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About

Judgement is not a trait. It is a capacity- something with a physiology underneath it, something that runs on inputs, something that varies with the condition of the person exercising it. The variables that govern that condition can be measured, and in sport they are measured, continuously, as a matter of professional routine. In business, where a single judgement can be worth eight figures, they are not measured at all. The founder is the last unaudited asset in their own company.

My work is the audit- treating the decision-maker as an athlete whose sport is deciding, and building the clinical apparatus around them that sport built decades ago for everyone else.

I come to this as a clinician, not a coach. I am an osteopath with fifteen years in practice, and this is a research-adjacent practice: alongside it, I am engaged in doctoral research at the University of Limerick investigating the question underneath all of this- the extent to which readiness to make high-stakes decisions is a measurable physiological capacity. Before the doctorate, an MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship; before that, most of a working life spent treating people whose performance mattered to more than themselves.

The practice is private and small by design. I work with a limited number of founders each year in a forty-eight-week engagement structured around three functions: measure, monitor, manage. The engagement, its terms, and the application are set out [here].

The essays currently on this site, and yet to be published, are the argument in full. There are twenty; they are written in order and build on one another, and they are best read that way. Begin with the first: The Unaudited Asset.

For everything else: practice@dermotrock.com.

A quiet newsletter for readers who enjoy reflective essays, literary fiction, and intentional storytelling.

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A quiet newsletter for readers who enjoy reflective essays, literary fiction, and intentional storytelling.

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