"Control reduces variation but also reduces information.
In a data pipeline change where failures can be silent, the facts arrive out of order and everyone wants the next step to feel obvious. The fork is real even if nobody names it.
The failure mode is not choosing wrong; it is choosing accidentally. You see it in a shortcut that becomes the new operating mode, where the system commits itself while leaders stay “open.” Clarity is not certainty; it is a small commitment the team can execute without reopening the decision at every update. If you introduce a measure, name the distortion it creates, because the distortion is part of the cost you are choosing.
Name the tradeoff in plain language: the win you want and the cost you accept. That is what makes execution calmer. Make it falsifiable.