To diagnose well, ask the following questions: Is the outcome good or bad? Who is responsible for the outcome? If the outcome is bad, is the Responsible Party incapable and/or is the design bad?
Ask yourself: “Who should do what differently?”
Identify at which step in the 5-Step Process the failure occurred.
Identify the principles that were violated.
Avoid Monday morning quarterbacking.
Don’t confuse the quality of someone’s circumstances with the quality of their approach to dealing with the circumstances.
Identifying the fact that someone else doesn’t know what to do doesn’t mean that you know what to do.
Remember that a root cause is not an action but a reason.
To distinguish between a capacity issue and a capability issue, imagine how the person would perform at that particular function if they had ample capacity.
Keep in mind that managers usually fail or fall short of their goals for one (or more) of five reasons.
Maintain an emerging synthesis by diagnosing continuously.
Keep in mind that diagnoses should produce outcomes.
Remember that if you have the same people doing the same things, you should expect the same results.
Use the following “drill-down” technique to gain an 80/20 understanding of a department or sub-department that is having problems.
Understand that diagnosis is foundational to both progress and quality relationships.
Design Improvements to Your Machine to Get Around Your Problems
Build your machine.
Systemize your principles and how they will be implemented.
Create great decision-making machines by thinking through the criteria you are using to make decisions while you are making them.
Remember that a good plan should resemble a movie script.
Put yourself in the position of pain for a while so that you gain a richer understanding of what you’re designing for.
Visualize alternative machines and their outcomes, and then choose.
Consider second and third-order consequences, not just first-order ones.
Use standing meetings to help your organization run like a Swiss clock.
Remember that a good machine takes into account the fact that people are imperfect.
Recognize that design is an iterative process. Between a bad “now” and a good “then” is a “working through it” period.
Understand the power of the “cleansing storm.”
Build the organization around goals rather than tasks.
Build your organization from the top down.
Remember that everyone must be overseen by a believable person who has high standards.
Make sure the people at the top of each pyramid have the skills and focus to manage their direct reports and a deep understanding of their jobs.
In designing your organization, remember that the 5-Step Process is the path to success and that different people are good at different steps.
Don’t build the organization to fit the people.
Keep scale in mind.
Organize departments and sub-departments around the most logical groupings based on “gravitational pull.”
Make departments as self-sufficient as possible so that they have control over the resources they need to achieve their goals.
Ensure that the ratios of senior managers to junior managers and of junior managers to their reports are limited to preserve quality communication and mutual understanding.
Consider succession and training in your design.
Don’t just pay attention to your job; pay attention to how your job will be done if you are no longer around.
Use “double-do” rather than “double-check” to make sure mission-critical tasks are done correctly.
Use consultants wisely and watch out for consultant addiction.
Create an organizational chart to look like a pyramid, with straight lines down that don’t cross.
Involve the person who is the point of the pyramid when encountering cross-departmental or cross-sub-departmental issues.
Don’t do work for people in another department or grab people from another department to do work for you unless you speak to the person responsible for overseeing the other department.
Watch out for “department slip.”
Create guardrails when needed, and remember it’s better not to guardrail at all.
Don’t expect people to recognize and compensate for their own blind spots.
Consider the clover-leaf design.
Keep your strategic vision the same while making appropriate tactical changes as circumstances dictate.
Don’t put the expedient ahead of the strategic.
Think about both the big picture and the granular details, and understand the connections between them.
Have good controls so that you are not exposed to the dishonesty of others.
Investigate and let people know you are going to investigate.