Risk Escalation

---
name: risk-escalation
description: Escalate material strategic or delivery risk with evidence, consequence, urgency, options, owner, and requested decision so leadership attention is used where it can change the outcome.
---
# Risk Escalation

Use when a risk exceeds a team's authority, threatens a major commitment, crosses functions, or requires leadership acceptance or tradeoff.

## Procedure
1. State the risk event or condition precisely and distinguish it from an issue that has already occurred.
2. Describe the affected outcome, probability or uncertainty, consequence, time window, and evidence.
3. Record mitigation already attempted, current owner, and why the remaining risk cannot be resolved within existing authority or capacity.
4. Identify the exact decision or support needed from leadership.
5. Present practical options with consequences, including doing nothing, without hiding uncomfortable tradeoffs.
6. Separate reversible containment from long-term remediation.
7. Recommend the proper decision owner and deadline by which the decision still has value.
8. Record the decision, accepted residual risk, and follow-up monitoring after escalation.

## Decision rules
- Escalate because authority or consequence requires it, not because the problem is difficult.
- Do not inflate severity to obtain attention.
- Leadership should receive a decision-ready packet, not an activity transcript.
- Accepted risk still needs an owner and review condition.

## Quality gate
The escalation is useful when leadership can understand the risk, evidence, timing, consequence, existing mitigation, options, and exact decision needed without reconstructing the situation, and the resulting risk acceptance or action is durably recorded.