The Anchor Point

Ideas that hold up under load

Hey Reader

The second time I walked back to that anchor, nothing had changed.

It was a rescue course, and a participant had built their system off a single marginal anchor, not enough on its own to carry the load it was about to take. They had looked at it, decided it was fine, and moved on. I didn't agree.

I didn't stop the job. I started a conversation. I said I was concerned about the anchor and asked whether they saw it as marginal or bombproof. We talked it through, and they agreed it was marginal. I suggested joining a second anchor to it and left them to sort it out.

When I came back, it was exactly as I'd left it.

So I raised it a notch. I told them I was uncomfortable. The anchor was still marginal, and this time I spelled out what I needed: build a second anchor and join it to the first. Then I walked away again.

Next visit, still nothing.

That's when I called a stop. Nothing else happened on that system until the anchor was fixed. Twice, I'd left them to work it out. This time I needed to be more direct. I built the second anchor myself as a demo. Then I took it apart and had them rebuild it the way I had.

What I was working through is a tool hospital teams have used for years, called CUS.

Most of the time, you never get past the first step. A question is usually enough for someone to look again and fix it themselves, and the job carries on with nobody's pride dented. And because you so rarely reach the top step, people take it seriously when you do.

The catch is that the language only works if the team knows it before they need it. "Uncomfortable" means nothing to someone who has never heard it used as a signal. Brief it at the start of the day, give an example, and make it normal for anyone, at any level, to use. The newest person on the team should feel as able to say "I'm concerned" to the instructor or team leader as the other way round.

CUS is a communication tool to deal with safety issues before they become an incident.

I’ve put CUS on a one-page field card you can print and take to your next session, with the words for each step and a short script for briefing your team. Grab it below.

Grant