High V (Perceived Loyalty), but variable trust in vision execution.
By t (Week 2):
The CTO questions the founder's changing direction. Zone shifts to Yellow as V (transparency) drops and V (Cognitive Dissonance) rises.
The Head of People transitions to Red Zone, citing ethical conflict with leadership choices, particularly selective layoffs.
The Investor, observing internal fracture, demands more clarity---zone fluctuates between Green and Yellow, sensitive to public narrative cues (V: external perception weight).
By t (Week 4):
CTO's trust is recalibrated due to renewed alignment in vision; technical planning resumes---returns to Green.
A resigns: relational score dips below the Black Zone threshold.
Investor strengthens ties after public pivot succeeds; V heavily reweighted, pulling the relationship back to White Zone due to regained confidence.
Interpretive Analysis
1.Role-Dependent Relational Weighting:
Investors assign more weight to external reputation (V) and strategic consistency (V).
Internal staff assign higher weight to emotional alignment (V) and ethical coherence (V, V).
2. Zone Transitions as Strategic Signals:
The model enables leaders to track early warning signals (e.g., V spikes before resignation).
Movement into Red Zone serves not only as a diagnostic flag but also as a decision point for intervention or disengagement.
3. Strategic Ambiguity:
Temporarily maintaining Yellow Zones with certain agents may be tactically optimal (e.g., delaying full disclosure while gauging alignment).
The model formalizes how bounded transparency can be morally complex yet strategically adaptive in non-zero-sum contexts.
Model Contributions to Leadership Strategy
Forecasting Fracture and Realignment: By modeling temporal shifts in relational variables and their cumulative score, leaders can predict disengagement or redeployment needs.
Multilateral Relationship Mapping: Simultaneous modeling of multiple stakeholder dynamics allows for systemic maneuvering instead of dyadic intuition.
Tactical Ethics: The model accommodates moral complexity---where transparency and alignment are not always linear or desirable---providing a realistic framework for navigating leadership in high-entropy conditions.
VI. Discussion
A. The Strategic Use of Zones
The Six-Zone Relational Model offers not only a diagnostic lens but also a strategic toolkit for navigating relational complexity in dynamic human systems. Unlike binary typologies (e.g., friend/enemy, trusted/untrusted), our model recognizes that social relationships exist on fluid, nonlinear continua where agents must maneuver across zones based on evolving information, affective feedback, and structural constraints.
