Cheap to Make, Costly to Check · Volume One

Tools

Eleven tools, twenty-six handholds, and where each one is built. The worksheets are in Part Five of the book.

The eleven tools

Tool	Built in
The inventory — what is actually running	Chapter 2
The three failure modes	Chapter 2
The five triggers — does this need a rule at all	Chapter 8
The four zones — how strictly handled	Chapter 8
The constitutional-rank test	Chapter 9
The pattern review	Chapter 9
The duty to challenge	Chapter 9
The pace rule	Chapter 11
The coupling points	Chapter 11
Configuration power	Chapter 13
Unassisted practice	Chapter 14

Twenty-six things to do

A handhold produces a finding. A commitment sets something that stands afterward. None of them is a project.

Ch.	Form	What to do	Time
1	Handhold	One pair of numbers: items per week at a checkpoint against minutes for a serious check	two hours
2	Handhold	The list of your systems, sorted into three layers — count before you explain	an afternoon
3	Handhold	The same pair of numbers on your longest-running AI use	fifteen minutes
4	Handhold	Three things that were true about your last significant decision and appear in no file	twenty minutes
5	Handhold	Mark where a standard tone would be noticed	half an hour
5	Handhold	What work did you learn to judge on — and who gets that practice now?	ten minutes
6	Handhold	Two phone calls: who stands behind the last thing you relied on, and for what exactly	fifteen minutes
7	Handhold	Write down who signed the maintenance agreement and who installed the last update	fifteen minutes
7	Handhold	Run the last AI decision through all five perspectives	—
7	Handhold	Approvals issued last week against those where you saw the material yourself	ten minutes
8	Commitment	Apply the five triggers before every new use and every new rule	—
9	Handhold	The pattern review: who was invited, who was not, what separates the groups	half an hour, quarterly
11	Handhold	Assign each process one of the four paces, with a date and a name	a morning
11	Handhold	Measure one coupling point instead of estimating — three numbers	two hours
12	Handhold	The load check: four questions, with the people affected	half a day
12	Handhold	Not only what a tool saves — what happens to the time it saved	—
13	Handhold	Write a name behind every pre-sorting system	one hour
13	Commitment	Fix your own position before looking at the system; log dissenting views	ten minutes
14	Commitment	Set a recurring date on the calendar at which work happens without the system	—
14	Handhold	Mark ten decisions where your information advantage actually decided	—
15	Handhold	Write the actual pace next to each zone	—
15	Handhold	Count the empty fields where no name stands for the configuration	twenty minutes
16	Handhold	Hold a reviewed decision against the five conditions and cross off whatever fails	—
16	Handhold	Write the question you would ask a colleague — then look for who can answer it	twenty minutes
16	Commitment	Write the one sentence on update review, and ask for two numbers	—
16	Handhold	Look for a review hours figure in your last business case	—

Where no time is given, the chapter gives none — usually because it depends on the size of the organization.