How I work
I ask why before I change what.
Never tear down a fence until you know why it was built. I want to understand the situation, the constraints, and the people doing the work before deciding what should be different.
Curiosity is useful.A practical way through complexity
I’m looking for the whole picture, not a quick fix that creates another problem somewhere else.
- 1
Understand
See the whole situation.
What’s happening now? Who touches the work? Where does the information begin, and where does it need to go? What are people doing twice? What matters that isn’t written down?
- 2
Connect
Find the relationships between the pieces.
A process problem may really be an information problem. A software problem may be a handoff problem. The useful answer appears when the parts are viewed together.
- 3
Simplify
Remove friction without removing purpose.
I look for needless repetition, invisible dependencies, confusing steps, and workarounds that became permanent. Then I keep what matters and make the rest clearer.
- 4
Make it usable
Leave something people can actually work with.
The goal isn’t a clever solution only its creator understands. It’s a process, tool, system, or plan that still makes sense after I leave.
The bigger measure
I’m interested in whole-project time.
A step that saves one person five minutes but creates an hour of cleanup elsewhere isn’t an improvement. I look at the effect on the entire job and the people who have to carry it forward.
See that thinking in action →
The result