Checklists are in vogue these days. You have them for just about everything.
Checklists for all those quality procedures, checklists to pack your stuff, checklist for things to buy over the weekend so on and so forth...
This week something happened, I was the organiser of a event we do every year. Not a big affair but a 500 odd gathering where we have routine speeches and awards followed by a high tea. I had come up with a checklist and had even sent it across to my admin wing for early preparations. We thought we nailed everything (well, nearly everything). The programme started and i did my speaking and then went to sit among the crowds and then it struck me.
Ah! There was no photographer for the occasion!
I frantically called up my logistics and other wings to get an photographer. Unfortunately it never crossed anybody's mind. They tried to get one but it was too late.
well, Plan B. We switched on our cell phones cameras.
Well, what went wrong? I can easily accuse the admin or the traditional support wings who should have spotted this miss from my side (Because I am just a project manager). But why was such a thing missed? when I asked the admin in charge. He said all he was doing was following my checklist religiously!
Do you see it? This is not a just a checklist being not comprehensive or faulty. There are bigger mischiefs at work here. Of course, I accept that the checklist was incomplete. But why did others get led by it. Why did they assume that 'that was it'.
Isn't the same issue that we face with the stupid review comments we get or the reviews we ourselves do? Aren't we lead or rather mislead by what the document says. We do not think independently or outside what is explicit in the object being reviewed.
Is is it because we do not take things seriously? We can only spot things that we have spotted before. Maybe from our experience we cite a few things but where is the objectivity where one's vision is not blurred by the solution but fixed on the problem.
If one were to really think hard, checklists actually gives you a false sense of comfort and completeness. Of course, accumulation of previous mishaps are good but they are never complete. The situation or the problem might have taken on new twists or dimensions. Checklists can only be starters.
In fact, checklists lets your mind wander. You no longer need to be rooted to the present! The problem at hand. You are comfortable verifying against the mental or physical checklist you have while your mind can wander.
It aint easy to live in the present. Take every problem and instance objectively.
Ah! You guessed right. I shameslessly added 'Photographer' also to my checklist.
Checklists for all those quality procedures, checklists to pack your stuff, checklist for things to buy over the weekend so on and so forth...
This week something happened, I was the organiser of a event we do every year. Not a big affair but a 500 odd gathering where we have routine speeches and awards followed by a high tea. I had come up with a checklist and had even sent it across to my admin wing for early preparations. We thought we nailed everything (well, nearly everything). The programme started and i did my speaking and then went to sit among the crowds and then it struck me.
Ah! There was no photographer for the occasion!
I frantically called up my logistics and other wings to get an photographer. Unfortunately it never crossed anybody's mind. They tried to get one but it was too late.
well, Plan B. We switched on our cell phones cameras.
Well, what went wrong? I can easily accuse the admin or the traditional support wings who should have spotted this miss from my side (Because I am just a project manager). But why was such a thing missed? when I asked the admin in charge. He said all he was doing was following my checklist religiously!
Do you see it? This is not a just a checklist being not comprehensive or faulty. There are bigger mischiefs at work here. Of course, I accept that the checklist was incomplete. But why did others get led by it. Why did they assume that 'that was it'.
Isn't the same issue that we face with the stupid review comments we get or the reviews we ourselves do? Aren't we lead or rather mislead by what the document says. We do not think independently or outside what is explicit in the object being reviewed.
Is is it because we do not take things seriously? We can only spot things that we have spotted before. Maybe from our experience we cite a few things but where is the objectivity where one's vision is not blurred by the solution but fixed on the problem.
If one were to really think hard, checklists actually gives you a false sense of comfort and completeness. Of course, accumulation of previous mishaps are good but they are never complete. The situation or the problem might have taken on new twists or dimensions. Checklists can only be starters.
In fact, checklists lets your mind wander. You no longer need to be rooted to the present! The problem at hand. You are comfortable verifying against the mental or physical checklist you have while your mind can wander.
It aint easy to live in the present. Take every problem and instance objectively.
Ah! You guessed right. I shameslessly added 'Photographer' also to my checklist.
Interestingly, I am reading "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande now! Checklists are very useful, but they do not get finalized in the first iteration...
ReplyDeleteYes, always consider the possibility that we might be seeking refuge in them and refuse to indulge ourselves (give ourselves 100% to the problem at hand) citing practicality.
ReplyDeleteWhen something goes wrong, let's not blame the guy who prepared the poor checklist!
Not quite about check list. But you might find this perspective interesting too - http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,659577,00.html
ReplyDelete