Check in a box
My! What long fingers you have.
With authority comes influence and the ability to shine light into dark and exciting places. Show some interest, encourage change, highlight…
Did you do it? Check.
Did you do it the way you were supposed to do it? Check.
Standards are good. They ensure safety, the recipe is followed, the room is cleaned, the x is y.
What gets measured gets managed and the check-box is the most basic measure.
Done? Check.
Thing is … when what gets managed gets measured, the measuring can become the thing. An end in itself.
And the world turns. Expectations evolve.
Standards can stay in place long after they’re obsolete, just because that’s the way we do things around here. (The knocker is polished, check, long after door is sealed.)
The check becomes a facsimile for paying attention.
We’re measuring it, so it must be right.
Thing is … what was measured yesterday … might be the wrong thing to manage today.
Skippy strategy: Check that the checking isn’t a check-box exercise.
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Category:
Focus
There’s comes a moment, oh, I don’t know, about a hundred times a day, when, just for a second or twenty, you don’t have total command…