WP-04
What keeps coming back?
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This worksheet puts Pillar II (“Fix the setup, not the person”) to work, with a nod to Pillar V, Notice the quiet incentives. In you: you look for what in the setup lets things slip, instead of blaming yourself. Between you and others: repeat problems get fixed in the setup, and you catch jobs quietly drifting back to one person.
Purpose: a monthly look-back, done together. You look across four weeks of WP-01 logs (who did what) (WP-01) and your job list (WP-03) to find the tasks that keep slipping. (Here, a "deficit" simply means a job that needed doing and didn't get done.) The goal is not to tally what either of you "owes." It's to find where the household's setup needs a real fix, instead of another one-off patch.
How often: monthly. Not weekly, because this audit looks for patterns you can't see from one week to the next.
What keeps coming back, so far
Part A — Gather the month's notes
From your four weekly WP-01 logs (who did what), list every task that was logged as noticed but not done, or done only after being raised more than once, in any week this month.
| Task | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Times flagged this month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Put a check in a week's box if the task was noticed as a gap that week (not done, or raised more than once before it got done). A task flagged 3–4 times this month is a real pattern, not a fluke.
Part B — Sort each gap
For every task flagged twice or more, decide which of these it actually is:
| Task | Has a named owner? (WP-03) | Classification | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Y / N | Structural gap | Capacity issue | One-off, no action | ||
| Y / N | Structural gap | Capacity issue | One-off, no action |
- Structural gap: there's no clear owner, or the named owner isn't the person who actually handles it. Fix: update the job list (WP-03) in this session.
- Capacity issue: it has a named owner, but that person hasn't been able to keep up with it. Fix: an honest conversation, using a neutral refusal or a handover (WP-01, WP-09). Not a private promise to just try harder.
- One-off, no action: flagged more than once, but tied to a clear, temporary cause (illness, travel, a busy month at work). Note it and move on. Don't let a temporary cause push you into a permanent change.
Part C — Wrap up the audit
- Update the job list (WP-03) for every task sorted as a structural gap.
- For anything sorted as a capacity issue, set a time for that conversation. This audit brings it to light, but it doesn't replace the real conversation.
- Below, record how many structural gaps you found this month. A count that falls month after month is the clearest sign this program is working. A rising count means something bigger changed, and it may need its own conversation.
| Month | Structural gaps found | Capacity issues found | One-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
What this audit is not for
- Not a bill for the past. Past hours don't get added up and "charged" to anyone. The audit looks back only to find the pattern, and it only makes changes going forward.
- Not a performance review. A task with no owner is a gap in the job list, not a verdict on the person who happened to keep covering it.
- Not a substitute for the weekly closing. This audit works because the weekly routine (the Lemonade Stand check and a quick look at the job list) keeps giving it real data. Skip the weekly checks, and this audit gets far less accurate.
☐ We’re agreed on this. Look at this again on: ____________
Feeds into: the ownership clarity score (how many jobs have an owner) used by “Is the setup working for everyone?” (Chapter II). A month with fewer unresolved structural gaps should show up as a higher score the following month.