The Seven Stages of Action

A simplified but useful model of how people act. One stage for the goal, three for execution, three for evaluation:

1. Goal — form the goal
2. Plan — the action (choose among possible plans)
3. Specify — the action sequence
4. Perform — the action sequence
5. Perceive — the state of the world
6. Interpret — the perception
7. Compare — the outcome with the goal

Key claims:

• Maps onto the two gulfs: stages 2–4 = execution; 5–7 = evaluation.
• Most stages are usually subconscious; conscious attention is invoked only at novelty, impasse, or when things go wrong.
• Behavior is often opportunistic rather than fully planned; activities involve many nested feedback loops, subgoals, and subplans.
• Goal-driven behavior starts at the top (new goal → execution); data/event-driven behavior starts at the bottom (a world event → evaluation, e.g., dusk → "get more light").
• Root cause analysis lives here: keep asking "Why is that the goal?" to reach the real goal (the drill/hole/bookshelf example — Levitt "stopped too soon"). Reconsidering the root goal is how radical innovation arises; see Root Cause Analysis and the Five Whys.

Two payoffs

• Provides the seven design questions and the seven design principles.
• Locates where errors originate: slips in the lower stages, mistakes in the top three; memory lapses at the transitions.

Confidence

1.0 — the book's signature model.

Sources: ["DOET ch.2 'The Seven Stages of Action' p.40-43 (Fig 2.2)"]