CONCEPT
Direction Coordination
The exercise of judgment about what should be produced — distinct from production coordination (managing how work gets done) — and the function AI cannot absorb.
Direction coordination is the organizational activity of deciding what deserves to exist: which problems are worth solving, which approaches merit pursuit, when to persist and when to abandon, how to maintain coherence between short-term actions and long-term purpose. This function has historically been bundled with production coordination (scheduling, task assignment, progress monitoring) within the managerial role. AI unbundles them by absorbing production coordination while leaving direction coordination untouched. Software can track who is working on what; it cannot decide what the team should work on. Algorithms can optimize resource allocation given a goal; they cannot choose the goal. The firm of the AI age exists primarily to house direction coordination — to create the conditions under which good judgment can be exercised and held accountable.
