The Late Judgment Count

THE COST OF LATE JUDGMENT

The right expertise can be there and still be used too late.

You already pay for this judgment, whether it is used or not. The cost shows up when it arrives after the decision has hardened.

Expertise is what someone brings. Judgment is the professional assessment that expertise enables in a particular decision.

This page compares two moments: when relevant expertise was available, and when it was actually brought into the decision. The gap is what you are counting.

AvailableSomeone with the relevant expertise was already in a position to contribute.

Brought inSomeone with that expertise was actually brought into the decision.

The gapThe distance between those two moments is what this page counts.

The most expensive expertise in an organisation may be the expertise it already pays for, but brings into the decision too late.

THE COUNT

Three real decisions. Not three categories.

Pick recent decisions where specialist expertise could have improved the decision and where you can reconstruct what actually happened. Save one, then move to the next.

You do not need to believe expertise gets ignored here. Almost no one believes that. This does not ask what you believe. It asks what happened.

No benchmark. No score.
Just what happened.

0decisions traced

0showed a gap

Save your first decision below to see this update. It reflects only what you enter.

Decision authority is not the same as best judgment. The person with decision authority is not necessarily the person with the best judgment for that decision. Trouble starts when organisations behave as if those two things were the same.

I increasingly think leadership should be less about having the answer and more about being an architect: creating the conditions in which the best available expertise can improve the decision before authority closes it down.

Being the architect is harder than it sounds. Having the answer feels like the job. Making room for someone else's does not. But the organisation is not better served by the leader looking like the most capable person in the room. It is better served by whichever available expertise could actually improve the decision. That is not knowable in advance from title or authority alone.

IF THE COUNT GIVES YOU A REASON TO LOOK

Trace the decision, not the person.

The question is no longer why she was not heard. It is when the decision process made room for what she knew. Follow one decision from origin to handover to room to choice to next invitation.

Locate the friction ↓

What expertise did this decision need?

When could that expertise first have improved the decision?

What survived the handover?

What expertise or reasoning did the decision actually use?

What happened the next time?

LOCATE, DO NOT ASSUME

Where did the friction actually sit?

The count does not diagnose this for you. It tells you where to look. The trace tells you what kind of problem you may be dealing with.

The workWas the analysis or recommendation too dense, too hard to act on, or too dependent on the author being present?

The roomWas the input usable, but the decision environment failed to invite, trust or retain the reasoning behind it?

The timingWere the relevant people brought in only after framing, option-setting or commitment had already begun to harden?

A mixDid more than one condition reduce how much of the available expertise the decision could use?

01 · TRACE

Choose one decision.Follow the decision from origin to handover to room to choice.

02 · LOCATE

Name the friction.Work, room, timing, or a mix. Do not make the person carry all four.

03 · TEST

Change one condition.A five-line specialist read before options. Earlier involvement. A handover that carries the reasoning, not only the conclusion.

04 · READ

See what reality returns.Were the right people involved earlier? Did the reasoning survive? Was less rescue needed?

GO FURTHER

One idea. Two ways to keep going.

Read the full argumentThe Cost of Late Judgment explores why relevant expertise can exist inside an organisation and still reach the decision too late.

Read the article on LinkedIn ↗

Explore the larger questionCounted On is my forthcoming book about how solid work becomes work that travels. The Late Judgment Count is one organisational way into that larger question.

Explore Counted On →

How often is the right expertise brought in too late to improve the decision?

The right expertise can be there and still be used too late.

Three real decisions. Not three categories.

The judgment can still be right while acting on it has become expensive.

Where did the friction actually sit?

Repeated late involvement can teach capable people when not to bother.

One idea. Two ways to keep going.