ARC™ · Discipline 05 — Renew
ARC™ Working Instruments
The instruments the Brown Paper Exercise runs on. Charter the work before the wall goes up, chase causes instead of symptoms, position the business honestly, and price the risk you are carrying. Every sheet prints board-level and can be emailed to you.
A method is only as good as the record it leaves behind.
These five instruments carry a team from "something is wrong" to a decision an executive can sign. They are deliberately plain: no scoring theatre, no software to buy, nothing that survives without the people who do the work in the room.
Fill any of them out here. Nothing is stored anywhere until you ask for the sheet by email — and when you do, you get the branded PDF and a way to talk it through.
New to the method? Read how ARC™ runs the renewal cycle.
The five working instruments
Instrument 01
Project Charter
Nothing goes on the wall until the work is chartered. The charter fixes the problem in evidence, the goal in numbers, the boundaries on both sides, and one leader who is accountable — before the first sticky note is written.
DirectionsHow to complete this
1. Name the work, not the fix
Subject, segment, and project name locate the work inside the business. Keep the project name descriptive of the outcome you want, never of the tool you plan to install.
2. State the problem in evidence
Write what is happening, where, how often, and what it costs. If the sentence contains a solution — 'implement', 'automate', 'new system' — you have skipped the understanding stage.
3. Make every goal measurable
Each goal needs a metric, today's baseline, the target, and the date. A goal with no number is an opinion; a goal with no date is a wish.
4. Bound the scope on both sides
Say what is in and what is explicitly out. Unstated boundaries are where projects go to die.
5. Name one leader and real people
One leader accountable, a small cross-functional team that does the work, and the stakeholders who must consent to the change.
6. Date the five stages
The timeline is a learning system, not a Gantt chart. Put an owner and a date on each of the five stages before you start the brown paper walk.
Step 1
Locate the work
Step 2
Define the problem in evidence
Condition, not cure. If the sentence contains a solution, you have skipped understanding.
Step 3
Goals — metric, baseline, target, date
Step 4
Scope, team, and constraints
One item per line.
Step 5
The five-stage learning system
Put an owner and a date on each stage before the walk begins.
1. What & why
Charter signed, problem and goal agreed, team named.
2. Understanding
Brown paper walk of the process as it actually runs.
3. Pilot
Test the redesign on a bounded slice of real work.
4. Feedback
Measure against baseline; hear the people doing the work.
5. Improve & plan
Standardise what worked and schedule the next cycle.
Step 6
Risk register
Quality check
6 things to tighten before this goes in front of a board.
- The problem definition is empty. Nothing can be chartered without it.
- Add the evidence — the numbers that prove the problem is real.
- Add at least one goal with a metric, a target, and a date.
- Say what is out of scope. Unbounded scope is the most common cause of failure.
- Name both the executive sponsor and the single project leader.
- 5 of the five stages have no date. Date them before the walk begins.
Print it, save it, or have it emailed
The PDF is board-level: Compass navy and gold, your details in the header, and the contact block on every page so it stands alone when it is forwarded.
210 × 297 mm — standard outside North America. Applies to every PDF you download here and to printing from your browser.
If you would like to discuss this further, contact Steve Kopecky at skopecky@compassperformanceinc.com or schedule a discussion.
Your entries stay in this browser until you ask us to email the sheet. What we receive is the sheet itself — nothing else.
Instrument 02
5 Whys
Symptoms are loud; causes are quiet. Five levels of why, each answered with evidence, moves a team from the person who was standing there to the system that made the outcome likely.
DirectionsHow to complete this
1. State the problem as a fact
One sentence, no blame, no solution: what is happening, where, how often, and what it costs.
2. Ask why once, then answer with evidence
Each answer must be something you can show — a number, a document, an observation from the walk. If you cannot show it, it is a guess; go and look.
3. Keep going until the answer is a system, not a person
If an answer names a person, ask why the system allowed it. Blame ends the inquiry; architecture continues it.
4. Stop when the cause is inside your control
Five is a guide, not a rule. Stop when you reach something you can change — a rule, a handoff, a measure, a standard.
