Prozanta · the anchoring protocol, version 1.0
Anchoring check
Five checks, 90 days after the change was closed
The change:
Closed on:
Checked on:
Done by:
Before you go
The check takes an hour and a half, an hour of it out in the operation. You are two, and at least one of you did not make the change. A check is passed or not passed — there are no points for partly. If a check cannot be answered, it counts as not passed, and the reason is written down.
1Is the change still there?
Can you walk over and point at it?
How you do it
Go physically to where the change was made. Find the standard, the board, the form or the routine. Look at when it was last written in, or when it was last followed.
A pass is
It exists on site, and its most recent use falls within the interval it prescribes for itself. A daily routine last used nine days ago is not a pass.
What you saw — concrete, not a judgement
2Does anyone besides its author use it?
Can two people who were not involved explain the routine the same way?
How you do it
Ask two people who did not take part in the work how the task is carried out. Let them explain without looking anything up. Compare the two answers with each other — not with the standard.
A pass is
Both describe the same thing, and the description matches the standard. If the two answers differ, the routine is not shared, whatever the paperwork says.
What you saw — concrete, not a judgement
3Has the number followed?
Has the measurement moved — and is the movement signal or noise?
How you do it
Take the key figure the change was meant to move. Compare the last 30 days with the 30 days before the change. Judge the difference against the process’s own spread, not against an average: a shift counts only once it falls outside what the process usually swings.
A pass is
A real signal in the right direction. Or: a stable process where the deviation has stopped appearing. “It looks a bit better” is not a pass.
What you saw — concrete, not a judgement
4Has the problem stopped coming back?
How many times has the same problem been seen since?
How you do it
Count how many times the original problem was recorded in the 90 days after closure, and compare with the 90 days before. Count PROBLEMS, not records: the same problem described in five different wordings is one relapse.
A pass is
Fewer than before, and none in the last 30 days.
What you saw — concrete, not a judgement
5Has it survived a disruption?
Has anything happened since you closed it — and did the routine hold?
How you do it
Find out whether the 90 days held a peak load, a holiday period, an absence in a key role, a new employee or a reorganisation. Then look at whether the routine ran through that period.
A pass is
At least one disruption has occurred, and the routine ran through it. If nothing has happened, the check is NOT passed — it is unresolved, and it must be recorded as unresolved.
What you saw — concrete, not a judgement
Outcome
Checks passed:of 5
- 5 of 5
- Anchored. The change is alive, it is shared, the number followed, the problem is gone, and it has stood through a disruption. It is the only outcome that earns the word.
- 3-4 of 5
- Fragile. Some of it holds, some of it does not. The outcome is only useful if you write down WHICH check failed — each of the five points to its own cause and its own next step.
- 0-2 of 5
- Not anchored. The change lived on attention and left with it. That is not a failure, it is a measurement. What was wasted is not the effort — it is the months in which nobody knew.
Next step — one per check that failed, with an owner and a date
Method: Prozanta's own anchoring protocol — public, dated and versioned. It answers ISO 9001:2015 clause 10.2.1, which requires the effectiveness of a corrective action to be reviewed but does not say how.