned with the context tag: HallyuDayz.</p></li></ul><p><strong>Move-of-the-Week: Definition Split.</strong> <strong>One more week. See this crew at HallyuDayz, March 22.</strong></p><div class="pullquote"><p>How many definitions of &#8220;bias&#8221; are in your room right now &#8212; and which one is making the decision?</p></div><p>Thanks for reading What Time Binds! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p><p><strong>Pinned Terms</strong> is a weekly Meaning Repair comic from <em>What Time Binds</em>. If this helped, share the link and tell me which word you want pinned next.</p><p><strong>Catch up on the series:</strong> <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/start-here-pinned-terms">Start Here: Pinned Terms</a> &#183; <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-001-aligned">Ep. 001: ALIGNED</a> &#8212; Pin the term before it pins you. &#183; <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-002-ready">Ep. 002: READY?</a> &#8212; Scope check: includes what, excludes what? &#183; <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-003-clear">Ep. 003: CLEAR</a> &#8212; Verification move: say it back, say it different. &#183; <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-004-support">Ep. 004: SUPPORT</a> &#8212; Five jobs in a trench coat.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Pinned Terms — Ep. 004: SUPPORT]]></title><description><![CDATA[Move-of-the-Week: Role Map. When everyone says "I'll support that," ask each person to write one sentence about what support means to them.]]></description><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-004-support</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-004-support</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 21:31:21 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XEe-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XEe-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XEe-!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XEe-!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XEe-!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XEe-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XEe-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png" width="1024" height="1536" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1536,&quot;width&quot;:1024,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:3222439,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Three-panel comic in an ops room. Malik announces the crew is supporting a KPop fan event. Five team members each define \&quot;support\&quot; differently &#8212; promo, logistics, attendance, program advising, facilitation. They run a Role Map to name each responsibility. The SUPPORT card goes up on the Pinned Terms wall as a role map with five entries. Move-of-the-Week: Role Map. Footer: See this crew at HallyuDayz, March 22.&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/i/190230560?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Three-panel comic in an ops room. Malik announces the crew is supporting a KPop fan event. Five team members each define &quot;support&quot; differently &#8212; promo, logistics, attendance, program advising, facilitation. They run a Role Map to name each responsibility. The SUPPORT card goes up on the Pinned Terms wall as a role map with five entries. Move-of-the-Week: Role Map. Footer: See this crew at HallyuDayz, March 22." title="Three-panel comic in an ops room. Malik announces the crew is supporting a KPop fan event. Five team members each define &quot;support&quot; differently &#8212; promo, logistics, attendance, program advising, facilitation. They run a Role Map to name each responsibility. The SUPPORT card goes up on the Pinned Terms wall as a role map with five entries. Move-of-the-Week: Role Map. Footer: See this crew at HallyuDayz, March 22." srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XEe-!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XEe-!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XEe-!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!XEe-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4aba6740-74f4-429a-9800-b3daa4b20971_1024x1536.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>&#8220;Support&#8221;</strong> is a magnet word. It sounds like a commitment, but it&#8217;s actually a blank check that five people fill in differently. One person hears &#8220;I&#8217;m handling logistics.&#8221; Another hears &#8220;I&#8217;m promoting it.&#8221; A third hears &#8220;I thought we were just showing up.&#8221; The room agrees. The work scatters.</p><p>The fix: a role map &#8212; ask each person to write one sentence defining their version of &#8220;support.&#8221; When five cards go up, and every card says something different, you&#8217;ve just made the invisible org chart visible. Now you can assign it before the week assigns it for you.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption"></p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><strong>Move:</strong> Role Map. <strong>Why it matters:</strong> &#8220;Support&#8221; without decomposition is an entire org chart hiding inside one word. A two-minute role map turns a vague commitment into named responsibilities.</p><p><strong>Panel 1 &#8212; DRIFT</strong></p><ul><li><p>Malik announces at the whiteboard: &#8220;Big news &#8212; we&#8217;re supporting the HallyuDayz fan event next week!