Antipatterns

Overview

What the antipatterns catalogue covers

• The antipatterns catalogue names the recognisable failure modes that emerge when one of the four cognitive patterns is applied to work that belonged to a different pattern. No pattern is intrinsically superior to another; each antipattern is the wrong shape for the work it has been assigned, not a flaw in the pattern itself. The catalogue is the framework's diagnostic companion to selection: selection sets the allocation, antipatterns describe what goes wrong when the allocation is mistaken or quietly drifts.
• The catalogue is organised in three layers, each addressing a different scale of failure. Per-pattern antipatterns sit closest to the canon: Performative Partnership, Drift to Delegation, the Unexamined Default for Delegation, Mandate Drift for Agency, Cognitive Misfit for Utility and the rest. Cross-pattern failure modes name shapes that recur across more than one pattern, including Theatre Across Patterns, Implicit Pattern Drift and Undesigned Fallback. A third layer collects named failure-mode typologies inherited from The Cognitive Partnership: training failures, integration mistakes and pilot failures.
• Each typology is treated as a reusable diagnostic. Every entry in the catalogue follows a consistent shape (name, description, consequence and diagnostic signal) so a practitioner who suspects an antipattern can confirm the match without re-reading the canon. The catalogue is most useful paired with a workflow map and the recorded pattern selection: the antipattern names what is going wrong, the map shows where, and the selection record reveals which assumption has stopped holding.