What's the #1 Tool to Make Sure Your Vision Becomes a Reality? Surprisingly, Checklists! |

February 25, 2018

What’s the #1 Tool to Make Sure Your Vision Becomes a Reality? Surprisingly, Checklists!

The Execution Problem: Research shows that up to 75% of leadership initiatives are never fully executed. There are many reasons why this is true: lack of follow-through; failure to assign accountability for changes; and failure to gain buy-in from participants. But one reason may be more humble, no checklists!

How Checklists Can Help: The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by surgeon and New York Times bestselling author Atul Gawande offers tons of research and riveting stories about how simple checklists have saved lives, propelled successful rocket launches, and even helped construct safe skyscrapers and aided investment bankers. Gawande, appearing on The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert, even offered suggestions about how the show could prevent late-breaking news from blowing up a carefully planned show.

Van Halen Shows Use Checklists: American hard rock band Van Halen has been famously mocked for requesting no brown M&M’s in their dressing room. Yet the true story is that the band sent checklists to venues to make sure the stages, instruments and so on were set up safely and correctly. Way down on the list was the instruction: no brown M&M’s. The candy served as a test to see if the venue had actually read and followed the list. If the band walked into the show and found brown M&M’s, they knew the venue had not followed the list and they would cancel the show because they couldn’t be sure that the stage wouldn’t collapse or that some other disaster would occur.

What Should You Do?

Use Checklists the Right Way: Research has shown that checklists that are imposed in a top-down, authoritarian way do NOT work. In Canada, for example, the government passed a law mandating checklists in hospitals. The law didn’t improve safety because there was no tailoring of lists for what healthcare workers actually needed, nor did they gain the buy-in of participants.

Don’t Just Explain What, But Why and How: Effective checklists spring from conversations, not just orders.

Don’t Make Checklists Too Long: Research has shown that the brain can only handle one piece of information at a time. Don’t overwhelm the team.

Develop a Game Plan for Politics: Some people will predictably resist using checklists, viewing them as unnecessary and instructive. Research has shown that meeting with these individuals privately before the initiative starts can gain their cooperation.

What Do You Think?

Have you tried checklists? Have they been effective? Call or write us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

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