The bus and the beach
“And what if that person was run over by a bus” is the standard question for eliciting whether they are a ‘key man dependency’. If that person was taken out of the system, would the system be able to continue.
Talking about being run over by a bus isn’t the most pleasant language to use. In a workshop today I heard a far more palatable question.
“What if that person’s six lucky numbers come up? What if they won the lottery. What if Monday morning for them was sipping Pina Colada on a palm fringed beach rather than supporting your obscure system…”
I worked at a Company where someone had actually been killed by a truck while crossing the street. I stopped using the phrase “truck factor”.