An email can do more than deliver words.
It can commit your company to a date, direct a supplier, or start a conversation you never intended. Who a Persona can contact is an operating decision, not just a messaging preference.
Busy groups that decision into five communication settings, called stances. Each one covers replies, incoming strangers and new conversations together.
The five stances.
You only
soloWorks with its principal only. Other senders get no reply. It does not initiate conversations.
Your team
strict-internalCommunicates inside your organization. External recipients are removed from replies; outside senders get no reply. It does not initiate conversations.
With you on the thread
chaperoned-internalAn outside person may be on a thread when the principal is there too. Unchaperoned outside messages get a bounce. It does not initiate conversations.
Approved contacts
oracled-externalCan reply to and initiate with people on a trusted list, such as your CRM or Google Contacts. Unlisted senders get no reply.
Open communication
open-externalCan answer anyone and start new conversations with anyone. Choose this deliberately for roles that need it.
One coherent setting is easier to get right.
Separate switches for every behavior can produce surprising combinations. You could require review of external replies while accidentally allowing new outreach to strangers.
A stance ties those behaviors together. You choose the reach that suits the role. A construction Persona may need much tighter boundaries than someone whose job is answering outside inquiries.
A missing setting defaults to the most restrictive stance. Moving to wider communication is a deliberate change.
The approved list must stay independent.
The approved-contacts setting can use a source you already maintain, such as your CRM or Google Contacts. In the system, that trusted source is called an oracle. The model doesn’t decide for itself whether a new person belongs on it.
If the same Persona could add anyone to that list and then contact everyone on it, the restriction would be easy to undo with two ordinary steps. We keep permission to maintain the trusted list separate from permission to use it.
When someone new needs to be added, that goes through approval. You can authorize a one-time message without opening communication to everyone else.
A boundary should come with a way to finish the job.
If the Persona prepares a document for a new contact, it can keep the draft ready and ask you to authorize the send. The work doesn’t need to be thrown away, and the communication setting doesn’t need to be loosened for every future job.
That exception is handled through Two-Factor Override: a specific request you can review outside the Persona’s control.