What is possible

Potential (What is the pot?)

Working for a FORTUNE 25 company, we used the formal Cost of Quality calculations to determine how much we were spending on poor quality http://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/cost-of-quality/overview/overview.html.

It was great. Using the basic categories we were able to determine how much we were spending on a routine problem. We knew the "pot"ential savings? We therefore knew how much we could spend to fix it. How basic and elegant! It led to action and positive results.

Within a few years it was just a measure in an operating review. It had become another measure to be beat up with. It was never again associated with "What is Possible." Puff slipped into his cave.

This is an example of how people get in or out of their possibleness mode.