Step 3 of 7 · By day 7
What is the root cause?
Write down which of the three patterns the evidence points to, and date it, before you run the confirming tools. The conclusion has to survive the evidence rather than adjust to it.
In a stuck company everything feels important and everything feels urgent, so effort scatters across symptoms. One pattern is the root and the others grew out of it. Fix the root and most of what sits on top clears. Treat the symptoms and the root keeps growing.
Letting the conclusion move to fit the next piece of evidence, or grading a person in front of their team and burning the trust the rest of the work needs.
Tool 10 of 32
Whether the big stalled decision has a real, reachable finish line, read from the shape of one answer.
In Pattern, once the big stalled decision is on the table, with the last three named conditions checked against the record when the bar seems to have moved.
Tool 11 of 32
Whether the thing customers actually pay for is being fed or starved, read from behavior and twelve months of numbers.
In Pattern, once misplaced effort is on the table, from behavior, support, the dashboard, and twelve months of history.
Tool 12 of 32
A never-agreed role and a struggling person wear the same face. This tells them apart, and it tests the role's definition before any person is tested.
Stage 1 during Pattern, written separately by the person in the role and the person the role reports to. Stage 2 only after those sentences agree, on a request small enough to return inside the diagnosis window.
Tool 13 of 32
Runs on whoever is doing the diagnosing, including us, before any conclusion is acted on.
In Pattern, before findings are written up or any conclusion is acted on, including when you are diagnosing your own company.