Why do pilots have so many checklists?
It’s because they are required to be the ultimate professionals. Lives are at stake every time they fly. They can’t take chances. They have to do everything in their power, every single time to take every single precaution. They have to assume that anything will go wrong if they let it go wrong. The penalty for error is death. Every time they fly they take death defying risks…and they take us with them. Thank goodness they do.
Even amateur pilots have checklists
It’s because they are taking the same risks. They aren’t getting paid for it and they aren’t permitted to fly as many people, but if they forget something they can die all the same. The truth is that they need the checklists even more because they aren’t flying all the time like the professionals. They are more likely to forget things. Checklists prevent that from happening because they don’t have to remember, they just have to go down the checklists.
Successful businesses have their formulas for success.
Do you have yours? There’s lots of ways to fail and few to succeed. Once a business figure out their niche and how to operate successfully in it, they want to make sure they stay on track. It’s this desire that’s behind all of the operating manuals, schedules, procedure and process charts and yes, checklists. They know that staying on track will maximize their chances for operating efficiently and staying profitable. You can’t be casual about success.
It’s been said that much of the world is being run by 20 year olds with checklists.
The experienced veterans can supervise and oversee development of new products, markets and processes. You need a lot of that kind of on going creativity for the company to grow. On the other hand in every company there are tons of things that just have to just get done. In this arena you need it to get done fast and reliably every time. That’s where the checklists come in. They help minimize errors and maximize production. They help train and supervise people more easily.
