Twenty-six patterns, each on one card
Every chapter of From Zero to AI Agents That Do The Work ends with a pattern. Here is each pattern with an example from another trade, quoted from the book, and an exercise to try yourself.
The map of the book
Five parts, and each part makes the next one possible. Click a chapter to go to its card.
- Part IMaking one thing cheap
- Part IIAnd then a hundred at once
- Part IIIWhen it goes wrong
- Part IVIt becomes an organization
- Part VOut in the real world
- chapter 1Part I
The tools first, then the thing
what this made cheaperEverything that came after. The evening on which nothing was made is the reason so much could be made afterwards.
From another trade · the photographer
Chapter 1, ‘This is not about software’A photographer who takes two thousand frames on a job can look through all of them one by one. Or he can spend half a day first on fixing his lighting and his processing, after which every job starts at eighty per cent. That half day produces nothing that day.
Exercise: Ask what is actually in there
Open the example folder and ask what it holds. Build nothing, change nothing — just look. This is the shortest version of what this chapter describes: you type one sentence and get back something you would otherwise have spent a morning on. Allow two minutes.
Ask your agent
This is the administration of a construction company. Describe in ten lines which business processes you can see here, then name three things that stand out to you.What you'll see
A list of processes you had never laid out like that yourself — from acquisition and estimating to quality assurance and aftercare — plus three remarks about what stands out. Watch the third remark. The first two are usually what you already knew; the third is regularly something you had never looked at.
- chapter 2Part I
What fell away, and what did not
what this made cheaperThe distance between a decision and the result got so short that making a wrong decision became cheaper than thinking about it for a long time.
From another trade · calculator and spellchecker
Chapter 2, ‘The shape underneath’That is not new and it is not about software. Every time the distance between decision and result shortened — the calculator, the spellchecker, the search engine — the doing disappeared and the judgment stayed.
Exercise: Have it recount what you used to check yourself
Four of the twelve rules in `rules.md` are about whether a job is complete. You check those by eye while there are fifteen, and not at all once there are fifteen hundred. Hand them over. Allow five minutes.
Ask your agent
rules.md lists twelve rules. Take rules 1 through 4 and check the folders jobs/ and extra-work/ against them. Per rule give only the violations, with the number, and nothing else.What you'll see
Four short lists, six lines between them. Three of the four rules are broken exactly once. The gap in the numbering is the interesting one: no file is missing, a number was simply never used — and you only find that by counting what is not there.
- chapter 3Part I
“Yes, but you are a programmer”
what this made cheaperThe objection became a question with an answer, and that question — how do I check whether it holds — is the question the rest of this book is built on.
From another trade · the accountant
Chapter 3, ‘The question you do have to answer’An accountant has figures that have to balance, and that is a test that ticks itself off.
Exercise: Have a pattern found in text nobody organized
The daily reports in `execution/daily-reports/` are loose sentences a site manager wrote down at the end of the day. There is no field in them, nothing is counted, and there is a pattern in them all the same. Have it found. Allow three minutes.
Ask your agent
Read all the daily reports in execution/daily-reports/ and tell me which kind of disruption comes back most often. Group by cause, not by wording, and support it with the lines you took it from.What you'll see
Ten days, seven with something noted, and all seven are worded differently. But grouped by cause, three of them fall together: the disruption comes from someone outside your own crew — a crane driver, a subcontractor, a tenant who was not home. That is not a conclusion that was in the data; it appears only once you group by cause rather than by words.
- chapter 4Part I
Facts, not opinions
what this made cheaperEvery fact I wrote down instead of an impression could be used by someone else — and later by something other than someone.
From another trade · supporting people into work
Chapter 4, ‘What a judgment does to the next step’Say "he is not motivated" and you have said something nobody can act on.
… Say "he did not come on the last three Tuesdays, and did come on the other days" and something else entirely is on the table. Now there is something to do.
Exercise: Have a complaint reduced to observations
`complaints/` holds four reports as they came in. Three of them contain a judgment — late, not fixed, differs — and you cannot build on a judgment. Have them reduced to what is factually there, and have that way of working written down at once so you never explain it again. Allow ten minutes.
