Reflection 002 |

The Connection Nobody Checked

When something goes wrong, our instinct is usually to look for where it went wrong.

• Was it Engineering?
• Quality?
• Operations?
• Management?

We look for the department where the problem became visible. Over the years, I have learned that this is often the wrong place to start. Not because the problem isn't there.

But because it usually started somewhere else:

Between them.

One of the patterns I see most often in projects is that every function is working incredibly hard.

• Engineering is designing.
• Quality is reviewing.
• Operations is preparing.
• Project Management is planning.
• Purchasing is negotiating.

• Everyone is moving.
• Everyone is making progress.
• Everyone believes they are helping the project succeed.

And most of the time, they are.

The interesting part is that major problems rarely begin inside one of those functions. They begin in the space between them.

• Engineering assumes Quality has already reviewed an important decision.
• Quality assumes Operations has already been involved.
• Operations assumes the documentation reflects how the process will actually work.
• Management assumes the difficult conversations already happened before the milestone was approved.

None of those assumptions are unreasonable. That is exactly why they are dangerous. The connection between departments is rarely owned by one person. It is owned collectively.

And when something is owned collectively, it is surprisingly easy for everyone to believe somebody else has already checked it.

• I've seen this happen in pharmaceutical projects.
• I've seen it happen in manufacturing.
• I've seen it happen in software.
• I've seen it happen in everyday life.

The names of the departments change. The pattern doesn't. Perhaps that is why I have become less interested in asking who made the mistake. Most people genuinely care. Most people are trying to do good work.

Instead, I have become interested in a different question.

• What was quietly assumed to exist?
• Was the handover really understood?
• Was ownership really clear?
• Did everyone mean the same thing?
• Or did we simply believe the connection was there because it made sense that it should be?

One sentence has stayed with me throughout my career:

Good people can unintentionally protect weak systems.

• They clarify.
• They remind.
• They solve.
• They compensate.
• They make things work.

From the outside, everything appears stable.

Until one day those invisible connections are no longer enough.

Then we call it:

• A delay.
• Or a deviation.
• Or an audit finding.
• Or poor communication.

But perhaps it is none of those.

Perhaps it is simply the first moment we noticed that the connection had never really been built.

So this week, I leave you with the question I have been asking myself:

What in your work exists only because everyone assumes someone else has already checked it?

Because sometimes the biggest blind spot isn't inside a department. It's in the space between them.

And that's often where the most valuable conversations begin.