5 Inspection

A great way to start getting clear after emptying your bucket is to engage in some inspection. This is simply the act of determining what all the words in a given headscratcher mean and ensuring all the parties involved in solving it are operating according to these same definitions. This simple technique can generate some amazing discussions when a group of people gets together to define words such as better, faster, or quality.

Here's a simple example: Have you ever had a passenger in your car while looking for a space in a parking lot? While you're scanning for a space, you're also watching out for people walking and other drivers dashing through the lot. Your passenger shouts out, “There's a spot over there!” Now you either have to take your eyes off where you are driving to look where your passenger is pointing or have to ask, “Where is ‘there’?” It would have been much more efficient if your passenger had said, “There's a spot one row over to the right and four or five cars ahead of you.” Although these words take more time to say than “over there,” they are much clearer, and the result will be a faster understanding of the situation—and a parked car.

Here's a common business example: we need to improve the quality of our services. Just about every company we work with has this goal. Let's take a closer look at this statement:

• We: Who are we? Your group? Your department? Everyone in your company? Does that include your partners, vendors, and suppliers—or perhaps even your customers? Consider it from another perspective: Have you ever said, “We need to take out the garbage when we get home”? Are we the entire family, your spouse and yourself, one of your children, just you, or just your spouse? If you are not clear on who we are, everyone might think it means someone else. In this instance, confusion over we results in the garbage not being taken out at all.
• Need: Is this a need or a want? This is a huge distinction. People tend to use “I need” or “We need” interchangeably with “I want” or “We want” all the time. In critical thinking, we use the term necessary—because it's hard to mix up wanted with necessary. We'll cover need in its own chapter, but for now, the important thing is to determine whether something is necessary or wanted. Of course, you want to improve service to your customers. But that's not the question. The question is, is doing so necessary?
• Improve: Improve to what? How do you plan to measure whether quality improves? If you can't measure it, how would you know you improved it? Let's say you manufactured 1,000 widgets per day, and 75 were rejected because of defects. Your manufacturing manager might say, “We need to improve our yield,” so someone might start an initiative to improve. Two weeks later, the average rejection rate after manufacturing 1,000 widgets is 74 per day (down from 75). That's technically an improvement, from 75 to 74 defects, yet that's likely not what management meant by improvement. If the manager had been specific—for example, if he or she had said, “We need to bring our defective rate down to 25 per 1,000 widgets”—not only would the goal be clear, but employees also could have launched an appropriate initiative to achieve that result.
• Quality: What's the definition of quality? It's however you define it. If you're working in groups, it's what the group agrees it to mean. Let's say you're working with three other groups, and each has a different definition of the word quality. The result is likely to be many misses. And when people have a different definition for quality, they probably have a different definition of the word done. “I'm done!” someone exclaims, and others look at him in surprise, saying, “No, we don't think so; you have to document your work.”
• Our services: Does this mean every service; every touch; all the things your company produces, resells, distributes, and represents? Or only some of them? And what are the services? Answering the phone? Updating and maintaining your website? Staying on top of your delivery schedule? Getting 10 out of 10 on a survey?

Developing a clear understanding of the terms eliminates confusion and ambiguity. Even when you are working alone, you can think critically and inspect your problem statement. Don't just wave your hands and say, “Yeah, I know what I mean.” If you claim that, you won't be nearly as clear on your issue as you would be if you sat down for a few minutes and wrote down what you actually mean.

Getting Started with Inspection

Here are a few simple places you can get started on inspection right away:

• E-mail: Everyone reading this book probably writes at least a few e-mails a day, perhaps dozens or more. The next time you write an e-mail, ask yourself before you hit Send, “Is what I am about to send clear? Could any of the recipients of this e-mail misinterpret what I mean?” Suppose your e-mail said, “We need to get this done faster!” Instead, you might say, “It takes us ten days to do this, and we need to do it in seven days.” It's a little bit more precise and certainly clearer.
• Meetings: Meetings are a great place to utilize inspection, because people throw all kinds of words out in meetings. Someone might say, “We need to reduce our spending on this project.” Ask for clarification on reduce—reduce the total spent to what, and over what period? Does reduce mean fewer people or less capital? Does reduce include reducing the scope of the project, too?
• Goal setting: Inspect the words you use when setting goals. How would you measure achievement of that goal? What do you mean when you say something like, “I would like to improve my performance”? There's a difference between would like to and have to (want versus need). Also, what do improve and performance mean to you? Both words are very vague. If you spend just a few minutes developing a clear meaning of these terms, you'll save a tremendous amount of time later. You'll also know you're addressing the right issue.
• Provision of instructions: Everyone knows that when instructions are not clear, the appropriate results are not achieved. An example is having to assemble a piece of furniture, a toy, or an appliance but the instructions are unclear.
• Requirements for review: Much like unclear instructions, unclear requirements lead to deliverables that most likely miss expectations. Unclear product requirement documents is one of the major causes of product delays.
• One-on-one, crucial, and hard-to-have conversations, such as a performance improvement plan: Clarity can prevent misunderstandings and continued problems.