&#8221;</p></li><li><p>The HallyuDayz flyer (March 22) is pinned to the board. The Role Map is already filling in &#8212; but everyone wrote a different job.</p></li><li><p>Pinned Terms wall visible: ALIGNED, READY, CLEAR</p></li><li><p>Caption: &#8220;&#8217;Support&#8217; is a magnet word. Everyone hears their own job description.&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 2 &#8212; REPAIR</strong></p><ul><li><p>Amina runs the reset: &#8220;Quick reset. Everyone write one sentence: what does &#8216;support&#8217; mean to you for this event?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Five roles surface: Promo (Malik), Logistics (Rosa), Attendance (Juno), Program (Lila), Facilitation (Amina).</p></li><li><p>The SUPPORT card goes up on the Pinned Terms wall &#8212; formatted as a Role Map with all five names and responsibilities.</p></li><li><p>Hart holds the Decision Log. Logged.</p></li></ul><p><strong>Move-of-the-Week: Role Map.</strong> <strong>See this crew at HallyuDayz, March 22.</strong></p><div class="pullquote"><p>When your team says &#8220;support,&#8221; how many different jobs are hiding inside that one word?</p></div><p>Thanks for reading <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/">What Time Binds</a>! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p><p><strong>Pinned Terms</strong> is a weekly Meaning Repair comic from <em><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/">What Time Binds</a></em>. If this helped, share the link and tell me which word you want pinned next.</p><p><strong>Catch up on the series:</strong> <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/start-here-pinned-terms">Start Here: Pinned Terms</a> &#183; <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-001-aligned">Ep. 001: ALIGNED</a> &#8212; Pin the term before it pins you. &#183; <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-002-ready">Ep. 002: READY?</a> &#8212; Scope check: includes what, excludes what? &#183; <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-003-clear">Ep. 003: CLEAR</a> &#8212; Verification move: say it back, say it different.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading What Time Binds! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Pinned Terms — Ep. 003: CLEAR]]></title><description><![CDATA[Move-of-the-Week: Grounding Verification. When everyone says "clear," ask them to describe what they see.]]></description><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-003-clear</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-003-clear</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 26 Feb 2026 17:22:42 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ETc5!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ETc5!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ETc5!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ETc5!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ETc5!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ETc5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ETc5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png" width="1456" height="977" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/3077969d-aecc-45c3-8c2d-d0372de131de_2528x1696.png&quot;,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:977,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:9222778,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Alt text: Three-panel comic in an ops room labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, three team members stand near a cadence whiteboard and clock, all saying \&quot;Clear?\&quot; and \&quot;Clear.\&quot; &#8212; a caption reads \&quot;In high-stakes work, clear is a full stop that skips the proof.\&quot; In REPAIR, a woman asks \&quot;When you say clear, can you show me what you see?\&quot; and gets different answers: \&quot;A Monday email\&quot; and \&quot;A Friday dashboard\&quot; &#8212; the Pinned Terms board is visible. In INSTALL, the team pins a definition: \&quot;CLEAR = each person can describe the same next step, same owner, same deadline.\&quot; One person says \&quot;So&#8230; we weren't clear.\&quot; Another replies \&quot;That's the clearest thing you've said all day.\&quot; Hart holds a Decision Log and says \&quot;Logged.\&quot;&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/i/189272040?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3077969d-aecc-45c3-8c2d-d0372de131de_2528x1696.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Alt text: Three-panel comic in an ops room labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, three team members stand near a cadence whiteboard and clock, all saying &quot;Clear?&quot; and &quot;Clear.&quot; &#8212; a caption reads &quot;In high-stakes work, clear is a full stop that skips the proof.&quot; In REPAIR, a woman asks &quot;When you say clear, can you show me what you see?&quot; and gets different answers: &quot;A Monday email&quot; and &quot;A Friday dashboard&quot; &#8212; the Pinned Terms board is visible. In INSTALL, the team pins a definition: &quot;CLEAR = each person can describe the same next step, same owner, same deadline.&quot; One person says &quot;So&#8230; we weren't clear.&quot; Another replies &quot;That's the clearest thing you've said all day.&quot; Hart holds a Decision Log and says &quot;Logged.