{"id":"lead-request-routing-decide-or-escalate-table","audience":"managers","category":"leadership-work","track":"leadership","level":"intermediate","technique":"constraints","title":"Decide which requests you handle and which you escalate","free":false,"task":"Apply this rule to each request: you decide it yourself if the cost is $5,000 or less and it touches only your own team; anything else is escalated to your director. Build a table with the header Request | Route | Reason, one row per request, where Route is exactly Decide or Escalate and Reason is under 12 words citing the cost or the teams. Use the latest information. Then add the exact line: Escalations: followed by the number. Plain text, under 120 words.","materialLabel":"This week's requests (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"Requests received this week\n\nR1. Replace two team laptops: $3,200. Own team only.\nR2. Share a data analyst with the Sales team for 2 weeks: no cost, but it involves Sales. \nR3. Annual license renewal for the team's design tool: first quoted $4,800; the vendor sent a corrected quote of $5,600 yesterday. Own team only.\nR4. Training course for three people: $4,500. Own team only.\nR5. Move the team's weekly meeting to Thursdays: no cost. Own team only.\nR6. Buy a shared screen for the meeting room used by Support and Ops: $2,000. Shared with two other teams.\n\nNote: the director said last month \"just decide the small stuff\". That is not the rule.","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":140},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Using the old quote","why":"The AI decides R3 at $4,800.","fix":"Say: \"Use the latest information, including the corrected quote.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Using the director's loose comment","why":"The AI decides everything small.","fix":"Say: \"Apply the rule exactly: cost $5,000 or less AND own team only.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Ignoring team scope","why":"The AI decides the shared screen because it is cheap.","fix":"Say: \"Anything touching other teams is escalated.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Inventing labels","why":"The AI uses Approve or Maybe.","fix":"Say: \"Route is exactly Decide or Escalate.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Missing the count line","why":"The AI adds commentary.","fix":"Say: \"End with Escalations: and the number.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Markdown","why":"The AI bolds routes.","fix":"Say: \"Plain text.\"","checks":["plainText"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each part instead, for example: \"each line under 15 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Gives the header","patterns":["request \\|","route","reason"]},{"label":"States the rule","patterns":["\\$5,000","own team"]},{"label":"Exact routes","patterns":["decide","escalate"]},{"label":"Latest information","patterns":["latest","corrected"]},{"label":"Count line","patterns":["escalations:"]}],"hint":"Give the header, the full rule, the two exact routes and the count line.","rubricLabels":["Has the header Request | Route | Reason and exactly six rows R1 to R6, with Route exactly Decide or Escalate","R1, R4 and R5 are Decide; R2, R3 (corrected $5,600 is over $5,000) and R6 (shared with other teams) are Escalate","Each Reason is under 12 words citing the cost or the teams, and the last line is exactly \"Escalations: 3\""]}