The Process Triage Worksheet
List the work you repeat. Answer five questions of each, plus a sixth that can override them. Read the outcome — agent, augment, or human. Then answer the fifth question in full. Mark it a reading for now, and set a date to run it again. This is your reading today, not a verdict: the ground is moving, and there are more unknowns ahead than knowns.
The five questions
- 1 · Rule or judgment? Could you write down the rule, or does it "depend"?
- 2 · Reversible? If it goes wrong, can it be undone?
- 3 · A mistake lands on…? No one much, or a client, a colleague, a member of the public, money?
- 4 · Needs the picture? Does it need foreseeing the consequence, or this client's knowledge?
- 5 · And the person? If an agent takes it, where does the person go?
- 6 · Whose data, and whose call? Does the work handle other people's personal information, or decide something about a person — who they are, what they get, whether they're hired or let go? If yes, "low-stakes" and "reversible" don't clear it. This is the gate: it can send the work to a human whatever questions 1–5 say.
How to read the answers
Agent: mostly rule / reversible / lands on no one much / no picture needed — agent does it, logged, a human reachable.
Augment: a mix — the agent prepares; a person decides.
Human: heavy depends / not reversible / lands on a person / needs the picture — a person decides.
Override: if question five has no good answer — nowhere for the person to go — hold, whatever the other four say.
Second override — the rights line: if the process handles other people's personal information, or makes a decision about a person, a human decides — whatever the other questions say. Low-stakes and reversible don't make it safe: a wrong or unfair call about a person isn't undone by deleting a row, and in New Zealand the Privacy Act reaches even what you type into the tool. Don't lean on "an agent prepares, a person signs off" to catch bias either — the evidence is that people mostly wave the agent's call through.
The worksheet
| The process | 1. Rule or judgment? | 2. Reversible? | 3. Lands on? | 4. Needs the picture? | 5. Where does the person go? | Reading | Run again on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| e.g. keying receipts | rule | yes | no one much | no | reviews the agent's output; learns advisory | Agent | (date) |
| e.g. year-end letter | partly | yes | the client | partly | drafts reviewed & signed by the accountant | Augment | (date) |
| e.g. restructure advice | judgment | no | the client | yes | unchanged — the work is theirs | Human | (date) |
| e.g. screening CVs | partly | yes | a member of the public | partly | — | Human (rights gate) | (date) |
Closing line: This is your reading today, not a verdict. Run it again when the work changes, the tools change, or the market does — and keep the fifth question first in your mind, not last.