Most procedures answer only one question
Steps with no owner, no trigger, and no way to check them get followed for a few weeks, then forgotten.
Volume 02, Chapter 2
The Six Questions Every System Must Answer
Two tailors are both asked to sweep and lock up. The next morning, the shop is a mess and the door was left open. Neither of them was lying. So what actually went wrong?
The Golden Rule
A written list of steps is not the same thing as a complete system. A complete system answers six questions, not just one.
A list of steps only tells someone how to do a task. It doesn't say who is responsible, when it should happen, how anyone can tell it worked, or what to do if it didn't. Miss any one of those, and the task quietly stops happening, usually without anyone noticing until it's too late.
One named ownerNot a team. If everyone owns it, no one actually does.
A trigger anyone can see"Regularly" isn't a trigger. A date, a count, or an event is.
A plan made in advanceDecided on a calm day, not invented during the emergency.
One name, not a group
The owner isn't necessarily the person who does the task, they're the person who answers for whether it happened.
A measure you can actually check
"Well maintained" can't be checked by anyone. "Downtime under 2 hours" can.
The same six questions everywhere
An oven, a software release, a school term, an investment decision, all the same six questions.
1
Definition
Imagine two tailors at MANIAC MINDZ are both asked to sweep the workshop and lock up before leaving. The next morning, the floor is covered in thread and fabric scraps, and the front door was left unlocked overnight.
One tailor says, "I thought the other one was doing it." The other says, "I thought that was for tomorrow, not today." Nobody checked whether it actually got done, so nobody caught the problem until the shop opened dirty and unlocked.
Notice that the problem here was never that anyone didn't know how to sweep a floor or lock a door. The problem was that nobody knew whose job it was, when exactly it had to happen, how to tell whether it had actually been done, or what to do if it wasn't. Four missing answers, and a simple task quietly failed.
That's why a business system has to answer more than just "how." A task becomes a complete system only once it answers all six of these questions, in writing: 1. Why does this system exist? 2. Who owns it? 3. When is it performed? 4. How is it performed? 5. How is success measured? 6. What happens if it fails?
In One Sentence
A complete system answers all six: why it exists, who owns it, when it happens, how it's done, how you'd know it worked, and what happens if it fails. Most broken procedures only ever answer "how."
2
The Six Questions, One by One
Why?
One sentence. If you can't write it, the system may not deserve to exist.
The purposeWho Owns It?
One name, not a group. Who performs it isn't necessarily who's answerable.
The ownerWhen?
A trigger anyone can observe: a date, a day, a count, or an event.
The triggerHow?
The steps, written where the work happens, numbered, short, trap called out.
The stepsMeasured?
A number or checkable fact, so people can tell whether the system is still working.
The measureIf It Fails?
The pre-decided response: who's told, the backup, what gets recorded.
The failure planLet's answer all six for a real MANIAC MINDZ system: keeping the sewing machines running. A dead machine in the middle of a wedding order is exactly the kind of quiet disaster a system like this exists to prevent.
Business System
Sewing Machine Maintenance
Purpose: Keep every sewing machine reliable so production isn't interrupted by preventable breakdowns.
Q1 · Why does this system exist?
Start here, before anything else, with one sentence explaining the reason the system exists at all. If you can't write that sentence, the system may not be worth building. People also follow rules more reliably once they understand what the rule is actually protecting them from.
"Machines that stop mid-order cost us deadlines and our on-time reputation; maintenance catches problems while they're still cheap to fix."
Q2 · Who owns it?
Imagine a manager asks, "who was responsible for locking the shop last night?" and someone answers, "the evening team." That sounds like an answer, but it isn't really one. Who, specifically, on the evening team? Nobody actually knows, which means nobody is actually accountable.
When a group owns a task, in practice, no individual person owns it. A complete system always names one person who is responsible for making sure the task happens. That person can ask others to help do it, but they stay accountable for whether it actually got done.
Owner: the Senior Tailor. The Senior Tailor can ask each tailor to wipe down their own machine daily, but the Senior Tailor is the one person accountable for the monthly service happening.
Q3 · When is it performed?
Every system needs a clear starting point, a specific moment that tells everyone it's time to begin. This starting point is called a trigger.
Good triggers include a specific date, a specific day of the week, a count ("every 50th order"), or an event ("the moment a machine skips a stitch"). Bad triggers include words like "regularly," "sometimes," or "when needed," because those depend on each person's opinion of what "regularly" means, and different people will always guess differently.
- Daily, end-of-day de-linting.
- Monthly, first Saturday of every month, full service.
- Event-triggered, any skipped stitches means a same-day inspection.
Q4 · How is it performed?
These are the actual steps, written down and kept exactly where the work happens (the laminated-card rule). Numbered, short, with the one step people usually get wrong called out clearly so it can't be missed.
1Unplug the machine.
2Remove the needle plate.
3Brush out all lint and dust.
4Add ONE drop of oil to the hook race.
5Run scrap fabric through the machine for 30 seconds.
6Record the maintenance in the maintenance log.
Q5 · How is success measured?
Imagine two people both assume the maintenance system is working fine, because nobody has ever actually checked. Then a machine breaks down anyway, and everyone is caught off guard. That's what happens without a measure: small problems build up silently until the day they explode into a big one.
A measure is a number or a fact that anyone can check, so the business finds out whether the system is really working before that day arrives, not after.
