Trigger

Triggers

Triggers initiate the Strategic Response Model by identifying changes, observations, or opportunities that warrant a strategic or operational response. Each trigger represents a catalyst—whether anticipated or unanticipated—that compels the organisation to act. See: Strategic Response Model

Triggers serve as the evidentiary foundation for change, ensuring that strategic initiatives and responses are not conceived in a vacuum, but are grounded in real-world shifts, obligations, or forward-looking insights.

Expanded use: proactive strategic initiatives

Tiggers are not only focused on reactive responses to external or internal conditions—such as regulatory changes, stakeholder demands, or performance shortfalls. However, the Orthogramic Metamodel also supports proactive triggers that signal intentional strategic opportunities rather than external pressures.

These proactive triggers may arise from deliberate internal planning, capability reviews, or innovation roadmaps, and are used to initiate responses even in the absence of external drivers. This positions the trigger taxonomy as a tool for both risk response and opportunity-led transformation.

Examples include:

• Identifying a market expansion initiative in response to positive trend analysis

• Launching a strategic repositioning program based on foresight and scenario modelling

• Enhancing core capabilities to support long-term digital transformation objectives

By supporting anticipatory time horizons and strategic planning origins, the model enables the capture and classification of future-oriented thinking and long-range planning decisions.

Trigger taxonomy

Orthogramic triggers follow a structured taxonomy to ensure clarity, governance, and analytics across strategic responses.

Each trigger includes:

1. Primary category – broad context for the trigger (e.g. Regulatory compliance, Strategic opportunity)

2. Subcategory – specific focus within the category (e.g. Innovation initiative, Market expansion)

3. Origin – where the trigger comes from (Internal, External, Strategic planning, Hybrid)

4. Time horizon – the timeframe of the trigger (Immediate, Short term, Long term, Anticipatory)

5. Impact level – estimated organisational significance

This classification enables:

• Proactive identification of high-value opportunities

• Consistent linkage to rationales and strategic responses

• Improved transparency across strategic planning cycles

• Enhanced auditability and traceability of decisions

Example

Trigger Taxonomy

Triggers in the Orthogramic Metamodel follow a standardized classification system that enables consistent categorization, improved searchability, and enhanced analytics. Each trigger is classified according to:

1. Primary Category: The main classification of the trigger (e.g., Regulatory, Technological, Strategic)

2. Subcategory: A more specific classification within the primary category

3. Origin: Whether the trigger is internal or external to the organization

4. Time Horizon: The temporal nature of the trigger (immediate, short-term, long-term)

5. Impact Level: The potential significance of the trigger (low, medium, high, critical)

This taxonomy provides a framework for organizing triggers consistently, allowing organizations to:

• Track patterns in strategic responses across similar trigger types

• Analyze the distribution of triggers by source, timeframe, and impact

• Identify which categories of triggers most frequently drive strategic changes

• Maintain a trigger registry that can be referenced across multiple strategic response models

The standardized taxonomy also supports governance and auditability by ensuring that triggers are documented according to consistent criteria, making it easier to trace decision-making patterns over time.

Linking to Rationales

Triggers can lead to multiple Rationales. Each Rationale references the originating trigger and justifies a different response path. This many-to-one structure allows a single trigger to influence several domains. See: Rationale

Example

See https://orthogramic.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OM/pages/291242002 for reference cases.

Trigger JSON Schema

See: https://github.com/Orthogramic/Orthogramic_Metamodel

Schema properties

This schema allows organizations to systematically capture and manage triggers that necessitate strategic responses, ensuring traceability and alignment across the enterprise architecture.