Ep. 41: Go to Work Wasted

It's a deep cut, but it's another NOFX song title for the episode. Probably don't go to work wasted, but if you do, make sure you talk about it in the pre-job brief. Pre-job, or pre-task, or pre-work briefs - or whatever you want to call them - are sort of a contentious topic these days. On one hand, they're often connected to JSA/JHA paperwork, and that's not always helpful. There are exceptions, but there are a whole pile of bad ones out there. Shit like, "It's cold out there, folks, so make sure you watch your footing." Cool. That helps. A real pre-job brief isn't about paperwork, though. It's about alignment of understanding and expectations (or a shared mental model if that makes you happy). Think of it like using small words and speaking slowly to make sure the bass player knows what's going on. Good pre-job conversations help identify a lot more issues and deviations from normal work than filling out paper for the purpose of satisfying a (sometimes imaginary) rule. Bad ones are a way to exercise control. And reinforce that people can't take care of themselves. Ron's got a pretty easy on-ramp to talk about joint activity for this one, so make sure to pay attention to that part. As much shit as we give him about it, he does know a thing or two about coordination of work across boundaries, like what you see between contractors and subs, or even between trades or specialties. We can't give people a process and no capability, as Dave says, and that's what overstructuring a pre-job brief through form or process can do. So how can we facilitate good pre-work discussions? Maybe think about some not-lazy perspective where the purpose isn't the paper, it's to plan the work, identify challenges to it, and build in a bit of buffer between the shit that might kill us.