Why is a new function needed?#
Because human attention becomes the scarce resource once machine capacity is cheap, and nothing in existing team models allocates it across missions. Team Topologies describes how teams are shaped and how they interact; it does not describe who decides which mission gets the security architect's Thursday.
How does it operate?#
Through the Control Room. Steering needs to see where judgment is waiting across every mission at once, which is precisely what the Control Room presents, and it needs to be able to move a decision right or reprioritise a queue on that evidence.
Its other job is conflict. When two missions want the same scarce judgment, or their delegation boundaries disagree, someone has to hold the decision right — and it has to be written down before the conflict rather than after.