Seven movements, run in order
A scan moves through seven structured movements before anything is handed to a decision: description, then causal depth, then breadth, a deliberate pause, scaled questioning, held paradox, and finally synthesis.
The seven movements
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NOTICE
Maps the dominant public conversation on the topic, with no interpretation applied yet: what's prominent, what's quiet or absent, what tone dominates. The surface-layer baseline everything else works against.
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DROP
Runs a full Causal Layered Analysis (litany, systems, worldview, myth and metaphor), moving through four layers of causation, none more "true" than another, to surface what actually drives the patterns NOTICE described.
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WIDEN
Expands the field horizontally (contexts), vertically (scales) and temporally (time horizons), deliberately surfacing outsider and marginal voices rather than mainstream coverage from a new angle.
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PAUSE
A deliberate, structural slowing before questioning begins: the shortest movement, and the one most tempting to skip. It holds space rather than filling it.
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QUESTION
Applies two to four thematic lenses (Power, Harm, Cost, Time, Legitimacy, Grief & Loss) through scaled, not accusatory, questions that return responsibility to the person deciding rather than overwhelming them with systemic blame.
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HOLD
Stays with genuine paradox without resolving it. Premature resolution is the failure mode this movement exists to guard against: some tensions are meant to be held, not settled.
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RETURN
Synthesises the scan and reopens, rather than closes, the person's own agency. Discernment, not verdict: other interpretations are possible, and yet a clearer sense of what's at stake has emerged.
What happens after RETURN
The scan can be compiled into a structured record and, from there, handed to whichever decision tool actually fits the moment: a short context statement, a set of non-negotiable design principles, an options paper laying out several legitimate paths rather than one recommendation. The scan itself never picks the path. That separation is deliberate. The container should fit the context in which decisions need to be made.
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Back to what Zone of Attention Scanning is and why it exists.