Something you used to decide
Think of a decision you made on your own two years ago that now needs somebody else attached to it. Notice whether anybody ever told you that had changed.
Not saved yet
Observations
Fifteen things worth noticing
None of these is a test, none has a right answer, and none of them tells you anything about your character, your prospects or your company.
They are here because the men who came through a change of shape well had usually noticed something early, and almost all of them said they had then talked themselves out of it.
How to use the page
Read a heading and notice what is true. That is all. There is no score, no total and no interpretation at the end. Nothing here predicts anything about your job, and every item has an ordinary explanation which is usually the correct one.
Each one has a box for a private note. Notes are saved in your own browser on this device and nowhere else, and clearing your browser data removes them. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or visible to your employer.
If what surfaces is heavier than an observation — sleep gone for weeks, the evenings being got through with drink, or anything darker — that belongs on the safety page rather than in a box.
The quiet
Things that stop happening rarely announce themselves. These are the subtractions men described afterwards.
When you hear things
Notice whether you find out at the same point in the process you used to. Still in the room is not the same as still in the discussion.
Not saved yet
Who left and was not replaced
Count the leavers in your area over the last eighteen months and how many of those roles were filled. A leaver not replaced is the cheapest reduction available and needs no announcement.
Not saved yet
Words that were not here last year
Notice any vocabulary that arrived recently and from several directions at once. It is not evidence of anything. It is worth knowing you noticed.
Not saved yet
The long project nobody cancelled
Think of the piece of work eighteen months out that is neither dead nor resourced. Notice how long it has been in that state.
Not saved yet
What you talked yourself out of
Most men notice something and then find a reason it is nothing. Notice what your reason usually is: loyalty, proportion, or not wanting it to be about you personally.
Not saved yet
What you are attached to
Free questions in a quiet week. Expensive ones in a consultation.
Same work, different building
If the job were identical somewhere else, how much of what you value would come with you. Answer before you decide what the answer ought to be.
Not saved yet
Same building, different work
The other half of it. If the place stayed and the work changed entirely, would you stay.
Not saved yet
What people come to you for
Name the thing colleagues ask you specifically. Then notice whether it would still be asked of you in a company that had never heard of you.
Not saved yet
What you know that is only worth something here
Every long tenure accumulates detailed knowledge of one organisation's particular way of doing things. It is real, it is valuable, and it does not travel.
Not saved yet
What you know that does travel
Which supplier will become a problem. Which promise will not be kept. Which quiet person holds a department together. Men discount this because it feels like common sense, which is exactly what it is not.
Not saved yet
What you are already curious about
Not what you should learn. What already interests you and has not been counted.
The thing you read about anyway
Something you have paid attention to for a year or more with no use for it. Most men say they have nothing, and then talk for five minutes about exactly this.
Not saved yet
The part of the operation you find interesting
There is usually one area outside your remit that you understand better than you have any reason to. Notice which, and how long that has been true.
Not saved yet
Who you have asked about it
Curiosity leaves a trail of people. Notice whether anybody would remember that you were interested in this before you needed to be.
Not saved yet
One sentence, dated
If you have noticed something, write it here in one honest sentence with today's date. Not a case and not a plan. A thing written down stops being argued with every week, and it reads usefully in either direction months later.
Not saved yet
Nothing on this page is stored by the site, sent anywhere, or used to build a profile of you. The notes live in this browser on this device until you clear them.