&quot;" title="Alt text: Three-panel comic in an ops room labeled DRIFT, REPAIR, INSTALL. In DRIFT, three team members stand near a cadence whiteboard and clock, all saying &quot;Clear?&quot; and &quot;Clear.&quot; &#8212; a caption reads &quot;In high-stakes work, clear is a full stop that skips the proof.&quot; In REPAIR, a woman asks &quot;When you say clear, can you show me what you see?&quot; and gets different answers: &quot;A Monday email&quot; and &quot;A Friday dashboard&quot; &#8212; the Pinned Terms board is visible. In INSTALL, the team pins a definition: &quot;CLEAR = each person can describe the same next step, same owner, same deadline.&quot; One person says &quot;So&#8230; we weren't clear.&quot; Another replies &quot;That's the clearest thing you've said all day.&quot; Hart holds a Decision Log and says &quot;Logged.&quot;" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ETc5!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ETc5!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ETc5!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ETc5!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19627810-5aa9-44b3-bf48-5b8750de1a2b_2528x1696.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p><strong>&#8220;Clear&#8221; is a magnet word.</strong> It sounds like confirmation, but it&#8217;s actually a full stop that skips the proof. One person hears &#8220;I understand the deliverable.&#8221; Another hears &#8220;I saw the dashboard.&#8221; A third hears &#8220;I have no objections.&#8221; The room moves forward. The work splinters.</p><p>The fix: <strong>grounding verification</strong> &#8212; ask the person to describe what they see. If two people paint different pictures, you weren&#8217;t clear. Now you know, and you can pin it before the week costs you.</p><p><strong>Move:</strong> Grounding verification. <strong>Why it matters:</strong> &#8220;Clear&#8221; without proof is consensus without content. A 30-second description check prevents a week of rework.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Panel 1 &#8212; DRIFT</strong></p><ul><li><p>Three team members stand near a cadence board: &#8220;Clear?&#8221; &#8230; &#8220;Clear.&#8221; &#8230; &#8220;Clear.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Caption: &#8220;In high-stakes work, clear is a full stop that skips the proof.&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 2 &#8212; REPAIR</strong></p><ul><li><p>&#8220;When you say clear, can you show me what you see?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>&#8220;A Monday email.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>&#8220;A Friday dashboard.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Pinned Terms board visible: ALIGNED, READY?</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 3 &#8212; INSTALL</strong></p><ul><li><p>Pinned Terms board updated: ALIGNED, READY?, and now <strong>CLEAR</strong></p></li><li><p>Definition card: <strong>CLEAR = each person can describe the same next step, same owner, same deadline.</strong></p></li><li><p>&#8220;So&#8230; we weren&#8217;t clear.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the clearest thing you&#8217;ve said all day.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Hart holds the Decision Log: &#8220;Logged.&#8221;</p></li></ul><blockquote><p><strong>Where does &#8220;clear&#8221; cause the most damage for you &#8212; status updates, handoffs, project kickoffs, or family plans?</strong></p></blockquote><div><hr></div><p>&#128204; <strong>A note on timing:</strong> Starting with the next episode, <strong>Pinned Terms will publish on Saturdays.</strong> Same strip. Same reset. Just a better day to sit with the move before your week starts. See you this Saturday.</p><div><hr></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading What Time Binds! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><strong>Pinned Terms</strong> is a weekly Meaning Repair comic from <em><a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/">What Time Binds</a></em>. If this helped, share the link and tell me which word you want pinned next.</p><p><strong>Catch up on the series:</strong> <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/start-here-pinned-terms">Start Here: Pinned Terms</a> <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-001-aligned">Ep. 001: ALIGNED</a> &#8212; Pin the term before it pins you. <a href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-002-ready">Ep. 002: READY?</a> &#8212; Scope check: includes what, excludes what?</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Pinned Terms — Ep. 001: "ALIGNED"]]></title><description><![CDATA[In high-stakes work, &#8220;aligned&#8221; is a friendly word that can hide five different agreements. That&#8217;s how teams leave a meeting smiling&#8230; and reopen the same decision two days later.]]></description><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-001-aligned</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-001-aligned</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:02:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JA8-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JA8-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JA8-!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JA8-!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JA8-!