"A decision rule is a theory about the future.
When the stakes rise, standards are what keep judgment from turning into vibes and hierarchy. In a post-incident debrief where the organization wants closure, the goal is not rigidity; it is clarity about the bar.
In a post-incident debrief where the organization wants closure, the exception will sound reasonable and urgent. If the exception path is fuzzy, enforcement becomes personal and the standard becomes optional. That is how dissent turns into resentment. A clean stop line prevents optimism from keeping a failing bet alive long after the evidence turns.
Howard Raiffa is useful here because it forces precision. Name the signal that ends the attempt and the action you will take when it appears. Make it specific enough that a peer can disagree.