"Systems that appear stable often conceal accumulating stress.
Six months from now, the write-up will read like inevitability. In a scaling issue where efficiency and resilience pull apart, every step on the way will have sounded reasonable. That is how drift stays invisible.
In a scaling issue where efficiency and resilience pull apart, the argument will be that you are “unblocking” the team. Unblocking without a guardrail is how you create debt that cannot be paid down quietly. A standard you cannot apply in one pass is not a standard; it is a preference disguised as governance.
John Sterman is a reminder to audit the argument, not the intention. From six months ahead, name the failure and the excuse, then insist on one backstop. Write the guardrail in one sentence and keep it close.