Block diagonalization in Banach algebras

``Reduction" of linear operators is effected by commuting projections; the spectrum of the operator is then the union of the spectra of its range and null space restrictions. Disjointness of these partial spectra implies that the projection ``double commutes" with the operator, which in turn can be recognised as a curious kind of ``exactness". Variants of this exactness correspond to various kinds of disjointness between the partial spectra.