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JA8-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JA8-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/14ec2df5-509f-43b4-8d0e-2615245f6245_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2619442,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Three-panel comic in an ops room. Malik asks if the team is &#8220;ALIGNED&#8221; so they can ship the first strip. Juno asks &#8220;Aligned on what exactly&#8212;tone, topic, audience?&#8221; Lila calls &#8220;aligned&#8221; a magnet word that pulls five meanings at once. Amina raises a red-flag card for a quick reset and asks what &#8220;ALIGNED&#8221; means in this room. The team pins a definition on the &#8220;Pinned Terms&#8221; wall: same goal, same meaning for key words, and next step with owner plus due date. Hart logs it in a Decision Log. Malik jokes that &#8220;ship&#8221; means publish, not cargo.&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/i/188457068?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F14ec2df5-509f-43b4-8d0e-2615245f6245_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Three-panel comic in an ops room. Malik asks if the team is &#8220;ALIGNED&#8221; so they can ship the first strip. Juno asks &#8220;Aligned on what exactly&#8212;tone, topic, audience?&#8221; Lila calls &#8220;aligned&#8221; a magnet word that pulls five meanings at once. Amina raises a red-flag card for a quick reset and asks what &#8220;ALIGNED&#8221; means in this room. The team pins a definition on the &#8220;Pinned Terms&#8221; wall: same goal, same meaning for key words, and next step with owner plus due date. Hart logs it in a Decision Log. Malik jokes that &#8220;ship&#8221; means publish, not cargo." title="Three-panel comic in an ops room. Malik asks if the team is &#8220;ALIGNED&#8221; so they can ship the first strip. Juno asks &#8220;Aligned on what exactly&#8212;tone, topic, audience?&#8221; Lila calls &#8220;aligned&#8221; a magnet word that pulls five meanings at once. Amina raises a red-flag card for a quick reset and asks what &#8220;ALIGNED&#8221; means in this room. The team pins a definition on the &#8220;Pinned Terms&#8221; wall: same goal, same meaning for key words, and next step with owner plus due date. Hart logs it in a Decision Log. Malik jokes that &#8220;ship&#8221; means publish, not cargo." srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JA8-!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JA8-!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JA8-!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!JA8-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb876285c-4a17-464c-bb36-c447546b0fa1_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p><strong>&#8220;Aligned&#8221; is a magnet word.</strong> People nod while hearing different contracts: goal, scope, definitions, next step, and permission. The fix is simple: pin the term to one meaning in this room, then log it so future-us inherits the map.</p><p><strong>Move:</strong> Pin the term.<br><strong>Why it matters:</strong> Shared motion needs shared meaning. A 20-second definition prevents a two-meeting rewind.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Panel 1</strong></p><ul><li><p>Malik: &#8220;Alright&#8212;are we <strong>ALIGNED</strong>? Let&#8217;s ship the first strip!&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno: &#8220;Aligned&#8230; on <strong>WHAT</strong> exactly? Tone? Topic? Audience?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Lila: &#8220;Classic magnet word. &#8216;Aligned&#8217; pulls <strong>FIVE</strong> meanings at once.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Caption: &#8220;Welcome to the comic where we <strong>REPAIR</strong> meaning&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 2</strong></p><ul><li><p>Amina: &#8220;Red flag&#8212;quick reset. I want to understand before we draw conclusions.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Amina: &#8220;Malik, when you say &#8216;<strong>ALIGNED</strong>,&#8217; what do you mean in <strong>THIS</strong> room?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Sign: &#8220;Pinned Term: <strong>ALIGNED =</strong> ___&#8230;?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Lila: &#8220;Definition check: <strong>same goal</strong>, same scope, or same decision rule?&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 3</strong></p><ul><li><p>Board: &#8220;<strong>ALIGNED =</strong> 1) Same Goal 2) Same Meaning for Key Words 3) Next Step: Owner + Due Date&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Hart: &#8220;Logged. Now <strong>future-us</strong> inherits the map.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Malik: &#8220;Perfect. Now &#8216;ship&#8217; means <strong>publish</strong>&#8230; not cargo.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Voice: &#8220;And yes&#8212;our panel borders are finally <strong>ALIGNED</strong>!&#8221;</p></li></ul><div class="pullquote"><p>What word in your workplace keeps pretending it&#8217;s clear?</p></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading What Time Binds! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><strong>Pinned Terms</strong> is a weekly Meaning Repair comic from <em>What Time Binds</em>. If this helped, share the link and tell me which word you want pinned next.