Coached Machine Design Canvas

What this is

The Coached Machine Design Canvas is the one practical element Chapter 3 provides. It maps current development needs across Analyze, Coach and Transform, and adds a fourth block for escalation triggers. The book calls it diagnostic: it shows where you are, where you need support and what kind. It is used for yourself, for a team, and to design a Coached Machine.

Use when / Do not use when

Use when designing how a person, team or organization will divide development work between AI and humans. Do not treat the block labels as automatic assignments for a given person. The book places the Transform block with humans and gives the escalation block as open questions to answer, not as pre-set rules.

The Instrument

Definition of the Coached Machine (verbatim)

"The Coached Machine is an integrated performance system where:

• AI handles Analyze and much of Coach
• Humans protect and own Transform
• The whole system is wired into workflows, not bolted on as a perk
• Clear protocols exist for when to escalate from AI to human"

"This is not 'AI coaching' as a product you buy. This is a designed system with intentional human-AI division of labor." The book adds that "The Coached Machine requires precision about boundaries."

The Canvas (verbatim prompts)

ANALYZE (AI handles this)

• What performance patterns do you need to identify?
• What data needs synthesizing?
• What feedback needs aggregating?
• What trends need tracking?

COACH (AI handles most of this)

• What skills are you actively building?
• What practice do you need repetition on?
• What habits are you trying to form?
• What accountability would help?

TRANSFORM (Humans handle this)

• What identity questions are you wrestling with?
• What meaning are you trying to make?
• What beliefs need examining?
• What ethical dilemmas are you facing?

ESCALATION TRIGGERS

• When does something move from AI to human?
• What are the specific signs?
• Who do you escalate to?
• How fast does escalation happen?

Getting the line wrong (book)

Mistake 1: Under-using AI. Symptoms: managers burn out on analysis and skill practice; coaching stays scarce; access, consistency and timeliness gaps persist; AI investment sits unused. Result: leverage unused, humans stay exhausted, development stays limited. Mistake 2: Over-using AI. Symptoms: AI attempts identity-level conversations; people feel handled instead of seen; false intimacy without genuine relationship; critical moments get missed because no human was paying attention; trust erodes when AI fails at questions it should not have attempted. Result: damaged relationships; people stop trusting the system and feel surveilled instead of supported. "Getting the line right is everything."

How to run it (Performance Lab suggested practice)

1. Choose the scope (yourself, a team member, a team, a program) and write it at the top of the record sheet.
2. Answer the four Analyze questions, then Coach, then Transform, in the person's own words. Leave blank what is not known.
3. For Transform, name the human (coach, mentor, manager, therapist or trusted peer) before moving on.
4. Answer the four Escalation questions. Use "Escalation Decision Tree and Non-Delegable List" and "Human Domain Protections and Escalation Protocol" as source material for the specific signs.
5. Check the result against the two mistakes above: is anything human work sitting with AI, or AI-suitable work sitting with a human?
6. Date it and re-run when the situation changes.

Record sheet (Performance Lab suggested practice)

Scope: ______ Date: ______