Maintenance Log
100% completed every month.
Machine Downtime
Under 2 hours of unplanned downtime each month.
Q6 · What happens if it fails?
Now imagine the machine does break, mid-order, exactly like the story that opened this chapter. If nobody decided in advance what happens next, the whole team stops and argues about what to do while the deadline gets closer by the minute.
A failure plan means that conversation already happened, on a calm day, long before the emergency. Everyone already knows who gets told, what the backup is, and what gets written down so the business actually learns from it.
If the machine breaks anyway:
- Move the work immediately to backup machine #7.
- The Senior Tailor calls the repair technician, using the number on the wall card.
- Record the failure and its cause in the Mistake Log.
3
The Whole System on One Card
| Question | Answer (Machine Maintenance) |
|---|---|
| 1. Why? | Breakdowns cost deadlines and reputation; maintenance is cheaper than repair |
| 2. Who owns it? | Senior Tailor (performs: each tailor daily; Senior Tailor monthly) |
| 3. When? | Daily close, first Saturday monthly, instantly on skipped stitches |
| 4. How? | 6 steps on the card at the machine station |
| 5. Measured by? | Log completeness 100%; downtime under 2 hrs/month |
| 6. If it fails? | Backup machine #7, then call technician, then record cause in Mistake Log |
All six answers fit on one page, on purpose. This exact table is the template for every system in the business, print the blank version: System Design Worksheet.
Memory Trick
Run through the six in order: Why, Who, When, How, Measured, Failed. If any one of the six is missing, the system is incomplete, and it should be fixed before anyone relies on it.
4
Across Industries: The Same Six Questions
A bakery, a software company, and a school don't look anything alike day to day. Look at how each one answers the exact same six questions below.
Golden Crust Bakery
SystemOven firing.
WhyCold oven = no morning bread = lost regulars.
Owner & triggerHead Baker, 4:30 a.m. daily.
Nimbus Labs
SystemReleasing an update.
WhyBad releases lose paying users' trust.
Owner & triggerLead Developer, every second Friday.
School
SystemTerm enrolment.
WhyMissed enrolments = empty seats all term.
Owner & triggerRegistrar, 6 weeks before each term.
| Question | Bakery: Oven Firing | Nimbus Labs: Releasing an Update | School: Term Enrolment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Why? | Cold oven = no morning bread = lost regulars | Bad releases lose paying users' trust | Missed enrolments = empty seats all term |
| Who owns it? | Head Baker | Lead Developer | Registrar |
| When? | 4:30 a.m. daily | Every second Friday | 6 weeks before each term |
| How? | 5-step firing card by the oven | Release checklist in the project tool | Enrolment pack + follow-up call script |
| Measured? | First loaves out by 6:00, 95% of days or more | Fewer than 1 emergency fix per 10 releases | 90% or more of returning families enrolled by week 2 |
| If it fails? | Backup gas oven; call supplier by 5 a.m. | Roll back to last version in 10 minutes | Registrar calls every non-response personally |
Different businesses. Same six questions, every time. Once your team can answer these six for one recurring task, they can use the exact same method for any other one, from cash handling to taking on an investor.
5
Common Mistakes
Common Mistake #1: Only Answering "How"
Steps with no owner, no trigger, and no way to measure them become a document nobody follows after the third week.
Common Mistake #2: A Committee as Owner
"The production team owns it" sounds fine until the day it's skipped, and no individual person actually failed, because no individual person was actually responsible. One name per system, always.
Common Mistake #3: No Failure Plan
If Q6 is left blank, every failure gets improvised at the worst possible moment. The backup machine, the technician's number, the rollback step, these should be decided on a calm day, not invented during the emergency.
Common Mistake #4: A Measure Nobody Can Actually Check
"Machines should be well maintained" can't be checked by anyone. "Log 100% complete, downtime under 2 hours" can. If Q5 has no number or checkable fact behind it, rewrite it until it does.
6
Quiz Yourself
Quiz 1
Recite the six questions.
Why does it exist? Who owns it? When is it performed? How is it performed? How is success measured? What happens if it fails?
Quiz 2
Why must the owner be one person rather than a team?
Shared ownership dissolves accountability. When everyone owns a task, its failure is nobody's failure in particular, so it quietly gets skipped, exactly like the shop nobody swept.
Quiz 3
"Clean the display fridge regularly." Which questions does this fail?
At minimum Q3 (no observable trigger, "regularly" means nothing specific), Q2 (no owner named), Q5 (no measure), and Q6 (no failure plan). As written, it's a wish, not a system.
7
Practice Exercise
Take the laminated-card task you built in Chapter 1's exercise, it currently only answers Q4, the "how."
- Open the System Design Worksheet.
- Fill in the other five questions: why it exists, one named owner, an observable trigger, a number you can check, and a plan for what happens if it fails.
- Show the owner their name written on it. A system nobody knows they own is still, in practice, unowned.
- Put a reminder in your diary to check the Q5 measure one month from today.
8
Quick Summary
Quick Summary
- A complete system answers six questions: Why, Who, When, How, Measured, Failed.
- Most broken "procedures" only ever answered How.
- The owner is one named person; the trigger is observable; the measure is checkable; the failure response is decided in advance.
- The same six questions work for anything recurring: an oven, a software release, a school term, or an investment decision.
- Blank template: System Design Worksheet.
Related Topics