BEGIN WITH
AN ORDINARY EXAMPLE.

FOLLOW SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS OFTEN.

Start with a recurring request, order or internal project. A typical example can reveal more about everyday operations than an exceptional success or a spectacular failure.

The people who handle the work should help select and trace it. Their workarounds are part of the evidence.

RECORD THE WORK AND THE WAITING.

Write down where the request starts, who receives it and what allows it to move. Mark where it waits, returns for clarification or needs a decision. Keep the actual route separate from the process people think should happen.

At each point, identify the input, the person responsible and the next action. An unknown answer is a useful finding to discuss.

CHANGE ONE POINT YOU UNDERSTAND.

Agree which issue to address first and what the team is able to change. Define an experiment, an owner and a review point. Avoid rewriting the whole process before the team has tried the first change.