Ask your agent
complaints/ holds reports from clients. For each one, separate what is an observation from what is a judgment, and for every observation find the date and the file it comes from. Then write that way of working down as a reusable procedure, with one line at the top saying when it applies.What you'll see
Four reports pulled apart, and then a file you did not write yourself. The next time a complaint comes in, that procedure offers itself — that is the difference from an agreement you remember on a good day.
- chapter 5Part I
Attainable before valuable
what this made cheaperEvery further reader and every further user arrived without anyone having to be convinced.
From another trade · the author and the bookshop
Chapter 5, ‘Four times nothing is still nothing’A paperback at € 14.99 sold through a bookshop leaves the author € 0.87. The same book sold directly leaves € 3.47. Four times as much.
… So what an intermediary delivers is not margin but reach.
Exercise: Have it work out what you can actually enter for
`tenders/` holds four invitations and `certificates/company-certificates.md` holds what the company has. The largest invitation is not automatically the best one: it is only worth something if you are allowed to enter. Have them laid side by side. Allow five minutes.
Ask your agent
For each tender, put side by side: the size, what is required, and whether we have that according to certificates/company-certificates.md. Say per tender whether we can enter, and if not, exactly what is missing.What you'll see
Four lines. Two can, two cannot — and the two that cannot are worth nearly a million between them. They do not fall away on price or on capacity but on one missing certificate. That is not a setback but a condition: it takes months and it is obtainable, only not before these two close.
- chapter 6Part I
Multipliers
what this made cheaperEvery following day. That is meant literally, and it is the only thing that separates a multiplier from a saving.
From another trade · the builder, the baker, the kitchen
Chapter 6, ‘And this is not about software’A builder with a fixed checklist for handover has the first. A practice that records what was agreed with a patient has the second. A baker who makes his own dough has the third. A photographer who fixes his processing has the fourth. A restaurant kitchen where a dish leaves the pass within a minute has the fifth — and that is the reason a second restaurant is even possible.
… What they all share: on the day they were made, they produced nothing.
Exercise: Bundle your separate checks into one procedure
You have now done the same thing three times: pick a rule, have a check written, run it. That is three rounds of work for three rules, and there are twelve. Have one procedure made that walks all of them — and have a second one put beside it that checks whether that round was complete. Allow fifteen minutes.
Ask your agent
rules.md lists twelve rules. Write a reusable procedure that walks all twelve against the folders they are about, reporting only the violations with their number. Also make a second, separate procedure that checks whether the round was complete, and have the first refer to the second. Then run the first and show me the result.What you'll see
Two procedures, and a result you would never have assembled by hand: fifteen violations across ten of the twelve rules. The competence rule stands out with four, and that is no coincidence — behind it sits one certificate that expired on a single day and hit four jobs at once. Seeing two rules with no violations is information too: those were run and are clean, which is not the same as not run.
- chapter 7Part II
And if you did it a thousand times?
what this made cheaperEverything that later had to scale up and did not have to be rebuilt, because the shape already allowed it.
From another trade · the restaurant
Chapter 7, ‘And this is about ordinary work’A restaurant with one chef can have a dish that depends on his judgment. That dish can be excellent. It simply cannot ever be in a second restaurant, or on his day off. A dish with a written measure and a checkpoint is perhaps slightly less — and it also exists when he is not there.
Exercise: Have it report only what changed
Your round from the previous chapter reports fifteen violations. With fifteen jobs that is manageable. With fifteen hundred it is not, and then something unpleasant happens: you stop reading the list. The question of this chapter is what changes when you do it a thousand times — and the answer is that the shape of the result has to change, not the check. Allow ten minutes.
Ask your agent
Adjust the round so it remembers the previous findings, and from now on report three things separately: what is new, what has been resolved, and how many are still open unchanged. Run it twice: now, and after I have changed something.What you'll see
The first round cannot compare anything and says so — fifteen findings, no comparison possible. After that the result is suddenly two lines instead of fifteen, and they are the two you have to do something about. The fifteen unchanged do not disappear, they get counted. That is the difference between ignoring something and acknowledging it.