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Start Here: Pinned Terms]]></title><description><![CDATA[Pinned Terms is a weekly comic from What Time Binds.]]></description><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/start-here-pinned-terms</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/start-here-pinned-terms</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:01:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pvvt!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pvvt!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pvvt!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pvvt!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pvvt!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pvvt!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pvvt!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/2f3075d8-207e-4132-886f-aa57ecc865fb_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:3333737,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/i/188458828?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f3075d8-207e-4132-886f-aa57ecc865fb_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pvvt!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pvvt!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pvvt!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Pvvt!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa5e104a3-2a4b-46c2-85bf-2a386ef3796d_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><div class="pullquote"><p>Meet the team!</p></div><p>Each episode does three things:</p><ul><li><p>Names a magnet word that&#8217;s causing coordination drift</p></li><li><p>Runs a fast reset to pin one meaning in this room</p></li><li><p>Logs the definition so future-us inherits the map</p></li></ul><p>This series takes the deeper work on clarification and meaning repair and puts it into motion. No theory lectures. No long essays. Just three panels, one hinge word, and a visible repair move.</p><p>If you&#8217;ve read the longer pieces on &#8220;What do you mean?&#8221; and repair, you know the architecture.</p><p><br><em>Pinned Terms</em> is the field version. Three panels. One word. One reset. Installed.</p><div><hr></div><h2>How to use it</h2><p>Steal the move-of-the-week.</p><p>Try it once in a real meeting.</p><p>Then tell me what word you want pinned next.</p><div><hr></div><h2>Episode index</h2><p><strong><a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/jerrywwashington/p/pinned-terms-ep-001-aligned?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&amp;utm_medium=web">Ep. 001: ALIGNED</a></strong> &#8212; Pin the term before it pins you.</p><p><strong><a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/jerrywwashington/p/pinned-terms-ep-002-ready?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&amp;utm_medium=web">Ep. 002: READY?</a></strong> &#8212; Scope check: includes what, excludes what?</p><p>(New episodes will be added here as they publish.)</p><div><hr></div><h2>Want only these comics by email?</h2><p>Go to your Substack account settings and toggle sections on or off.<br>You can subscribe to <em>Pinned Terms</em> without receiving the full essay stream.</p><div class="pullquote"><p>Shared reality doesn&#8217;t maintain itself.<br>We maintain it &#8212; one pinned term at a time.</p></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading What Time Binds! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Pinned Terms — Ep. 002: READY?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Deadlines have a talent: they turn one word into a stamp of approval. &#8220;Ready.&#8221; Everyone says it. Everyone means something else.]]></description><link>https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-002-ready</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.what-time-binds.com/p/pinned-terms-ep-002-ready</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Jerry W Washington, Ed.D.]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2026 05:57:38 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4u-1!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4u-1!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4u-1!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4u-1!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4u-1!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4u-1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4u-1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png" width="1024" height="1536" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6777b53a-94d6-46ca-af69-321cab850064_1024x1536.png&quot;,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1536,&quot;width&quot;:1024,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:3275597,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Three-panel comic in an ops room. Malik pushes to release Episode 2 and asks if the team is &#8220;READY,&#8221; pointing to a whiteboard that says &#8220;LET&#8217;S GO LIVE TODAY!&#8221; A caption notes that &#8220;ready&#8221; is a magnet word in high-stakes work. Amina calls a quick reset and asks what &#8220;ready&#8221; includes. Juno asks whether &#8220;ready&#8221; means speed or meeting criteria. The team uses a scope-check card that prompts &#8220;READY = includes what? excludes what?