I asked the IT managers a simple question: why are we always pushing for processes, checklists, and procedures? My first answer was “lack of knowledge.” Then I corrected myself. It is a lack of using the knowledge. I will explain why those two are different.
The Windows default
We say we know security. Then why do we leave Windows on default settings? An SMB printer is a good example. Everyone who knows security knows what to change. It is not a hard problem. Yet we leave it, and later somebody adds a line to a checklist: “remember to change the default.” If we really knew it and used it, that line would not exist.
Two different diagnoses
Either we don’t have the knowledge, even if we say we do. Or we have it and we don’t use it. I believe the first one is bigger than we want to admit, because we claim more than we know. The fixes are different. The first needs learning. The second needs discipline and a better workflow. If we mix them, we fix neither.
“A checklist on the fridge doesn’t make you a cook.”
Who to blame
A big share of the daily tasks that slow us down come from this. I did not count exactly, and maybe we should. Look at your own tickets and see how many are the same thing again. The blame is not on the users. They clicked what we allowed them to click. The blame is on us, and I say it as one of us.
What a system is for
Imagine a perfect world. Everything is configured right the first time, and people do their job well. In that world nobody comes to you asking, “Did you check this? Did you remember that?” A system there has one job, to keep people in line. It is a safety net under the wire.
A net is fine to have. Even good people forget things when they are busy, and I accept that. But if the net catches us every day, the problem is not the net. The problem is how we walk.
Be honest about what we know and what we only say we know. After that, the checklist becomes a backup. Right now it is a replacement for knowing the job!