Concept
Affordance
Also: Angebotscharakter, Affordance
What an environment makes possible for someone — the actions a tool, a room, a rule or a relationship invites or allows, whether anyone designed it to or not.
The term comes from the psychologist James J. Gibson: a chair affords sitting, but also standing on it to change a light bulb. In organisations, affordances explain why people use tools and structures in unplanned ways, and where new capabilities can come from. Mapping affordances shows what an organisation already makes possible — the raw material for exaptation.