- chapter 8Part II
Why are you still doing that yourself?
what this made cheaperEvery time the question got a different answer, work moved that never came back onto my pile.
From another trade · the mechanic
Chapter 8, ‘And this is not about software’A mechanic who checks every fault personally is right about the difficult cases. The easy eighty per cent just comes along with them.
Exercise: Ask what this arithmetic is still doing with you
Somebody puts the budgeted hours next to the actual ones every month. It takes an hour, it never goes wrong, and for that reason nobody has looked at it again. Have it recalculated and see whether the answer is still the same. Allow five minutes.
Ask your agent
For each job, put the budgeted margin next to the actual one, from cost-control/ and post-calculations/. Handle the running jobs separately and show there how much of the budgeted cost has already been spent.What you'll see
Six lines. Two finished jobs that stayed neatly within budget, one that lost sixteen percentage points of margin — and a running job that has already spent 106 per cent of its budgeted cost while it is still going. That last one appeared in no monthly overview, because a monthly overview looks at finished jobs.
- chapter 9Part II
Checking itself
what this made cheaperEvery check that turned into a number never had to be done by a human again.
From another trade · the photographer and the translator
Chapter 9, ‘What the machine can read, it can check’A photographer sorts two thousand shots on sharpness and closed eyes before looking at one; a translator first has it checked whether all the numbers, names and units match.
Exercise: Distrust your own check
Your check from the previous chapter reports four violations on rule 5. The question of this chapter is not whether there are four, but whether the check itself holds. A test rig is a suspect too, and you test it by making it fail on purpose. Allow ten minutes.
Ask your agent
In staff/t-underwood.md, change the certificate "OSHA 30" into "OSHA-30", with a hyphen instead of a space. Then run rule 5 again and tell me what changes and why.What you'll see
From four violations to eight. And the four new ones look entirely credible: t-underwood has no OSHA 30, four times, neatly with the job number. There is nothing about them that shows they are nonsense. The check compares the required name literally with the name in the staff file, and one hyphen is enough to break that comparison without anything going wrong.
- chapter 10Part II
Speed is not comfort
what this made cheaperTrying became cheaper than guessing, and with that every check from the previous chapter became something a machine can simply do as it goes.
From another trade · the cook
Chapter 10, ‘And this is not about software’A cook who tastes along the way corrects twenty times per dish. A cook who only hears how it was at the table corrects once a week.
Exercise: Measure how long your round takes
Your round from chapter 6 walks the whole administration. Before you start running it more often, you need to know what it costs — because that decides whether you run it in passing or once a month, and that in turn decides when you find something. Allow three minutes.
Ask your agent
Run the round three times in a row and measure how long it takes each time. Then say what that means for how often I can run it.What you'll see
Three times two hundredths of a second. That is not a performance figure but a threshold: under a second you run something in passing, without thinking about it. Over ten seconds you do it when you remember, and over a minute only when you have to. The check has not got better — it has got cheaper, and so you run it ten times as often.
- chapter 11Part II
Not on disk, never happened
what this made cheaperEvery time somebody had to continue where somebody else had stopped — including me, two weeks later, not recognizing my own work.
From another trade · the workshop
Chapter 11, ‘And this is not software’A workshop where the mechanic knows which cars have this fault loses that knowledge on the day he leaves. A workshop that records it still knows afterwards — and sees something on top of that which nobody could see while it sat in one head: that it happens more often on that one model year.
Exercise: Record the decision, not just the outcome
On 15 April the setting out of the extension was four centimetres off the drawing. That was resolved, and the decision is in the minutes. But the reason is not there, and in a year that is the only thing anybody needs. Have that searched for, and have a procedure made of it at once. Allow ten minutes.
Ask your agent
Find the places in execution/ where a decision was made, and check per decision whether the reason is there or only the outcome. Then write a reusable procedure for recording a decision, with one line at the top saying when it applies.What you'll see
Four sets of minutes with decisions, and four daily reports in which something is decided without being called a decision — reported to work preparation, passed on, reschedule. In none of the eight is the reason there. For the setting out the outcome is recorded (4 cm deviation agreed after adjusting the drawing) but not the trade-off: why adjusting was cheaper than moving.
