Catching the Rabbit - Capability 2

Low-velocity organizations are adept at fixing problems once they have surfaced and the damage has been done.  High-velocity organizations are adept at detecting them and pinpointing where they occur before the damage is done.

"They are equally adept at (1) containing those problems before they have a chance to spread and (2) diagnosing and treating their causes so the problems cannot reoccur."

In doing this high-velocity organizations build a dynamic knowledge base from the inevitable problems that occur and broaden their expertise regarding how to manage their organization by "...converting inevitable upfront ignorance into knowledge". Investing upfront in the overhead of surgical precision detection they avoid the unknown expense of damage control after the fact.

These are five steps that could be used to implement Capability 2 of high-velocity organizations.

1. Implement a human or automated detection mechanism at a given point or points in a process
2. Analyze the information collected when a problem is detected
3. Document the cause and the possible solutions
4. Implement the necessary changes
5. Observe and report results

As more detection points are established the number of defects will decrease and the increase of institutional knowledge accelerates.

Next time we'll dig into Capability 3.

From Chasing the Rabbit by Steve Spear