Signal Capture™
A methodology for surfacing honest team perception
Contents:
The Methodology
Signal Capture™ bypasses the cognitive filtering present in direct questioning to surface honest team perception before group discussion influences responses.
The Problem
When you ask someone directly "how aligned is the team?", they filter their answer. This filtering happens automatically:
- What's politically safe to say?
- What does my boss want to hear?
- What did the person before me say?
The result: meetings where everyone nods, surveys that miss the real issues, and alignment that looks solid until execution reveals it wasn't.
Signal Capture™ intercepts the filter.
Why It Works
Speed beats editing. The brain processes emotional responses to visual and metaphorical stimuli in 20-150 milliseconds. Conscious editing takes 200+ milliseconds. By the time someone could filter, they've already reacted.
Ambiguity removes the "right answer." When there's no correct response, social desirability bias diminishes. Each person's interpretation is inherently valid. The variation becomes the signal.
Simultaneous response prevents groupthink. Everyone responds at the same time, before anyone shares. No one sees anyone else's answer.
The Principles
- Capture before discussion. Once people hear each other's views, filtering resumes.
- Simultaneous response. No sequential answering.
- Ambiguity by design. The stimulus must allow multiple valid interpretations.
- Variation is the diagnostic. Similar responses indicate alignment. Divergent responses reveal gaps.
- No debate during capture. Expression first. Discussion later.
The Techniques
Visual
Image Selection — Participants select from a curated set of images in response to a prompt. The ambiguity activates projection—people see their situation in the image and articulate things they wouldn't say directly.
Written
The Three Questions — 90 seconds each, targeting Direction, Alignment, and Commitment. No discussion until all answers are complete.
The Headline — Write a newspaper headline describing what happened 30 days from now. The one you fear or the one you hope for.
The Postcard — Write a postcard to yourself from six months ago explaining how things turned out. Self-as-audience removes performance.
The Unsaid — Anonymously write what everyone knows but no one is saying.
Metaphorical
The Weather Report — Describe the team's current climate as a weather report, including the forecast. Metaphor creates safe distance.
Constrained
The One Word — One word to describe how the team is operating. Extreme constraint forces essence.
The Score — Anonymous 1-10 scores on specific dimensions. Numbers don't lie. A range of 2-8 on direction tells you everything.
The Process
- Select the technique based on what you're surfacing and trust levels.
- Set up simultaneous response so no one sees anyone else's answer.
- Capture in silence. Time-box if appropriate.
- Reveal without debate. "What did you choose?" and "Say more about that."
- Read the signal. Where do responses cluster? Where do they diverge?
What It's Not
- Not therapy. A diagnostic technique, not psychological intervention.
- Not a survey. Surveys aggregate. Signal Capture™ surfaces variation and enables dialogue.
- Not brainstorming. Honest expression of current state, not idea generation.
- Not consensus-building. Reveals where consensus exists—doesn't manufacture it.
Applications
- Strategy offsites (testing real alignment on direction)
- Team diagnostics (surfacing unspoken friction)
- Post-mortems (honest assessment without blame dynamics)
- Leadership transitions (understanding how the team perceives change)
The 55: Complete Reference
A monthly diagnostic that finds what's slowing your team down
What It Is
A 55-minute monthly session that surfaces where a team is out of sync—and produces one owned, checkable fix.
55 minutes. Not an hour. The constraint forces focus. Every minute accounted for: 5 + 10 + 25 + 15 = 55.
55 minutes. 3 questions. 1 recalibration.
The Problem
Teams feel busy but stuck. Progress is slower than it should be. People are working hard but things aren't clicking.
The usual response: more meetings, better project management, clearer goals.
But often the problem isn't execution. It's that people aren't as aligned as they think they are. They're pulling in slightly different directions, and the friction compounds.
The 55 finds the drag.
How Drift Happens
Nobody decides to get misaligned. Direction drifts by 5 degrees every quarter. By month 6, the CTO is building something the CEO no longer wants, sales is selling against product roadmap, and ops is optimizing for yesterday's priorities.
How it starts: A strategic conversation without everyone in the room. Someone interprets a priority differently. A new hire onboards to last quarter's plan. Market conditions shift but the internal narrative doesn't.
How it compounds: Small misalignments create friction at handoffs. Friction slows things down. Slowness gets blamed on execution. More process, more meetings—but the real problem goes undiagnosed.
What it costs: Six months of product work that misses market timing. A $200K hire who joins the wrong plan. A strategic pivot 12 months too late. The quiet departure of someone who saw it but couldn't name it.
