Dignity-Required System · Field Tool

Find the Hidden Work

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.

CIRCLE

Which word is carrying the whole job?

TOUCH

What else does it touch?

Ask the person who performs it, and write down their answers.

If they get stuck, ask: Where else is this written down? Who teaches it? What form points to it? Where else is it repeated?
ADD

What goes into the plan

Add what it touches to see what goes into the plan.

What you type stays in this browser until you clear it. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Where it comes from

Built on two ideas

You don't need any of this to run the audit. The touch list is this tool's own step, built from these two.

List the parts first

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

Ask the person doing the work

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

Get the worksheet

Prefer paper? One page, with a filled example and a blank. Print it and fill it in together.

Open the worksheet →
The Verdict

If no one's name is on it, no one's checking it.

← The Last 50 Feet