Putting the Checklist Manifesto to Work
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In my review, I said that Atul Gawande's book, The Checklist Manifesto, was a good read with good insights. The only problem if you're a business person is that you have to do the pick and shovel work to apply the insights at work.
That's why I'm writing this post. I'm a big fan of checklists. I've used them in my personal and business lives for decades. I've used them when I flew airplanes. And I've used them with clients.
You use a checklist because it will enable you to increase performance without increasing skill or training. Checklists free up memory and attention for important things. They can assure that processes are followed in the same way each time. And they can prevent panic.
Use checklists for routine daily activities so that you don't have to depend on memory. This is a principle David Allen has popularized with Getting Things Done.
I have a simple 21-item checklist that I use every day. It's on a 3 X 5 index card and sits next to my computer or it goes with me in my pocket. The items on it are administrative and communications items I have to do every day. The goal is to make sure everything gets done, but order doesn't matter.
For me, these checklists evolve over time. Start by putting down the things you need to remember. I have one for business and one for the house every day. I have a packing checklist for when I travel. As your needs change, change the checklist.
Use checklists to make sure that processes and routine things are done the same way every time. That's the principle behind basic airplane checklists. My week end checklist covers items like supply checks, updating files and other things that need to be done in the same sequence every time.
These checklists usually have a concentrated development phase, after which they remain the same for a while. It's often a good idea to have a team put the first version together. Then try the list and revise it as necessary until you don't need to change it anymore.
Use checklists to handle critical incidents. Police agencies I worked with define "critical incidents" as high impact but low frequency events. Think hostage situation or earthquake.
If you're going to deal effectively with critical incidents, you need to plan when you're calm. Develop a checklist of things to do, along with pertinent information for each item, such as phone numbers, addresses, etc.
When an incident occurs, work the checklist. You'll get the same benefits as with the process checklist. But you'll also get the advantage of calm. It's almost impossible to panic when you're concentrating on what needs to be done and moving down a checklist.
Boss's Bottom Line
Checklists are simple but powerful tools that can help you improve performance without improving either skill or abilities. Use them to take a load off your memory, assure consistent process performance, and remain calm in a crisis.
Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.
Wally--
I share your enthusiasm for checklists. Post-it notes are my medium of choice. While electronic todo lists are useful for collaboration projects, my personal day-to-day runs better on paper.
Great! Now I can check off this post from the list.
All the best,
Michael
www.workengagement.com
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I always appreciate your comments, Michael. Thanks for bringing up the electronic versions of checklists. I maintain two To Do lists. One short one with no more than five items goes on an index card and spends the day with me. The other is on a service called "Remember the Milk."
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I appreciate the distinction between a check list and to do list that you get me to think about. I really do need to do more of this as my list of every day things I need to do is now larger than ever and growing with social media activities!
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Thanks for coming by and sharing, Susan. I think you'll find that getting all those little, everyday things on a simple checklists will free up your brain for more important things while assuring that you remember all the chores.
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I agree, well stated. Checklists are a simple way to improve performance. While people waste time looking for flashy new ideas simple, long known, tools are available and a far too often overlooked.
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True, John. Some of the most powerful tools out there simply fall out of favor because they're not new and magical.
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I stood up after writing my first reply to your comment and had a flash of what I hope is insight. This doesn't only happen with shop floor/cubicle/office techniques like checklists. It also happens at the level of strategy.
For the last year, I've been working with Tom Hall on a book about strategy. We looked at companies who had been successful for a very long time, decades in most cases, almost two centuries in one. We found that the best stay with a simple strategy until it won't work anymore. Many, if not most, companies spend their time trying to come up with the "strategy of the month." And that chasing after the magical, mystical, perfect strategy sucks up resources while the stick-with-it companies put their energy into people, culture and execution.
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What a great insight. That "strategy of the month" approach is also discouraging and can even be paralyzing. I look forward to reading that book.
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That's not all, Susan. Changing strategies affects who you hire and how you train. When you change strategies you have to review those processes as well.
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I like the idea of checklists though I am curious about your no order comment. What do you do to make sure the most critical tasks get done? Another list? A different tool?
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Thanks for coming by and asking that question, Phil. You helped me realize something I should have included in the original post. That's how I use and think of my To Do list.
I use a To Do list to highlight and prioritize the five most important things I need to do every day. I give each of the items points. The most important is worth 50, the second most 25, and the third, fourth and fifth 12, 8 and 5 apiece.
That totals 100. I track my score on that checklist for every business day that I work.
I don't consider my To Do list a checklist. For me it's a prioritization tool.
My daily checklist list includes what one of my clients used to call the "laundry" of business. Examples are daily checks of emails, blog posts, Twitter, noting down my expenses and mileage, and other things that are need to be done every day. They're also things that I may forget when I concentrate on other things.
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I am a lover of lists myself. It never ceases to amaze me how much time is lost in transitions over the course of a day without a list. While my 'To Do' lists have been a key tool for me, I've never considered the checklist as a seperate entity. 'Develop daily checklist' is now officially on the To Do list! Thank you.
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Thanks, Lisa. I think one of the big benefits of Gawande's book comes from the fact that he breaks out checklists as something that can improve performance in many ways.
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