Clarity Under Pressure
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Most organizations change only after the cost of not changing becomes too high.

John P. KotterLeading Change, 1996

Six months from now, the write-up will read like inevitability. In an on-call escalation with partial signal, every step on the way will have sounded reasonable. That is how drift stays invisible.

In an on-call escalation with partial signal, the shortcut will be framed as temporary. Temporary decisions have a way of turning into the operating mode, especially when they make next week easier. You see it in a shortcut that becomes the new operating mode. Make the boundary explicit enough that a peer could disagree with it; if no one can disagree, no one can defend it under pressure.

John P. Kotter is a reminder to audit the argument, not the intention. Write the future failure and the rational story that will justify it, then choose one guardrail. Save it where decisions live.

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