Anthony's Pyramid
Updated 2026-08-17
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
The pyramid, from Robert Anthony's work on planning and control, divides organisational decisions into three levels: strategic decisions about long-term direction, managerial decisions about resource allocation, and operational decisions about day-to-day execution. Information needs differ by level in granularity, timeliness, and aggregation, and information systems are designed to supply each level accordingly. The qualification is that the levels interact, so purely top-down or bottom-up information flows misrepresent how decisions are actually made.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Use Level Placement: identify which level a decision belongs to before gathering information. - Use Report Matching: give each level the aggregation and update frequency it can actually act on.
Anchor fast decisions
A decision-maker can only act on information at a level of detail their scope of control matches. Strategic decisions require aggregated trends because their effects are long and broad, while operational decisions require detail because their effects are immediate, so mismatched information produces either paralysis or uninformed action.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_triangleverified
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