- chapter 12Part III
Fratsen
what this made cheaperEvery frats that became visible no longer had to be absorbed by me — and only after that did it make sense to run more at once.
From another trade · the kitchen
Chapter 12, ‘And this holds far beyond this subject’A kitchen where one preparation step varies produces dishes that are all slightly different. Not one dish is wrong. The place just never becomes predictable.
Exercise: Group by kind instead of by project
`handover-points/` holds six points from four handovers. Per handover there are one or two, and then it looks like bad luck. Have them grouped by kind and see whether that still holds. Allow five minutes.
Ask your agent
Group the points in handover-points/ by kind instead of by job, and say which kind comes back most often. For each point, note whether it has been fixed or is still open.What you'll see
Three kinds. And then something shows up that was invisible per project: everything still open sits in the same kind. What is ugly — a sealant line, a cheek not in line — gets fixed on the spot. What is missing has to be ordered, scheduled and returned for, and so it sits. None of these six is a mistake; together they hold up two handovers.
- chapter 13Part III
Mistakes are your best teacher
what this made cheaperEvery mistake was made once instead of again and again, and what it yielded traveled on to the next one.
From another trade · the teacher
Chapter 13, ‘And this is not about programming’A teacher who writes down the ten mistakes every pupil makes never has to explain those ten ten times over again. The list goes out in advance, and the lesson is about the rest.
Exercise: Add the third step that always gets forgotten
There are three incidents in `safety/incidents/`, all three neatly with a measure attached. So working it out and fixing it have happened. The question of this chapter is the third step: who makes sure it does not come back? Allow ten minutes.
Ask your agent
Go through the incidents in safety/incidents/. For each, check whether the measure has been recorded anywhere as a recurring check, or whether it only exists as text inside the incident. Then write a procedure for handling an incident, with as a required last step which check prevents this kind of incident from returning.What you'll see
Three incidents, three measures, and zero checks. Hanging up cables, widening the cordon, handing out gloves: all three sensible, all three one-off, and none of them happens again next month by itself. And one of them was never reported — a fourth finding you get for free.
- chapter 14Part III
My tools lied to me
what this made cheaperEvery message that is now correct is a fault that costs no round next time — and next time there is someone there who cannot build up distrust.
From another trade · anyone who reads a gauge
Chapter 14, ‘And this is not about software’A thermometer hanging where the sun reaches it. It is not lying. It measures the temperature at that spot perfectly, and that spot is the wrong one.
Exercise: Ask what the overview is about
`cost-control/` looks like the overview of the running jobs. It holds up, it adds up, and it is neatly maintained. The question of this chapter is not whether the figures are right but what they are about. Allow five minutes.
Ask your agent
Compare which jobs are in cost-control/ with which are in jobs/, and say what that means for a total you take from cost-control.What you'll see
Six of fifteen. The overview is complete in its own terms and covers less than half the work. So any total you take from it is both correct and misleading, and nowhere does it say it is a selection. Two of the nine missing jobs do have an outstanding supplier invoice — so money is going out there that appears in no overview at all.
- chapter 15Part III
The second time
what this made cheaperEvery shared component is one whose shape came from two cases instead of from a guess, and that is why the third case fitted.
From another trade · the recipe
Chapter 15, ‘And this is not about software’A recipe you cooked once is not a recipe yet, it is what you did that evening. Only when you cook it a second time for different guests do you see which steps really belong in it and which were about that one night.
Exercise: Build it once and use it twice
In chapter 9 you made a check on certificates: something with a `valid until` beside a date. `equipment/` holds exactly the same shape — an inspection with a `valid until` beside a day of use. This is the second time, and this is the moment you KNOW what may be shared. Allow ten minutes.
