A blocked mandate usually arrives as symptoms: slow decisions, missed handoffs, weak adoption, contested priorities, capability gaps, or technology that does not change behavior. Treating every symptom as its own workstream expands the intervention before the system has been understood.
Begin with competing hypotheses. The constraint may sit in authority, incentives, information, capability, capacity, an interface, or a decision that no one is empowered to make. For each hypothesis, state the evidence that supports it and the observation that would disprove it.
Test each hypothesis against movement. If the condition changed while everything else remained constant, would the mandate materially move? A no marks important friction, not the binding constraint.
The constraint map is a decision instrument. It narrows the intervention, disciplines resource allocation, and shows whether the system changed or merely became busier.
This note is an operating framework, not a client account, legal advice, or a universal prescription.