This reminds me of my favorite blurb I’ve found while browsing Memory Alpha:

Although the writing staff of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had spent almost the entirety of the show’s second season planning to make Bareil the new kai, electing Winn to that position was a last-minute decision. “We were all sitting in the room,” recalled Robert Hewitt Wolfe, “and it occurred to us, ‘God, we could […] make Winn the kai. That’s a scary idea!’”