# The Safety Check — Debrief

> Four bars are a diagnosis, not a verdict — the debrief is where the lowest one turns into one dated behavior.
> Use with `the-safety-check-guide.md`. The raise-it phase at minute 12 is the compressed version; this sheet is the full one.

## How to run this debrief

- Keep the four bars visible on the wall. This debrief argues with a picture the team just drew; folded away, it becomes opinion again.
- Stay on the lowest bar. Curiosity about the other three is how teams dilute the one finding they have.
- Close on behavior, owner, start day, re-check date. A debrief that ends at "we should be more open" measured nothing.

## Read the shape

- Look at the four bars side by side. Which one is the outlier — clearly lower than the rest?
- Did the shape surprise anyone? A leader who thought "we're totally open" and sees "disagree with the decision-maker" at a 2 has learned something.
- Are any two bars linked? Low "admit a mistake" and low "take a risk" usually travel together — one silence causes both.

## The six debrief questions

**1. The outlier.**
"Which bar is clearly lower than the rest — and who was unsurprised by it? Unsurprised people know where it comes from."
→ Targets: reading the shape before feelings; the unsurprised are your first witnesses, not your enemies.

**2. The last test.**
"For the lowest statement: when was the last time someone tested it here and it went badly?"
→ Targets: the incident behind the score — usually one, recent enough, and known by more people than will say so.

**3. Rule or signal.**
"Is the low score about a rule (punishment is real) or a signal (nobody has seen it go well)? What would a person have to believe to keep their question, mistake or disagreement to themselves?"
→ Targets: the diagnosis the fix depends on — a rule needs changing, a signal needs one visible good outcome. Name the belief, not the person.

**4. The signal-maker.**
"Who is most able to change that signal — and are they in the room?"
→ Targets: whether the behavior can come from today's seats; if not, the ask becomes a conversation with someone who isn't here.

**5. The first proof.**
"What's the first visible proof that it's safe now — the small thing that, if it happened, would move the next dot up? And what happens to the person who tests the new behavior and it goes badly?"
→ Targets: making safety observable and the retry protected; otherwise you accidentally confirm the old fear.

**6. The owner and the date.**
"The behavior you picked: who will do it, starting which day — and when is the re-check? What will you do if the bar hasn't moved?"
→ Targets: "'everyone should' means no one will"; the re-check plan is what makes this a measurement, not a mood.

## Failure modes of the debrief

| Failure mode | Why it happens | The rescue |
|---|---|---|
| Everyone rated 5s | The check itself felt unsafe — a classic sign | Redo the marking anonymously in writing, or ask "what would have to be true for a 3 to be safe to say?" |
| The team insists on fixing all four | The average feels safer than the outlier | Force the single lowest bar; one raised bar lifts the others faster than four half-efforts. |
| A leader argues the score away | The check measured the room, and the org chart objects | That explanation is the data. Thank them, park it, keep the anonymous result. |