CHAPTER 5 - PROTOCOL 5

Procedural Audit

TIME60-90 minutes

OWNERProcess owner with representative users

ARTIFACTPurpose-to-process audit + redesign test

SUCCESS CRITERIA

The intended purpose is distinguished from the current procedure.
The audit follows the experience of people who use and are affected by the process.
Compliance, burden, delay, quality, and outcome evidence are examined.
One redesign test preserves necessary protections while improving impact.

IMPLEMENTATION STEPS

Restate the purpose

Name the need the process exists to address, its required safeguards, and the people it should serve.

Trace the lived process

Map each step, handoff, delay, decision point, workaround, and documentation demand.

Compare procedure to purpose

Identify steps that protect quality or rights, add no value, create inequity, or obscure the intended result.

Test one redesign

Simplify, clarify, resequence, or redistribute one part while defining safeguards and evidence.

WORKING ORGANIZER

Run the protocol.

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01Restate the purposeName the need the process exists to address, its required safeguards, and the people it should serve.If this process worked well, what would be better for whom?02Trace the lived processMap each step, handoff, delay, decision point, workaround, and documentation demand.What actually happens from beginning to end?03Compare procedure to purposeIdentify steps that protect quality or rights, add no value, create inequity, or obscure the intended result.Where does the process advance, distort, or replace its purpose?04Test one redesignSimplify, clarify, resequence, or redistribute one part while defining safeguards and evidence.What small change can improve impact without weakening protection or accountability?

Evidence to bring backReturn date

Your protocol can be complete here. Save or share the artifact and use it for the need in front of you.

REFLECTION PROMPTS

Which step survives only because it is familiar?
Where do people create workarounds, and what are those workarounds telling us?
What burden is invisible to the process owner?

EQUITY GUARDRAILS

Verify legal, contractual, safety, privacy, and accessibility requirements before redesign.
Include people with the least positional power who experience the process.
Simplification must not remove documentation or appeal paths that protect people from harm.