The Five Passes

The five passes

Take your one situation through these five. Each pass names a question and one small move you could make out of it this week.

One. Who gets to decide, and who can see what is actually happening?

This pass separates two things that usually get bundled together: who can see what is actually happening, and who gets to decide. When those sit in different places, information has to travel between them, and something gets lost on the way. Often it names a gap you have been working around for months. You are somewhere in that gap yourself, so it is worth asking what your position lets you see and what it hides.

One move: move the decision a little closer to the facts, or the facts a little closer to whoever decides.

Two. Can this room change the rule, or only report it?

Take a rule that is getting in the way. This pass asks whether the people you are actually with can change it, or can only report that it is a problem. It sorts what you have been treating as fixed from what is actually yours to reset. Some of what you treated as beyond anyone's control turns out to be a rule you set yourself. Some of what felt like your fault turns out to sit with people you cannot reach yet.

One move: change the smallest rule you actually can, and watch what else shifts when you do.

Three. What does the way this is set up make easy, and what does it make almost impossible?

Look at how people behave here, and before you put it down to character, look at the structure they are working inside. This pass finds what that structure makes the easy thing to do and what it makes nearly impossible. It turns resistance into useful information: the person who keeps blocking you is usually doing the sensible thing for the structure they are in. It also turns the question back on you, because you are inside this structure too, and it is quietly making some things easy for you as well.

One move: set one rule that you would also live under yourself, so the thing you want becomes the easy thing to do.

Four. What is the smooth running here costing, and whose spare capacity pays for it?

The smooth running here is being paid for by someone. This pass asks who is quietly holding things together, and whose spare capacity is paying for it. The answer is often someone further down the line and quieter than you, and sometimes it is you carrying it for someone else. It also asks what would still have room to give if tomorrow turned hard.

One move: hand some spare capacity back, and accept a little less certainty on purpose, so there is room to move when it matters.

Five. Which groups here decide about each other but never actually meet?

This pass looks for the people who make decisions about others they never meet, and the gaps you keep working across where two sides stay strangers. That distance usually causes problems neither side intended. And you are one of these groups yourself, not above them, so the group you most need to understand is often the one you deal with least.

One move: bring one pair of these groups close enough to work together, and take the first small step to get them in the same room.

Then choose.

By now one question has probably pulled harder than the others. Start there. Name the one step you will take this week, make sure it is yours to make, and put a date on it. Writing the step down is only the start. What matters is what has changed when you come back to it next time.