Write escalation contracts before the edge case arrives

An escalation contract is a small operating agreement for edge cases. It has four parts. The trigger says exactly when the ordinary reviewer should stop deciding alone. The owner says who has the authority or expertise to decide. The timeout says how long the case can wait before the backup path activates. The return artifact says what comes back to the queue: approval, rejection, edited answer, reason code, policy note, or specialist decision. This works because escalation failures are usually not caused by bad intent. They are caused by ambiguity under time pressure. People do not know whether a case…

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