The Phimation Judgment Levels™

The Phimation Judgment Levels™ describe three levels of judgment a call can require: Textbook, Fluent, and Situated. Each level has two sides. The read is how specifically someone understands the situation. The insight is what that read makes available.

The levels are numbered 101, 201, and 301, after college course levels. Each level builds on the one below it, the way a 301 course assumes the 201.

Dave Haviland, founder of Phimation Strategy Group, developed the Judgment Levels.

The three levels

• Textbook (101). A read of the domain. It covers what is typical in the field: the standard situations, the standard assumptions, the standard answers.
• Fluent (201). A read of situations of this type. It covers what is typical for this kind of company, at this stage, facing this kind of problem.
• Situated (301). A read of this situation only. It covers what is true here and nowhere else.

A Situated read contains a Fluent read, and a Fluent read contains a Textbook read. Nobody reads a situation at 301 without the 101 and 201 underneath.

Read and insight

The read and the insight are two sides of the same level.

The read is the input. It is how specifically someone understands what is in front of them: the domain, the type of situation, or this one situation.

The insight is the output. It is what becomes visible from that read. Insight comes in four kinds, spread across the three levels:

• Obvious and Findable insight comes from a Textbook read.
• Subtle insight comes from a Fluent read.
• Hidden insight comes from a Situated read.

The read sets the ceiling on the insight. A Textbook read produces Obvious and Findable insight, however capable the person doing the reading. Subtle insight takes a Fluent read. Hidden insight takes a Situated read.

That gives the levels two uses. One is the read a call requires. The other is the insight available to the people able to do that read. They are the same level, seen from the call and from the person. A call requires a 301 read when the insight that decides it is Hidden.

What AI gives you at each level

The four kinds of insight can be described by what an AI model does with them.

• Obvious. AI gives it to you without being asked. Ask "How do I do strategic planning?" and the Obvious insight is in the answer.
• Findable. AI gives it to you when you ask. Take one item from that first answer, ask how to do it, and the Findable insight is in the second answer. This is the "decent" zone.
• Subtle. AI misses it unless you already know the right question. Knowing the right question takes a Fluent read.
• Hidden. AI can't reach it on its own. The insight sits in the situation, outside anything the model was trained on. Someone inside the situation has to supply it.

AI delivers a 101 answer with the same polish as a 301 answer. That is the source of AI Surface Expertise.

The level belongs to the situation

A Judgment Level is a property of the situation and the call. It is assigned to a call, and the same person works at different levels on different calls. A leader can make a Situated call on a key customer in the morning and need only a Textbook read on a software purchase in the afternoon.

The ability that lets someone read at the level a situation calls for is Situation Fluency, one of the two parts of Judgment Capacity in the Judgment Application Framework. Situation Fluency is the ability to discern what's important in a situation: the variables at play, and which of them matter most. The Judgment Levels describe how far that discernment has to go for a given call.

Four places to look: People, Pattern, Premise, Price

Four questions show which level a call requires. Each one has a Textbook, a Fluent, and a Situated answer.

People. Who does this call depend on?

• Textbook: anyone in this role.
• Fluent: leaders in this kind of company, at this stage.
• Situated: these specific people.

Pattern. How standard is the situation?

• Textbook: a standard situation in the domain.
• Fluent: a known variant, such as a family succession.
• Situated: a combination with no precedent.

Premise. Which assumptions does the call rest on?

• Textbook: the standard assumptions hold.
• Fluent: assumptions that hold for this type of situation.
• Situated: assumptions that can only be checked from inside.

Price. What does a miss cost?

• Textbook: a miss is cheap and reversible.
• Fluent: a miss is costly but recoverable.
• Situated: a miss is expensive or lasting.

The highest-level P sets the level for the call. One Situated answer makes it a 301 call, whatever the other three say.

Price works differently from the other three. People, Pattern, and Premise measure how specific the situation is. Price measures the stakes. A call can be standard on People, Pattern, and Premise and still require a Situated read, because a miss would be expensive or lasting. Stakes alone can raise the level.

Situated calls look routine

A call that needs Situated judgment usually looks routine until someone spots the detail, or details, that make it different.

To know a call needs Situated judgment, someone has to notice something specific that matters about this situation. Nothing on the surface of the call announces its level. So the four Ps work best as places to look for that detail. Once someone finds it, the highest-level rule applies.

This is why calls tend to get read one level too low. A 301 call that nobody has examined looks like a 101 call, and it gets a 101 answer.

How the Judgment Levels relate to other Phimation frameworks

The Judgment Application Framework describes what judgment a decision needs, who has it, and how to get it where it's needed. The Judgment Levels add a scale to that framework: how situated the judgment has to be.

The Phimation Judgment Loop describes how judgment gets built. The Judgment Levels describe the level of judgment a call requires once it arrives.

Frequently asked questions

What are the Phimation Judgment Levels?

The Phimation Judgment Levels are three levels of judgment a call can require: Textbook (101), Fluent (201), and Situated (301). A Textbook read covers the domain. A Fluent read covers situations of this type. A Situated read covers this situation only. Each level has a read, which is how specifically someone understands the situation, and an insight, which is what that read makes available.

What do 101, 201, and 301 mean?

The numbers borrow from college course levels. A 101 course covers the basics of a subject, a 201 course goes further, and a 301 course assumes both. The Judgment Levels stack the same way. A Situated read includes a Fluent read and a Textbook read.

What is the difference between a read and an insight?

The read is the input and the insight is the output. The read is how specifically someone understands a situation. The insight is what becomes visible from that read. The read sets the ceiling on the insight: a Textbook read makes Obvious and Findable insight available, a Fluent read makes Subtle insight available, and a Situated read makes Hidden insight available.

What can AI do at each Judgment Level?

AI gives Obvious insight without being asked and Findable insight when asked. It misses Subtle insight unless the person already knows the right question. It can't reach Hidden insight on its own, because that insight sits in the situation and someone inside it has to supply it.

How do you tell which Judgment Level a call requires?

Look in four places: People, Pattern, Premise, and Price. Each has a Textbook, a Fluent, and a Situated answer. The highest-level P sets the level for the call. A call that needs Situated judgment usually looks routine until someone spots the detail that makes it different, so the four Ps are places to look for that detail.

Do the Judgment Levels rank people?

No. A Judgment Level belongs to the situation and the call. The same person works at different levels on different calls. The ability to read at the level a situation calls for is Situation Fluency, part of Judgment Capacity in the Judgment Application Framework.

Who created the Judgment Levels?

Dave Haviland of Phimation Strategy Group developed the Phimation Judgment Levels.