A plan reads short because one verb can stand in for a whole job. "Replace the project template" fits on one line. The training slides that show the old one, the intake form that links to it and the report built on its fields don't.
That work still has to happen, and it lands on whoever can see it. The Verb Audit puts it back into the plan, with a name next to each piece. One verb at a time, with the person who does the job.
Fill it in with the person who does the work. They'll see connections the plan doesn't show.
Use this when a rule, a form or a document changes. When a step changes, run the Rock Audit.
Tap the verb doing the work. Likely ones are marked.
Ask the person who performs it, and write down their answers.
A list this long is usually more than one job. Split the line.
Add what it touches to see what goes into the plan.
Everything listed is confirmed. This line is ready.
Add these to the plan
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You don't need any of this to run the audit. The touch list is this tool's own step, built from these two.
Breaking a task into its parts before estimating it brings the estimate closer to what the work takes. The Verb Audit points the same move outward, at what a change is connected to.
Kruger & Evans, 2004 · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Work as a plan imagines it and work as it's actually done drift apart. Hollnagel treats that gap as information to collect, and the people doing the work are the ones who can describe it.
Hollnagel, 2017 · "Can we ever imagine how work is done?" HindSight 25
Prefer paper? One page, with a filled example and a blank. Print it and fill it in together.
Open the worksheet →If no one's name is on it, no one's checking it.