Five Questions
1. What's the goal?Most work fails before it starts because nobody asked this. Get it written down. Get everyone to agree on it. Everything else answers to it.
2. Where does it say that?If someone tells me we have to do something, I want to see where it's written down. A policy, a standard, a contract, a regulation, anything. If it's not written down somewhere with someone's name on it, it's not a requirement yet. It's just something everyone assumes is true.
3. Who made the commitment?A request is not a commitment. Clarify what's needed, who owns it, and by when. A "yes" without a "how" changes nothing.
4. What's the system actually rewarding?People do what the system makes easy or profitable. Before blaming the person, find what the system is paying them to do. That's what you'll keep getting until the system changes.
5. What's everyone ignoring?The most valuable problems in any organization are the ones nobody owns. They've been there so long they became invisible.