As I was settling in for a routine endoscopy last year, I heard the staff in the room go around saying their names and their role in the procedure. I smiled to myself because I knew what they were doing and I knew it would reduce the possibility of errors in the procedure: following a checklist.
Atul Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto describes ways to decrease errors in highly specific and routinized procedures like operations. For people who do them day in and day out, it could be easy to think all the supplies are in place and everyone involved knows what they’re doing and what’s going on. It turns out, even basic things like going around the room saying everyone’s name and role increases the chance that communication flows freely between all team members and cuts down on mistakes.
Flying a plane is actually very similar to surgery in this way. (News to me.) Gawande recounts how the gradual growing complexity of planes made it difficult for pilots to keep everything in their heads. So now every flight begins with highly routinized procedures, doing checks, walking around the plane, etc. every single time. They have books of procedures of step-by-step plans for different scenarios, and what to do in case of an emergency.
I have to say, sometimes I wish I had a good old fashioned checklist. What I do on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis is anything but routinized, and sometimes it’s hard to know if what I’m doing even makes a difference. A checklist would be really nice every now and then to take the guess work out of what needs to be done and to keep me grounded in what’s most important.
A checklist is not the same as a to-do list
A checklist is not the same as a to-do list. I have a to-do list (and when things are really off the wall more than one to-do list - a real recipe for disaster.)
A checklist has steps broken down; a to-do list often has a project or a topic, not a step. The best lesson I got out of David Allen’s Getting Things Done is breaking down a project into steps. He suggests a project header and then listing the first step needed to get toward that project.
For example, I might put something on my to-do list like “Church Brunch.” But, this is a project, not a step to do. Allen breaks down a project starting with the first task, and then the next. So, the first step in a Church Brunch might be to email a key volunteer to see what date works for them, or check the calendar to make sure nothing else is planned for a certain day. If I only have the project on my list, it will seem too big and daunting. I won’t know where to begin, so I won’t get started.1
Honestly, doing something as complicated and high stakes as surgery or flying a plane stresses me out just thinking about it. Imagine having imposter syndrome as a pilot! Instead of wondering if I’m qualified to say something inspirational for 13-18 mins, wondering if I’m really qualified to transport hundreds of people barreling through the sky?
The only thing that would help me do something so high stakes is the confidence that comes with mastery - plus having air tight procedures at my disposal.
We’re all really good at something.
And some of us can share our gift of checklists.
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Allen has a very detailed system in which tasks are further organized by type, or by setting. For example: emails I need to write, or things to do at my desk when distractions are present. I admit, I’m still figuring out ways to tweak Allen’s method to work for me, or what ways I can adapt it. Anyone who’s used it or something similar, I’m all ears!
~What I’m reading~
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley
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I love Getting Things Done!