Work-as-Imagined vs Work-as-Done
Updated 2026-08-09
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Work-as-imagined is the standard procedure drawn up by managers, a description that assumes the world is linear and ideal. Work-as-done is what frontline workers actually do, in messy reality, to get the job finished, including the local variations and workarounds the procedure never anticipated. The two are never the same, and accidents happen when management enforces the imagined version while ignoring the real one, because the workaround contains the hard-won intelligence for coping with friction. Any improvement has to start from work-as-done. Qualification: work-as-imagined is not wrong; it is incomplete, and it becomes dangerous when mistaken for the whole picture.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Reality check: before enforcing a procedure, go and watch the work being done as it actually happens. - Workaround respect: read each deviation as information about friction the procedure ignored. - Improvement origin: start the redesign from work-as-done, not from the imagined version.
Anchor fast decisions
Procedures are written at a distance from the work, so they encode an imagined, linear version of it. Real work always contains friction the procedure did not anticipate, and workers improvise locally. The imagined version is enforced as if it were the real one, and the gap between them hides both the real risk and the real competence. Improvement fails when it is aimed at the abstraction.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Hollnagelverified
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