Communities of Practice Learning, Meaning, and Identity

As a nickname for the COB worksheet, the claims processors' expression “the C, F, and J thing” is quite telling. It names the activity not by reference to the insurance concepts it implements but by reference to lines in the worksheet. Indeed, the location of the data and the calculation are prescribed in terms of lines within the worksheet itself, to the point where knowing what to do next does not require any interpretation of the worksheet's underlying purpose. If one assumes that the worksheet has been designed correctly, then one need not take any responsibility for the outcome of the calculation and its implementation of actual contractual relations. The worksheet was specifically designed with this assumption in mind. Instead of giving claims processors the capacity to figure out how to do the calculation, the designers of the worksheet decided to prescribe exactly how to do it, step by step. The form removed from the execution of the procedure the need to assume responsibility for its meaning.

This kind of form is very common, not only in claims processing but in all kinds of activities. Many people who fill out U.S. tax returns, for instance, would be hard-pressed to explain the exact meanings of some of the calculations involved in the various forms, tables, and worksheets, as intended by those who designed them.