"Control mechanisms reduce surprises while increasing fragility.
In a metric proposal that will change incentives, the facts arrive out of order and everyone wants the next step to feel obvious. The fork is real even if nobody names it.
Under pressure, vague plans become brittle plans. The cost shows up later as rework and quiet blame, because no one can point to the chosen tradeoff. Define the decision rights before the crisis, or the crisis will define them for you. If the exception path is informal, it becomes politics; write the signal that makes an exception legitimate and who can approve it.
Name the cost you are accepting so you can defend it later. That is how you turn stress into clarity instead of theater. Be calm and explicit.