Map a process on a wall

Pick a process your team runs weekly. Get two people who actually do it — not their manager — and a wall.

The brief

• One card per step. A card describes something a person or system does, not a stage it is in.
• Have both people lay out their version separately, then compare.
• At every card, ask: what makes this step go wrong?
• Write each exception on a different colour and put it under its step.

The rule

Do not resolve disagreements between the two layouts. Photograph them. The disagreement is the finding — it is the proof that this process is not yet definable enough to automate.

How to tell it worked

You should finish with more exception cards than step cards. If you do not, you have not asked the question hard enough at each step.