5. Close the loop
Name the countermeasure, the owner, the date, how you will verify it worked, and what standard changes so it cannot come back.
Step 1
State the problem as a fact
Step 2
Ask why — five times, with evidence
If an answer names a person, ask why the system allowed it.
Step 3
Root cause and countermeasure
Quality check
5 things to tighten before this goes in front of a board.
- State the problem before asking why.
- Only 0 whys answered. Most teams stop one level above the real cause.
- Write the root cause in one sentence.
- A countermeasure needs an owner and a date to be real.
- Name the standard that changes. Without it the problem returns when attention moves on.
Print it, save it, or have it emailed
The PDF is board-level: Compass navy and gold, your details in the header, and the contact block on every page so it stands alone when it is forwarded.
210 × 297 mm — standard outside North America. Applies to every PDF you download here and to printing from your browser.
If you would like to discuss this further, contact Steve Kopecky at skopecky@compassperformanceinc.com or schedule a discussion.
Your entries stay in this browser until you ask us to email the sheet. What we receive is the sheet itself — nothing else.
Instrument 03
Root Cause Analysis
Widen the search before you narrow it. Six categories force the team past its favourite explanation; the verification log keeps the decision anchored to evidence instead of the loudest voice in the room.
DirectionsHow to complete this
1. Write the effect, not the theory
The problem statement is the observed effect: what happens, to whom, how often, and what it costs.
2. Fill all six categories before judging any
People, Process, Machine, Materials, Measurement, Environment. Teams that skip categories always land on the cause they already believed.
3. Mark the likely few
Tick the causes worth testing. Three to five is right; if everything is likely, nothing has been analysed.
4. Verify, then rule in or out
Say how each likely cause will be tested — data, observation, or a controlled change — and record the verdict. Untested causes stay untested in the record.
5. Separate corrective from preventive
Corrective restores today. Preventive changes the architecture so the effect cannot return. Both need an owner and a date.
Step 1
Describe the observed effect
Step 2
Fill all six categories
Tick the causes worth verifying, then record how you tested them and the verdict.
People
Skill, training, staffing, handoffs, incentives.
Process / Method
Rules, sequence, approvals, standard work.
Machine / System
Equipment, tooling, ERP, CRM, uptime.
Materials / Inputs
Supply, quality, data, specifications.
Measurement
What is measured, how, how often, by whom.
Environment
Layout, demand, policy, culture, market.
Step 3
Root cause and action
Quality check
5 things to tighten before this goes in front of a board.
- Describe the observed effect first.
- No causes yet under People, Process / Method, Machine / System, Materials / Inputs, Measurement, Environment. Widen the search before narrowing it.
- Mark the likely few causes worth verifying.
- Write the root cause statement once the evidence supports it.
- Add a preventive action. Corrective action alone guarantees a repeat.
Print it, save it, or have it emailed
The PDF is board-level: Compass navy and gold, your details in the header, and the contact block on every page so it stands alone when it is forwarded.
210 × 297 mm — standard outside North America. Applies to every PDF you download here and to printing from your browser.
If you would like to discuss this further, contact Steve Kopecky at skopecky@compassperformanceinc.com or schedule a discussion.
Your entries stay in this browser until you ask us to email the sheet. What we receive is the sheet itself — nothing else.
Instrument 04
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
Scope it, fill it honestly, then cross the quadrants. Strengths and weaknesses are yours to change; opportunities and threats are not. The value is in the pairs — build, defend, fix, avoid.
DirectionsHow to complete this
1. Fix the subject and the horizon
A SWOT of 'the company' says nothing. Scope it: this business unit, this market, this process, over the next twelve to thirty-six months.
2. Keep internal and external honest
Strengths and weaknesses are yours to change. Opportunities and threats are not. Misfiling them is how teams talk themselves out of accountability.
3. One line, evidence attached
Each entry is a single claim you could defend with a number or a customer's words. Adjectives are not evidence.
