The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right , by Atul Gawande
Very clever people get things wrong. They get difficult and relatively simple things wrong. There is a technique that they can use that cuts those errors down a lot.
It’s called a checklist.
Pilots, lawyers, doctors, and investment managers use them.
Pilots use them at the start of every flight. They have manuals on hand, in paper and electronically, to consult if there is an emergency. When they are used, they stop accidents becoming tragedies.
Boeing has a checklist factory for all their planes. An example is at the end.
Why Use A Checklist
It was not always the case. As planes became more complicated, flying them could not be left to the memory of one person alone. If they did, accidents often happened. Instead, test pilots made simple, brief and to the points lists on index cards, and that made flying a lot safer.
People can become very comfortable with something they have done many times. This may lend them to skipping some parts. The results can be fatal. Gawande ran a trial in the hospital, where he works as a surgeon, of using a checklist for operations. During the initial trial, infection rates went from 11% to 0%.
“ Checklists seem to provide protection against such failures. They remind us of the minimum necessary steps and make them explicit.” Gawade
Who Uses Checklists
He talks to investment managers, construction managers, surgeons, and pilots who all who use checklists to make sure things work smoothly. David Lee Roth even uses a checklist when Van Halen tours
Very clever people, let alone more normal people, will forget vital things when performing complex or complicated tasks. Sometimes these omissions won’t matter, but sometimes simple oversights will have serious repercussions from loss of money or life.
The benefit of a checklist is that complex and less complex operations can be broken down. Experts and non-experts can check that they have completed the essential steps and avoid mistakes.
It would be interesting to see how many firms have manuals that provide clear and precise checklists for the expected and unexpected procedures.
Push Back
Gawke is clear there is a lot of reluctance from people to the introduction of checklists. The push back is greatest from the senior staff. The junior members of the team appear to most appreciate checklists.
He talks to a very successful investment manager whose fund does very well. The fund manager puts a large part of the success down to using a 3 day checklist. The manager notes that his colleagues don’t want to use the same checklist. He does not mind. His results are better than most in the industry, and he puts that down to using a checklist.
The checklist could be used for advice, daily monitoring, to complex regulatory opinions. Breaking down the essential elements down into a clear and precise checklist will help anyone, whether senior or junior, when they are finishing off a piece of work. It will make sure the work correct, even if it completed late at night.
Examples of a Checklist
[spiderpowa-pdf src=”https://www.aaronmcloughlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/747checklist1.pdf”]747checklist