Ask your agent
Look at the check on personal certificates and at what would be needed to do the same for equipment/. First say what those two have in common and what differs per case. Then make one procedure that handles both, and show me which data you have to feed it each time.What you'll see
What they share is small: a thing, a validity date, and a moment at which it is used. The difference is which field sits where. One procedure with three inputs covers both — and at once also the insurances, the subcontractor declarations and the guarantee periods, because those have the same shape.
- chapter 16Part III
Look for the key, not the doors
what this made cheaperFilling one condition once instead of building thirty connections — and everything that came along afterwards no longer had to pass that question.
From another trade · the school
Chapter 16, ‘And this is not about connectors’A school offering five kinds of support runs into the same thing every time: whether there is someone who knows the pupil. That is the key, and it is on no list because it is not an offering.
Exercise: Look for the concept instead of the places
You now have four checks that all do the same thing. Rather than building a fifth: look for the concept underneath and have it applied everywhere at once. Allow ten minutes.
Ask your agent
Search this whole folder for every field holding a date after which something no longer holds — whatever it is called — and put them on one list, sorted by date, marking which have already expired. Use 31 May 2026 as the reference date.What you'll see
Thirty-six expiry dates across six folders, and three of those folders you would not have named yourself: quotations have a validity date, guarantees run out, and so do insurances. Nine of them have already expired, including a quotation still marked open — so it can no longer be accepted and nobody knew.
- chapter 17Part III
Zero dependencies
what this made cheaperNo afternoon was lost to somebody else's change, and every day that did not go into maintenance became available for something that moved forward.
From another trade · the farmer
Chapter 17, ‘And this is not about software’A farmer who saves their own seed gives up some yield and buys independence with it. That is exactly the same trade as here.
Exercise: Look at what you are borrowing from others
Four subcontractors do work you do not do yourself. That is not purchasing but borrowing: under chain liability their problem ends up with you. Have it checked what you know about them and how old that is. Allow five minutes.
Ask your agent
Assess each subcontractor in subcontractors/ on three things: is the OSHA 30 still valid, how old is the payment-behavior declaration, and is there a blocked account. Note which running jobs they are working on.What you'll see
Three of the four are in order. The fourth is working on a running job, has a OSHA 30 that expired four months ago, a payment declaration well over a year and a half old, and no blocked account. Each of those three is an administrative detail on its own. Together it is the one party where a problem of theirs becomes a problem of yours.
- chapter 18Part IV
The flywheel
what this made cheaperFrom here on an improvement did not always cost a decision of mine — and that is the first thing that has to happen before this can become an organization.
From another trade · the business
Chapter 18, ‘And this is not about software’A business where customers bring other customers. The first twenty all took effort. Somewhere after that they start fetching each other, and the effort per customer falls without your having changed anything.
Exercise: Set an alarm and look again next week
You now have five procedures that each check something. Until now you start them. In this chapter you stop doing that. You make one that calls the others, and you set it on a fixed day — and after that you no longer check whether it ran, but what it found. Allow fifteen minutes, and then a week of nothing.
Ask your agent
Make a procedure that calls the existing checks one after another and reports only what is new or expired, with whatever expires within thirty days at the top. Then set it up to run every Monday morning, and show me what would come out the next time.What you'll see
A procedure that does nothing itself and only calls — the first one you make that contains no check at all. That feels empty and that is the point: what it adds is the order, the summary, and the fact that it goes without you. At the top sits whatever expires within thirty days, because that is the only thing in this round where time works against you.
- chapter 19Part IV
What an agent lacks
what this made cheaperThe screen with made-up numbers became the task list, and every time one number became real, nobody had to work out what came next.
From another trade · every organization
Chapter 19, ‘And this is not new’Every organization that ever grew from one person has had to invent these seven one by one, usually at the moment something went wrong.
… The memory gets built after somebody leaves.
Exercise: Have the spreadsheet recalculated that nobody reads any more
Estimating happens in a spreadsheet, and that is not going to change. `estimates/sheets/` holds two sheets as they come out of such a program. Both add up perfectly. The question is not whether they add up but whether they hold, and that is something else. Allow ten minutes.
