PS-PRI-045 · r2
PRIORITIZATION
OBSERVED
ENGAGED
USED NOW IS GONE LATER
Every one spent now is one not there for whatever comes next.
01 DEFINITION
Condition in which the means of responding are consumed by responding, so each decision to act is also a decision about what will remain for whatever arrives after it, and what arrives after it is not known.
02 CONDITIONS
UNCERTAINTY
MISSING
What will still be asked for is not knowable while the present is being answered.
TIME PRESSURE
SHORT
The decision to spend is taken in the moment, not weighed against a schedule.
ERROR ASYMMETRY
ASYMMETRIC
Holding back too much and spending too much are answered for by different people afterwards.
OPERATOR STATE
DEDICATED
The person is handling what is in front of them and spending against what is not.
03 WHERE IT APPEARS
MEDICALStocks drawn on for one case are stocks not there for the next one, and the next one is not known.
ENERGYReserve drawn to hold the present is reserve unavailable for a second event during the same period.
LOGISTICSCapacity committed to one disruption is capacity absent from whatever follows it that day.
MANUFACTURINGSpare parts consumed on one stoppage are the parts a later stoppage will not have.
PUBLIC SERVICEStaff assigned to the case in front of them are staff not available for the one still arriving.
CONSTRUCTIONPlant committed to today's problem is plant not on hand for tomorrow's.
04 WHAT AEON WORKED THROUGH HERE
What the operator had to answer with was finite and drained as it was used, and it drained fastest exactly when it was doing the most. Holding some back was a judgement about something that had not appeared yet, made in the middle of something that had. The work went into showing what remains beside what is being asked rather than in a corner of the screen, so that spending read as spending rather than as acting.
The question it keeps returning to is how much may be held back — reserving against what has not appeared means meeting the present with less than it asked for, and spending on the present leaves the next thing whatever is left.