The Value of a checklist

“I have been doing this process for ages”, “I know what to do”. “I could probably do this in my sleep”. “I seldom if ever make mistakes”. “Don’t tell me what to do”, “Not sure what they are doing at the other branch?”, “Don’t know if they are following the same process?”, I am sure you have either heard or thought this yourself?

But, why then do pilots routinely follow checklists at various points in flight? If anyone is highly skilled and well trained they are.

Why do surgeons follow pre-operative and post surgery checklists? They are supposed to be amongst the smartest and brightest and most highly skilled people.

I for one feel much more confident that they do! It reduces the element of chance. It helps to make sure that we don’t have any “OOPS” moments!. This way I know that there was adequate fuel on board before take-off and that the wheels are properly deployed before landing. I know that pre-anesthetic I was checked for contra-indications and that no equipment was left behind post surgery.

Having a checklist for a routine process just makes good sense. It allows you to act efficiently, consistently and with certainty. It ensures that all the key items have been dealt with. Further, when the pressure increases because we become too busy, or too many things are going on at once, the checklist removes the element of chance and ensures that things still get done correctly.

So why do we as professionals so often reject the idea of using a checklist? Do we feel it is beneath us? Do we see it as a lack of trust in us?, Do we feel that it slows things down? Do we feel it inhibits our “creative” ability? Do we feel that we are just too busy getting stuff done, to spend the time to figure out a proper checklist?

Here is what I do know, when we make an error or when something goes wrong, we are forced to have a meeting to review and investigate what happened. We end up in damage control mode. At that time the analysis post event is also often blame laden sometimes even hostile. The damage is done, it might have been significant? Were we just lucky?. Perhaps next time? Do you really want to deal with the “post failure” drama and consequences?

There are many everyday processes that we are involved in, not all are life and death, some certainly could be, all will involve lots of post failure “drama”, that could be avoided, by having a simple checklist that is followed. Can you really afford not to be pro-active?

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