Last month, a conversation about someone struggling after a promotion ended with one question: What did you expect them to already know?
It’s stayed with me, because it has a twin. If we assume people already know things, it’s usually because we’ve stopped noticing how much we know ourselves.
Nobody sets out to build a business full of workarounds. They start as sensible fixes. A spreadsheet to cover a system gap. A “just ask Sarah, she knows how to do it”. A step added after something went wrong once.
Then the workaround works and nothing bad happens, so it stays. Sociologist Diane Vaughan studied this pattern after the Challenger disaster. Her concept focused on, ‘the normalisation of deviance, describes how deviations from the norm become ingrained in organisations through production pressure, poor communication and workplace culture.’* In short, when something is repeated without a bad outcome, it becomes the accepted norm.
Most of us aren’t launching shuttles, and the stakes are far lower. But the point is the same. The longer a workaround survives, the less anyone sees it as one.
Five ways to start noticing again
Ask your newest person for their list. In their first month, ask what confused, surprised or frustrated them. Do it before they learn not to see it.
Count your workarounds. Ask each team to name three things they do “because the system doesn’t.” The list grows quickly.
Read your customers’ questions. Repeated questions often point to something you’ve stopped explaining clearly.
Check your assumptions at every handover. When someone starts a new role, write down what you expect them to already know. Then check whether anyone has actually told them.
Make it safe to say, “this seems odd.” Noticing only helps if people speak up.
We Have spoken before about Bottlenecks and how they can effect business, assumption can play a part in building bottlenecks into your business by accident.
If you need some help to lay it all out, ATL offers training and coaching to help you and your team become the best you can be. Why not contact us to learn more
*Source: Columbia Magazine on Vaughan and the normalisation of deviance: https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/challenger-disaster-normalization-deviance