Audit a Process for Steps That Are Only Habit
Added 2026-11-06
Nobody remembers why, but everybody does it.
This is our process: [steps, roles, frequency]. Find the steps that exist only by habit: 1) ask of each step what specific problem it prevents; mark the ones with no answer; 2) classify them as compliance or audit requirement, error prevention, information sharing, or legacy, with evidence; 3) say which can be merged, automated, or removed, and what each needs first; 4) estimate the time cost and failure risk of each suspicious step; 5) design a small trial that removes or simplifies one step for two weeks and see what breaks; 6) name the steps that look redundant but must stay.
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[steps, roles, frequency]
How to use
Before deleting a step, ask what it last saved; if nobody knows, consider removing it.
Try tweaking it
- Ask for three columns: conclusion, owner, deadline — ready to paste into a table.
- Let it organise only your notes; do not add decisions that were never made.
What you should get
- Task list with owner, deadline and blocker
- Escalations that need a decision, listed separately
Common mistakes
- Feeding raw notes and letting it fill in decisions that were never made.
- Getting owners without deadlines, so no task can be created.
How to check the output
- Every item has an owner and a date — ready to become a task.
- It does not record decisions that were never made.
Where it works
- Good for: turning verbal discussion into owner, deadline and blocker.
- Watch out: let it organise only the notes you supply — never let it infer decisions that were not made.