Ask your agent
estimates/sheets/ holds estimates as CSV. Check three things per sheet: does every line equal quantity times unit price, does the sheet add up to the stated cost price, and does that cost price match the quotation that went out. Report only what does not hold.What you'll see
The addition holds in both — a spreadsheet is good at that. But one line has been typed over the formula: 24 × 620 should be 14,880 and it says 12,480. A transposed digit. The sheet is therefore 2,400 too low and still adds up perfectly, so from the outside there is nothing to see. And the second sheet comes out 15 per cent above the quotation that has already gone out. That job makes a loss, and nobody knew.
- chapter 20Part IV
Limits, and who signs
what this made cheaperEverything that fell within the limit no longer had to pass me — and that was by far the most of it.
From another trade · the builder
Chapter 20, ‘And this is not about agents’A builder with variations up to five per cent. That percentage is exactly what keeps the work moving.
Exercise: Build something that holds back instead of reporting
Everything you have made so far reports. A report can be ignored, and it is — `ENXW-2026-06` has been on the list for two rounds. This is the first one that does not report but holds back. Allow ten minutes.
Ask your agent
Make a gate on the extra-work limit from rules.md. It gives two answers and no third: PASS, or HELD with the amount, the job and who has to sign. It proposes nothing and it lets nothing through because it suits. Run it and show me the result, including whether it fails.What you'll see
One line of text and an error code. That last part is the difference: a report ends tidily, a gate ends in failure — and because of that, something behind it cannot proceed. Whoever wants to pass it puts an approval with a date on the job, and that is an action you can see afterwards.
- chapter 21Part IV
Improving without a release
what this made cheaperImproving became a paragraph instead of a release, and with that it became something you do straight away instead of collecting.
From another trade · the builder
Chapter 21, ‘And this is not about software’A builder with standard details solves a leak once and then never again, because the detail changed and not that one roof.
Exercise: Have the round improve the rules instead of enforcing them
Your Monday round has now reported the same thing two weeks running. That is not a failure of the round but information about the rules. Four of the fifteen findings come from one rule. Have that looked at. Allow ten minutes.
Ask your agent
Look at the findings from the last rounds. Find the rule that is structurally broken and say what the common cause is. Then propose what should change about the WAY OF WORKING so this kind of violation can no longer arise — not about the check.What you'll see
Rule 5 stands out with four of the fifteen. Three of them are not three cases but one: a certificate that expired on 28 February, after which somebody was scheduled onto three jobs that require it. The check works fine; it just looks afterwards. So the proposal is not about the check but about the moment: test when scheduling, not when reviewing. And watch the fourth, because it does not have that cause: there somebody was scheduled onto work he never held the certificate for at all. One measure removes three and leaves that one — and that is exactly why you look at the cause and not at the count.
- chapter 22Part V
Access is the scarce thing
what this made cheaperThe first access made the second cheap, and from the third onwards it went by itself — as long as the first kept existing.
From another trade · the new business owner
Chapter 22, ‘And this is not about AI’A new business owner has the idea, the product and the customer, and gets stuck on a business account that takes six weeks.
Exercise: Count who outside the company is waiting on you
Everything you have built so far looks inward. But the work does not stop at your own folder: there are parties who need something from you, and each has their own deadline you have no say over. Have them listed. Allow five minutes.
Ask your agent
List which parties outside this company are waiting for something: what they need, what it concerns, and what deadline is attached. Look in quality-assurance, tenders, creditors and complaints.What you'll see
Five parties, nine items. And one of them has a deadline that has already passed: a tender that closed on 24 April and on which no decision was ever taken. Forty to sixty thousand a year for three years, and no was never said — nothing was said. That is the difference between a missed opportunity and a missed deadline. The first is a choice, the second is not.
- chapter 23Part V
Lock-in is a design choice
what this made cheaperA provider falling away became an afternoon's event instead of a project — and that is the difference between carrying on and standing still.
From another trade · purchasing
Chapter 23, ‘And this is not about AI’One supplier for a part that is in everything. As long as it runs, they are the most economical choice. On the day they do not deliver, all production stops, not one product.