4. Cross the quadrants
The value is in the pairs: build, defend, fix, avoid. A SWOT that stops at four lists is a wall decoration.
5. End with a decision
Write the one commitment this analysis makes unavoidable — and who owns it.
Step 1
Scope the analysis
Step 2
The four quadrants
One claim per line.
Strengths
Internal · helpful · 0What do we do better than the alternatives, provably?
Weaknesses
Internal · harmful · 0Where does our own architecture cost us performance?
Opportunities
External · helpful · 0What is changing outside that we could capture first?
Threats
External · harmful · 0What outside force could take our position or margin?
Step 3
Cross the quadrants
This is where strategy lives. Two strong moves beat four vague ones.
Step 4
The decision this forces
Quality check
4 things to tighten before this goes in front of a board.
- Name the subject and scope of the analysis.
- Empty: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. A one-sided SWOT is a bias, not an analysis.
- Write at least two cross-quadrant moves; that is where strategy lives.
- State the decision this analysis forces.
Print it, save it, or have it emailed
The PDF is board-level: Compass navy and gold, your details in the header, and the contact block on every page so it stands alone when it is forwarded.
210 × 297 mm — standard outside North America. Applies to every PDF you download here and to printing from your browser.
If you would like to discuss this further, contact Steve Kopecky at skopecky@compassperformanceinc.com or schedule a discussion.
Your entries stay in this browser until you ask us to email the sheet. What we receive is the sheet itself — nothing else.
Instrument 05
FMEA — Failure Mode & Effects Analysis
Every process fails somewhere. FMEA finds out where before the customer does: what goes wrong, what it costs, how often, and whether you would even catch it. Severity 9 or 10 gets action whatever the score says.
DirectionsHow to complete this
1. Work the process in sequence
One row per step or function, in the order the work actually happens. Use the brown paper wall as the source.
2. Separate mode, effect, and cause
The failure mode is what goes wrong; the effect is what the customer feels; the cause is why it happens. Confusing them produces useless scores.
3. Score S, O, D from 1 to 10
Severity of the effect, Occurrence of the cause, Detection of the current control. Score the process as it runs today, not as designed.
4. Let RPN rank, not decide
RPN = S × O × D ranks the risk. Any severity of 9 or 10 gets action regardless of RPN — a rare catastrophe is still a catastrophe.
5. Own every action
Each action above the threshold needs a named owner and a date. Then re-score after the change and keep the record.
Severity (S)
How badly does the customer or the business feel it?
- 1 — no noticeable effect
- 5 — customer inconvenienced, rework required
- 10 — safety, legal, or customer-loss consequence
Occurrence (O)
How often does the cause actually happen?
- 1 — practically never
- 5 — occasional, monthly
- 10 — near certain, every cycle
Detection (D)
How likely are we to catch it before it reaches the customer?
- 1 — caught automatically, always
- 5 — caught sometimes, by inspection
- 10 — no chance of detection
Step 1
Scope the analysis
Step 2
Work the process, one failure mode per row
Mode is what goes wrong. Effect is what the customer feels. Cause is why it happens.
Row 1
Row 2
Row 3
Quality check
2 things to tighten before this goes in front of a board.
- Name the process under analysis.
- Fewer than three failure modes. Most processes fail in more ways than that.
Print it, save it, or have it emailed
The PDF is board-level: Compass navy and gold, your details in the header, and the contact block on every page so it stands alone when it is forwarded.
210 × 297 mm — standard outside North America. Applies to every PDF you download here and to printing from your browser.
If you would like to discuss this further, contact Steve Kopecky at skopecky@compassperformanceinc.com or schedule a discussion.
Your entries stay in this browser until you ask us to email the sheet. What we receive is the sheet itself — nothing else.
Work it with someone who has done it
Bring one completed sheet to a conversation
A charter, a 5 Whys chain, or an FMEA that has been pressure-tested by an outside architect is worth more than five that were filled out politely. Send yours across, or schedule a discussion.
Not sure where to start?
Three questions, and we point you to the right instrument.
Under a minute. From this page, most leaders begin with What comes next.