&#8221; A decision log clarifies that readiness is defined by criteria, and a checklist shows final art, alt text plus transcript, and teaching note completed, with &#8220;preview image tested&#8221; still unchecked. The strip ends with &#8220;Move-of-the-Week: Scope Chec&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/i/188457615?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6777b53a-94d6-46ca-af69-321cab850064_1024x1536.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="Three-panel comic in an ops room. Malik pushes to release Episode 2 and asks if the team is &#8220;READY,&#8221; pointing to a whiteboard that says &#8220;LET&#8217;S GO LIVE TODAY!&#8221; A caption notes that &#8220;ready&#8221; is a magnet word in high-stakes work. Amina calls a quick reset and asks what &#8220;ready&#8221; includes. Juno asks whether &#8220;ready&#8221; means speed or meeting criteria. The team uses a scope-check card that prompts &#8220;READY = includes what? excludes what?&#8221; A decision log clarifies that readiness is defined by criteria, and a checklist shows final art, alt text plus transcript, and teaching note completed, with &#8220;preview image tested&#8221; still unchecked. The strip ends with &#8220;Move-of-the-Week: Scope Chec" title="Three-panel comic in an ops room. Malik pushes to release Episode 2 and asks if the team is &#8220;READY,&#8221; pointing to a whiteboard that says &#8220;LET&#8217;S GO LIVE TODAY!&#8221; A caption notes that &#8220;ready&#8221; is a magnet word in high-stakes work. Amina calls a quick reset and asks what &#8220;ready&#8221; includes. Juno asks whether &#8220;ready&#8221; means speed or meeting criteria. The team uses a scope-check card that prompts &#8220;READY = includes what? excludes what?&#8221; A decision log clarifies that readiness is defined by criteria, and a checklist shows final art, alt text plus transcript, and teaching note completed, with &#8220;preview image tested&#8221; still unchecked. The strip ends with &#8220;Move-of-the-Week: Scope Chec" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4u-1!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4u-1!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4u-1!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4u-1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe038177a-eee7-49cf-afc1-6e1fb0dd1beb_1024x1536.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg role="img" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><title></title><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p><strong>&#8220;Ready&#8221; is a magnet word.</strong> One person hears speed. Another hears criteria. A third hears &#8220;close enough.&#8221; The room moves fast, then pays interest.</p><p>So we run a <strong>scope check</strong>&#8212;the fastest kind of clarity:</p><ul><li><p><strong>Includes what?</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>Excludes what?</strong></p></li><li><p><strong>What proof counts as &#8216;ready&#8217; in this room?</strong></p></li></ul><p><strong>Move:</strong> Scope check.<br><strong>Why it matters:</strong> &#8220;Ready&#8221; needs a threshold. When the team writes the criteria down, urgency stops rewriting the definition mid-stream.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>Panel 1</strong></p><ul><li><p>Malik: &#8220;Come on&#8212;are we <strong>READY</strong>? Let&#8217;s drop Episode 2 today!&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Board header: &#8220;EPISODE 002: READY?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Whiteboard: &#8220;LET&#8217;S GO LIVE TODAY!&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Caption: &#8220;In high-stakes work, &#8216;ready&#8217; is a magnet word.&#8221;</p></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 2</strong></p><ul><li><p>Amina: &#8220;Quick reset. Before we launch&#8212; what does &#8216;ready&#8217; include?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Juno: &#8220;Is &#8216;ready&#8217; about speed&#8230; or about meeting criteria?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Card: &#8220;SCOPE CHECK&#8221;</p><ul><li><p>&#8220;READY =&#8221;</p></li><li><p>&#8220;Includes what?&#8221;</p></li><li><p>&#8220;Excludes what?&#8221;</p></li></ul></li><li><p>Side board (Pinned Terms / ALIGNED):</p><ul><li><p>&#8220;Final art exported&#8221;</p></li><li><p>&#8220;Alt text + transcript&#8221;</p></li><li><p>&#8220;Teaching note written&#8221;</p></li></ul></li></ul><p><strong>Panel 3</strong></p><ul><li><p>Caption bubble: &#8220;Decision Log: &#8216;Ready&#8217; means criteria met&#8212;not just excitement.&#8221;</p></li><li><p>Checklist (EPISODE 002: READY?):</p><ul><li><p>&#9989; Final art exported</p></li><li><p>&#9989; Alt text + transcript</p></li><li><p>&#9989; Teaching note written</p></li><li><p>&#11036; Preview image tested</p></li></ul></li><li><p>Footer: &#8220;Move-of-the-Week: Scope Check.&#8221;</p></li></ul><div class="pullquote"><p>Where does &#8220;ready&#8221; cause the most friction for you: launches, meetings, proposals, or handoffs?</p></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.what-time-binds.com/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading What Time Binds! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><strong>Pinned Terms</strong> is a weekly Meaning Repair comic from <em>What Time Binds</em>. If this helped, share the link and tell me which word you want pinned next.</p>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>