Exercise: Ask what would happen if you had to move tomorrow
This whole administration is plain text in folders. That was not an accident, and this chapter is about what it buys you. Ask the question out loud. Allow five minutes.
Ask your agent
If this whole company had to move to a different system tomorrow, what would be hardest? Look not only at the files but also at what is written down nowhere.What you'll see
The files themselves are not the problem — they are readable without a program and move with a copy command. What is stuck is something else: the agreements that are written nowhere. That a job is only finished once hours and materials are on it is in `rules.md`. That you call a particular client two weeks in advance is nowhere. That the Saturday rate does not apply during aftercare, neither. That is what you lose in a move, and it is also what you lose when somebody leaves.
- chapter 24Part V
Taking part in the formal world
what this made cheaperWhat an audit asks for was already there — and with that, taking part in the formal world became a printout instead of a project.
From another trade · the producer
Chapter 24, ‘And this is not about AI’A producer with traceability can recall one batch instead of everything. That is not a burden but the difference between an incident and a bankruptcy.
Exercise: Put a gate in front of something you are not allowed to do
For a permitted building you may only take it into use after a completion filing with a complete dossier. That is not a house rule but a legal sequence, and it is irreversible: what has been closed up without a photograph can only be proven by demolition. Build a gate that holds that back. Allow ten minutes.
Ask your agent
Make a gate that checks the six required parts per dossier in quality-assurance/. It may give three outcomes: PASS if complete, NOT YET FILED if something is missing but no filing has been made, and HELD if a filing was made while something is missing. Run it.What you'll see
Two dossiers are still missing the assurer's declaration and have not been filed — that is simply work in progress. The third was filed on 22 April without the photographs of the concealed work. That cannot be repaired with a photograph: the work is closed up. Here you see why a gate belongs before the action and not after. This gate reports it now; three weeks earlier it would have prevented it.
- chapter 25Part V
When everyone can build
what this made cheaper
From another trade · the laboratory
Chapter 25, ‘And this is not about a bank’A laboratory where the analysis and the verification come from the same model no longer has a verification, however precise the numbers are.
Exercise: Put the freed-up hours into something that was not there
The company in the examples has not lost any people but has gained hours — the hours of the people who can judge. Those now go to something this company has never done: developing on its own account. Three procedures in a row: search, assess, and work out two variants. Allow fifteen minutes.
Ask your agent
Look at the plots in development/. Assess per plot whether anything can be built there under the zoning and what is in the way. For the promising one, work out two variants with an indication of build cost, revenue, lead time and the largest risk — always more than one. Finally say what is needed to get further and which of that is missing.What you'll see
Four plots: one falls away on zoning, one is waiting on the city, one has not been looked at, and one is promising. For that one, two variants come out, and the smaller turns out to be the better. Six houses instead of eight gives a higher margin, a shorter lead time, and less dependence on an access road the city has to approve. That is not what you expect, and it is exactly why you make two.
- chapter 26Part V
Where we stand now
what this made cheaperWriting down what was not there cost an afternoon and saved every discussion about what might already exist.
This chapter is where the book itself stands; it has no example from another trade.
Exercise: Look at what stands there that you no longer touch
This is the last example and it asks nothing of you. You type no instruction and you build nothing. You look at what has come into being while you were reading, and you ask one question: which of these do I never touch any more? Allow three minutes.
Ask your agent
Show which procedures now exist in this folder, with one line each about what it does and when it offers itself. Add which other procedures it calls and which call it.What you'll see
Six procedures you had made, and one of them calls the others. What stands out is not that there are six but that you have not touched four of them since you made them. They do their work when the situation arises, and the only one you still think about is the one that starts the others. That is where this book was heading: not that the work is gone, but that it has moved somewhere else. The seven not on that list wait on an event rather than on Monday: convert-report when a complaint comes in, attentions when a birthday approaches, record-decision when something is decided, handle-incident after an incident, adjust-the-rules when the same rule breaks four rounds running, reporter and process-reply when something has to go out or comes back. And two gates that always stop: release-payment and signature-gate.