Internal coherence is measured independently of any comparison with leadership intent — and that independence is the point. A level’s aggregate can look perfectly aligned while the individual answers behind it are widely dispersed; the average is healthy, the shared frame is gone. Internal coherence typically deteriorates before visible gaps to leadership emerge, which makes it the earliest available evidence that a shared reference is fading. How the diagnostic classifies the resulting states is detailed in the book.
Where this comes from. This term is defined in the glossary of The Hidden Cost of Speed by Christoph Svoboda. About the book.
See it in your own answers. The Shared Reference Diagnostic — ten scenarios, about ten minutes, your own report, free.