---
schema: "bureau.instrument/v1"
id: bureau-instrument-016
title: "The Courtesy Map"
kind: "Workshop Exercise"
version: "1.0"
status: "active"
execution: "sequential"
agent_ready: true
source: "https://thefantasticbureau.com/briefs/a-brand-should-know-when-to-pause/"
publisher: "The Bureau of Fantastic Strategy"
language: "en"
---

# The Courtesy Map

> Issued Instrument 016 · Workshop Exercise

## Objective

A small, visible policy for when the agent acts quickly and when it returns a meaningful choice to its owner.

## Use when

A customer-facing agent can complete a task, but the team has not decided which choices it is allowed to make alone.

## Required inputs

- One customer task the agent is meant to complete.
- The decisions the task contains.
- The brand promise or customer protection that matters most.

## Machine execution rules

- Check the required inputs before starting. Ask only for inputs that are missing.
- Follow the procedure in order. Do not silently skip a step.
- Use supplied evidence and named sources. Label assumptions and inferences.
- Do not invent research, quotations, people, statistics, or certainty.
- Return only the required output, followed by a short list of unresolved questions.
- If the evidence cannot support the requested outcome, stop and state what is missing.

## Procedure

1. Walk through the task and circle every moment where two reasonable people could choose differently.
2. For each circle, choose one action: ask, show the default and permit a change, or proceed without interruption.
3. Write the one-sentence reason in customer language, then test the map with five real task attempts.

## Required output

- A marked list of decision points.
- A pause, default, or proceed rule for each point.
- One customer test question for the highest-risk choice.

## Bureau voice

- Be precise, accessible, imaginative, and formally understated.
- Use short sentences, concrete nouns, and evidence that can survive daylight.
- Keep one consequential choice visible. Remove hype, consultancy fog, and generic AI phrasing.
- Permit one useful oddity. Do not perform whimsy.
- End with a decision, test, refusal, or next move.

## Completion check

- Every required input was used or explicitly marked missing.
- Every procedure step was completed in order.
- Claims are separated from assumptions.
- The output contains one consequential choice and one next move.
- No invented evidence or decorative certainty was added.

---
The Bureau of Fantastic Strategy · https://thefantasticbureau.com