Under stress it's easy to stop thinking clearly or to make a simple mistake that could have major negative consequences. In 'The Checklist Manifesto', Dr Atul Gawande argues that in certain areas we have developed such sophistication and complexity that it is dangerously easy for even the most experienced professional to overlook a simple but essential element.
"The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably," he writes. "Knowledge has both saved us and burdened us."
"Get the dumb stuff out of the way"
As a surgeon, Gawande takes some fascinating examples from the medical profession but also considers experts in fields as diverse as architecture, finance and aviation. Many jobs, he warns, "are too complex to carry out reliably from memory alone." Describing some scary examples of what can happen in the absence of checklists, Gawande shows how simple errors can lead to crashed aircraft, failed surgery and financial ruin.
The book acknowledges that there can be ego problems where checklists are introduced. Professional experts may resent the implication that they are fallible. Gawande therefore takes care to make the idea unthreatening.
It is precisely because of the high level of expertise in many roles that checklists can be so effective, he says, freeing people up to concentrate on their technical skills, safe in the knowledge that the 'dumb stuff' has been dealt with.
Team working and responsibility
Although checklists may seem an obvious (even simplistic) solution, this book argues that instituting a clear process protocol not only helps to avert problems but also boosts successful team-working. Where checklists are an explicit part of key processes, it is the responsibility of every member of the team to ensure that they are adhered to.
Because the truth is that all life, not just medicine, is increasingly complex; if highly trained intensive-care specialists can forget a crucial step, then anyone might. Having a clearly defined and shared checklist enables everybody in a team to step up and be accountable for successful and consistent delivery.
Ironically, as Gawande points out, it's by using something as humble and blindingly obvious as a step by step protocol that frees the potential for remarkable achievement.
'Teamwork and adherence to protocol'
As a recent example, Gawande refers to the 'Miracle on the Hudson' last year when Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger brought the plane down saving 155 people after it was hit by geese over Manhattan and landed it in the river. People were saying how heroic he had been. Yet Sullenberger kept repeating that there was nothing particularly hard about the physical navigation of the plane. Instead he kept saying 'it was just teamwork and adherence to protocol.'
So where in your work could you or your team use a checklist to help you to be heroes?
"To be prepared is half the victory"Miguel Cervantes