Deliberate Underspecification

British plans often leave certain elements intentionally undefined. This is not vagueness or incomplete thinking—it is a deliberate design choice. The logic is that the person doing the work will face conditions that the planner cannot fully predict, so the plan should set the objective and constraints without dictating exactly how to get there.

The plan says what needs to be achieved, not necessarily how to achieve it. This gives the person executing the plan the freedom to use their judgment and adapt their approach to the actual situation they encounter. The assumption is that competent people, given clear objectives and appropriate authority, will find effective methods—and that imposing methods from a distance risks getting the approach wrong.

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