The Idea
In 2009, a team led by surgeon Alex Haynes published a study of eight hospitals in eight countries. Teams introduced a 19-item surgical checklist, including confirming the patient’s identity and counting instruments before closing. Complications fell from 11% to 7%, and deaths from 1.5% to 0.8% after its introduction.
The study compared outcomes before and after the change, so it couldn’t establish how much of the improvement came from the checklist alone. Introducing it also involved training and changes in how teams worked together. Even with that caveat, it’s striking that a checklist covering familiar tasks could be part of such an improvement.
There’s a useful place to apply this in everyday work: the mistake you’ve already promised yourself you won’t make again. Suppose you keep sending proposals without checking the client’s name in the attachment. Put that check beside the send step in your proposal template. Then use it on the next proposal, while the document is still open and the error is easy to fix. Keep the checklist in the document you’re using so you see it before you send.
Quote
“The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably.” Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto
Question
What recurring mistake could you catch with a check at the moment you’re most likely to make it?
Listen
Ben Meer, founder of System Sunday and former Ernst & Young consultant, joins me on Success Story. He built his newsletter while working full-time in consulting. For anyone trying to manage a side project alongside a demanding job, start with “Stop Relying on Memory” at 24:05.
Read
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. Gawande explores how people in demanding professions use checklists to make complex work more reliable.
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Scott