Mechanism Analysis — Field Note 04: Preservation Drift

A Field Note is an observation. A Mechanism Analysis is an investigation. The purpose of this page is not to defend the idea, but to determine whether it deserves to exist as a distinct concept.

Verdict: C — Boundary condition found

Organisations can transform employee-derived material into systems that preserve and apply aspects of expertise beyond the employee's immediate participation. A residual remains where the resulting capability becomes operationally independent and persistent while the employment arrangements governing its source remain unchanged.

The proposed transition

employee contribution → retained material → formalised pattern → operational system → independently reusable capability

Preservation Drift

Preservation Drift provisionally names the distance between the capability that has emerged and the institutional arrangements that have failed to move with it.