The Punch List Manifesto
“The processes required to listen to the customer and to deliver the desired value run horizontally across departments and functions.” -Lean Solutions
There is a difference between activity and impact.
Anyone that has bought a house knows this well, as they work through the punch list of items to be fixed. Even when there are countless subcontractors working on the house, if the items on the punch list are not completed correctly, the effort is somewhat irrelevant. Often, completion of the items requires cooperation across multiple types of subcontractors. There is alot of activity, but the outcome is all that matters.
The origination of the term punch list is debated. Some sources point to early installations of telephone terminals (“punching down”). The ever reliable Wikipedia points to the notion of literally punching a hole in paper. The punch of a hole in paper (typically a contractor’s documents), signified the completion of an item. There also appears to have been a practice at one point where each subcontrctor would have their own hole punch design, so that the completion of a task could be tracked to an individual. History aside, the key attributes of a punch list are four-fold:
- There are a set of specifications to be met and the outcome is binary: it’s either done or not.
- Completion is in the eyes of the receiver. It’s not done until the person it’s being done for, agrees it’s done.
- It’s typically reserved for the critical few items vs. everything that could possibly be done.
- The specification must be solved permanently.
Given these attributes, the activity of completing the punch list is just a means to an end. The endgame is the permanent completed outcome. And ‘complete’ is in the eyes of the beneficiary.
The business world equivalent of a punch list is the less exotic to-do list. But that is where the parallels stop. Typically, a to-do list is the 100+ activities that an individual seeks to complete. It’s complete when they believe it’s complete. And, there is often satisfaction in the completion vs. the outcome. It’s no wonder that people are often running 200 mph doing ‘things’, but they finish their day unfulfilled. It’s because they measure their days by task completion (activity), instead of outcome.
A punch list approach would focus on outcomes, instead of activity, and lead to better results. By definition, it would be limited/prioritized to high impact. Success would be redfined in the eyes of the beneficiary (which often demands cross-functional outcomes). And the outcome would be permanent or at least hard-coded in future processes to ensure permanence.
Abandon the to-do list. Optimize outcomes with a punch list.
