12 June 2026
When the map is tidier than the work
The most dangerous artefact in a mapping week is a complete wall. Completeness calms executives. Completeness also hides the job that left the lane at 15:40 because the printer jammed and someone walked a folder to another building.
We use a dull test. Take the diagram. Take a job that finished last Tuesday. Ask someone who touched it — not the process owner — to walk the diagram with the job in hand. Every time the job did something the boxes do not mention, mark a tick in the margin. Three ticks and the diagram is a poster. It may still be useful as a poster. It is not a picture of the trail.
People object that exceptions should not pollute the happy path. Fair. Then draw the exceptions as first-class waits or they will keep living in the unofficial workbook. Tidiness is not a moral virtue in operations. It is a design choice with a cost.
In Operational Grid Mapping, week two is deliberately ugly. We would rather present a grid with holes than a swimlane that implies the holes do not exist. If your organisation needs the pretty version for a board pack, produce it later, and label it as a simplification.