The Positioning
| The Exco Meeting | The 55 |
|---|---|
| Are we hitting targets? | Are we aiming at the same one? |
| What happened last week | Where are we drifting |
| Status updates | Honest signal |
| Projects, KPIs, milestones | Direction, alignment, commitment |
| Action items | One recalibration |
The key question: Not "what happened?" but "why aren't we faster?"
The 55 doesn't replace the exco meeting. It makes it work better. Your exco meeting assumes everyone's on the same page. The 55 tests whether that's actually true.
The Three Things That Create Drag
Direction
Are we trying to achieve the same thing?
When it's working: Ask five people the priority, get the same answer. When it's not: Ask five people, get three answers.
The test: "What's the single most important thing we're trying to achieve right now?"
Alignment
Does the work fit together?
When it's working: Clear handoffs, work flows. When it's not: The same handoff breaks down every month.
The test: "Where did a handoff break down this month?"
Commitment
Are people genuinely invested?
When it's working: People go the extra mile, energy in the room. When it's not: Only the easy stuff gets done, "that's not my job."
The test: "What felt heavier this month than it should have?"
The Structure
| Phase | Time | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Capture | 5 min | Signal Capture™ technique. Everyone responds simultaneously. |
| Surface | 10 min | Each person shares. No debate—just listen and clarify. |
| Read | 25 min | Patterns pulled together. Problem named: Direction, Alignment, or Commitment. |
| Set | 15 min | ONE fix. Owned by someone. Checkable in 30 days. |
Technique Rotation
Don't use the same technique every month:
- Month 1: The Three Questions (baseline)
- Month 2: Image Deck
- Month 3: The Score
- Month 4: The Headline
- Month 5: The One Word
- Month 6: The Unsaid (if trust is there)
The 55 Deck
55 images across 5 categories (11 each):
| Category | Surfaces | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| PATH | Direction gaps | Crossroads, fog, clear highway, maze |
| CONNECTION | Coordination gaps | Orchestra, tangled cables, broken chain |
| ENERGY | Commitment gaps | Boulder uphill, dead battery, flowing water |
| CLARITY | Confusion | Lighthouse, murky water, glasses focusing |
| STATE | Current condition | Calm sea, storm approaching, seedling |
The Output: One Fix
Not "improve communication." Not ten action items. One thing that will actually shift.
| Bad | Good |
|---|---|
| "Improve communication" | "James sends weekly priorities to Sarah by Monday 9am" |
| "Get more aligned" | "Agree on the Q2 priority in Thursday's session" |
| "Increase engagement" | "Cancel the ops review and replace with 1:1s for one month" |
What makes it good: Specific (you could photograph someone doing it), Owned (one person's name), Checkable (you'll know in 30 days).
Facilitation Notes
Surface Phase: Create space for each answer to land. No debate, no fixing, no "yeah but." Just: "What did you write?" and "Say more about that."
Read Phase: Name what you're seeing. "Four of you described the priority differently. That's interesting." "Three people mentioned the same handoff."
Set Phase: Drive to ONE fix. "Who owns this? How will we know it worked? We check in 30 days."
When things get hard:
- Someone dominates: "Let's hear from someone who hasn't spoken yet."
- No one speaks: "Take 30 seconds to write something down."
- Conflict surfaces: "I'm hearing two different views. Let's name them both without solving yet."
- Fix is too big: "What's the smallest version we could try in 30 days?"
What It Is and Isn't
It is: A diagnostic that finds what's creating drag. A way to surface things that don't come out in normal meetings. A monthly check on whether the team is actually in sync.
It isn't: A replacement for the exco meeting. A planning session. Team building. A list of action items.
Pricing
Setup: $1,000 (once) — Record senior team details, capture your 3am strategy statement, configure session technology.
Monthly: $350 — One 55-minute facilitated session, one diagnosed gap, one owned recalibration.
Minimum commitment: 6 months ($3,100 total)
A single session is like checking your blood pressure once. The trend over time tells you if something's wrong. After six months, you'll have a pattern—and a team that's learned to spot drift before it costs you.
References
LeDoux, J. (1996). The Emotional Brain . Simon & Schuster.
McClelland, D.C., Koestner, R., & Weinberger, J. (1989). How do self-attributed and implicit motives differ? Psychological Review , 96(4).
Greenwald, A.G. et al. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 74(6).
Janis, I. (1982). Groupthink . Houghton Mifflin.
The 55: Find the drag. Fix one thing. Check in 30 days.
Signal Capture™ is a trademark of Dale Williams.
First published: January 2026
Dale Williams
connecteddale.com