"Judgment is most strained when tradeoffs threaten identity.
Good standards are senior-safe because they remove negotiation. In a proposal that will be enforced inconsistently, they make the bar legible and the exception path explicit.
In a proposal that will be enforced inconsistently, the request will be framed as pragmatic. Without a clear exception rule, “pragmatic” becomes a loophole. Over time, the standard turns into a suggestion. Write it down because otherwise two reasonable engineers will execute two different interpretations, and the system will call it “miscommunication.” Define the decision rights before the crisis, or the crisis will define them for you.
Albert O. Hirschman is useful here because it forces precision. State the standard plainly, then make the exception path narrow enough to matter. Be calm and explicit.