They made it to day four of their holiday before their phone vibrated. When it did you could watch the whole decision happen on their face before they’d even focused their eyes on the screen. They knew who was calling. They knew why. And still, they answered.
I’ve had to make a phone call like that myself in past roles, to someone senior enough that only they’d know what to do with it. I’ve also been the one answering it, sat somewhere hot and hyperfocused on a good book.
The interruption itself barely registers now, looking back. What stays with me is how reasonable everything leading up to it had been. Nobody on the team had cut a corner. They’d followed all the guidance that existed, made a sensible call with the information in front of them, done exactly what a capable team does when the documented approach is lacking. It just wasn’t enough, because the details they needed had never been written down anywhere. It lived in one person’s head, and that person was hundreds of miles away with a paperback by a pool.
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