Five minutes. One drag. A reading you can use.

The industry changes the example in the questions. It does not change the reading.

Could you point to it in the room, without sending for a specialist?

Could you show where this work waits, from the queue you run?

Could you show the system, the queue, or the metric you operate?

Could the people who run this show it to you this month?

Could you show this item as it actually runs, not as it appears on the plan?

Waiting means time or money stuck on a handoff, a queue, or a missing fact.

Count the waits you see in the run of the work.

Count waits on a system, a handoff, or a missing fact. Not a wish for a new platform.

Waiting means the outcome slips because the work sits.

Waiting means an item on the program is not moving.

A slice is small enough to try without betting the firm.

A slice is a piece of the workflow you could change without stopping the day.

A slice is a change the current team can make. Not a new platform.

A slice is a bounded try you could fund without opening a new program.

A slice is one item you could move without resetting the plan.

Trust means you know which figures the decision would use, and that you may use them.

Trust means the figures in the workflow match, and someone owns them.

Trust means the data is defined, owned, and permitted. Not that a model could be trained.

Trust means you would sign a decision on these figures.

Trust means the baseline comes from data someone owns.

Authorize means you, or a person you name, can fund it and stop something else.

Authorize means someone outside the daily queue can say yes and protect the time.

Authorize means a sponsor will fund the unglamorous part, not only a demo.

Authorize means you can fund a slice and stop a competing demand.

Authorize means a sponsor will hold the order still long enough to do the slice.

An order is what you will do now, what is next, and what waits.

An order is which fix happens before the others, written down.

An order is a sequence the team can run. Not a backlog sorted by who shouted.

An order is the sequence you would defend in a review.

An order is now, next, and waiting. A list is not an order.