"Always Making Mistakes? Try a Checklist!"

This article is the 52nd original piece by Lu Canwei.

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The brain is meant for thinking, not for memorizing.

In today's rapidly developing society, anxiety about knowledge is becoming increasingly severe. We purchase a large number of courses and books, hoping to learn more and more knowledge, but we often forget what we have learned. Even in operations we are accustomed to, we occasionally make mistakes. There are always some key steps that are overlooked, and there are always some steps that are unavoidable.

Do we really need checklists?

If one day you were rescued after drowning, you certainly wouldn’t want the rescuer to start pressing randomly on your chest and then start wildly waving their tongue. You would definitely hope that they could follow the first aid steps step by step, as this would increase your chances of survival.

What if the rescuer is a very experienced and professional doctor? Many people would feel reassured. But if the situation is still not optimistic and you might need to be sent to the intensive care unit, wouldn’t that be frightening?

What if you can’t pull through? Of course, there are many successful cases. But if I told you that each patient receives an average of 178 nursing interventions per day, and these interventions are performed by different people, with each operation carrying risks, wouldn’t you feel that entering the intensive care unit is equivalent to a death sentence?

If I also told you that each patient stays in the intensive care unit for 4 days, with a survival rate of 86%, and that the error rate for those 178 operations is only 1%, wouldn’t you be surprised?

In 2001, a man named Peter Pronovost prepared a checklist for doctors regarding central venous catheter infections because he found that even very experienced doctors would skip a step during the procedure. One-third of the operations were not performed according to standards.

After implementing the checklist for a year, the infection rate for central venous catheters dropped from 11% to 0, saving the hospital a total of $2 million.

Even when we are doing something, we can create a checklist to record our operational steps, which can reduce the probability of making mistakes.

Of course, checklists are not infallible; even when following a checklist, unexpected events can still occur. So at that time, the best approach is to stop and communicate thoroughly with team members.

Having said all this, let me give an example from software development. For instance, after our project development is completed, we need to launch it for users to use. If multiple personnel are involved, how do we ensure that the launch does not affect user experience? Therefore, we have release steps when launching the project. Here’s an example.

Real software development is far more complex than described above, involving web, app, interface, database, and other service teams, various gray releases, blue-green testing, etc. Sometimes a single release may involve the launch of over 30 services. Without a checklist, you might find yourself starving, looking at the food delivery app displaying a system error and asking you to try again.

How to write a qualified checklist

Of course, I believe everyone has suffered from the drawbacks of checklists, such as needing a superfluous number of approvals for reimbursements. So how do we set up a reasonable checklist?

The greatest function of a checklist is to standardize, replicate, and cultivate a culture of collaboration.

The main benefit of standardization is that it allows a non-professional to quickly achieve a passing score. Take me for example; I’m not very good at cooking, but every time I can follow a recipe to make a decent dinner. Moreover, this content is replicable; anyone can replicate the same result based on this checklist.

In team collaboration, if the checklist includes a 1-minute self-introduction and discussion, it can instantly transform several individuals into a cohesive team.

Finally, if you want to delve deeper into the benefits of checklists, you might consider reading "The Checklist Manifesto."

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