Faire le point (in French)
Assessing a situation, especially at work, is often called faire le point. Less widely known is the fact that this expression came from the navy.
It was originally used to “designate the location of a ship.” To orient themselves at sea, navigators keenly observed the elements around them, including the stars, using conventional navigational instruments such as the sextant or compass.
To keep track of their itinerary on a chart and verify that they were on course, mariners would make a point on a chart with a pencil to show their ship’s exact bearing. The expression faire le point continued to be used in the navy, and then, by extension, in aviation.
Now the expression is commonly used to mean “to take stock of a situation.”