Checklists – A Valuable Tool, With Limits

I’ve always viewed using a checklist as a good idea for somebody else; but I don’t need one. Just like role playing – prescribe it to clients but often skip it when it could benefit me.

In 2009, Atul Gawande published  The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. Gawande is a surgeon by training and his book describes the positive results obtained in medicine and business with this simple tool. As Gawande tells it, the checklist revolution began in the mid 1930’s as Boeing was developing a new giant of a military aircraft (four engines and a 103 foot wingspan) dubbed the Model 299. A terrible crash occurred during the early stages of flight testing  and several crew members perished. Was the Model 299 too complex for one person to fly? To answer this question Boeing established a team of test pilots to investigate and resolve the issues which led to the crash. Did they recommend an increase in flight training or adding more crew members to monitor all the complex flight systems? Actually, no. They developed a checklist of “dumb stuff” as Gawande describes it – things “every pilot knows” like releasing the brakes, making sure the windows and doors are closed, and monitoring the instruments. Most people know the success story of the B-17 (the Model 299’s military name) in WW II and those fortunate to sit in First Class will tell you pilots and co-pilots are still using similar checklists today.

Gawande’s book is chock-full of examples where the lowly checklist makes complex processes less prone to error, particularly in his world of medicine. But he goes beyond examples to analyze why we are resistant to using this tool. I’ll summarize his viewpoint: we think we’ve got this! It’s all covered in my head. My work requires me to be flexible and improvise, exercising my creativity!

Said differently, checklists aren’t fun or glamorous. It somehow feels beneath us to use a checklist. Certainly the important processes and projects we’re involved with are too complicated to be reduced to a checklist. But if it works for pilots and surgeons, I’m thinking it will likely work for business and church consultants. And likely your business as well – WITH LIMITS!

I’ve successfully used the checklist approach in my prior business world; my early career in nuclear power convinced me that nobody has better checklists than those folks! I’ve designed more checklist-type systems for recruitment, assessment, and general talent management than I can remember. But over the past few years I’m seeing more of my church clients apply a checklist to manage certain aspects of ministry.

There are many positives to this approach; church consultants are happy to conduct a “mystery shopping” type experience to evaluate how well a church performs on several key measures. It starts with the parking lot. Is there reserved parking for first time guests? Is there appropriate signage? Is there a parking lot greeting team? Do they wear visibility safety vests? How soon before service should they be at their posts? Do they know how important it is for them to smile and wave and do other things to appear friendly? Can they answer typical questions a guest might have about your church? After the parking lot the checklist moves on the rest of the welcome team, conditions of the church building, website, sound system, and even sermon evaluation – in case you are wondering, the sermon should be no longer than 35 minutes!

As much as I’m advocating for the checklist, let me make a strategic pivot here and apply some balance and unpack that phrase at the top “with limits.” Yes, we should always stay focused on what we can control whether we’re operating in the business world or the church world. But we don’t have control over everything; actually we have little control over many of the key outcomes of our business or church. Checklists are wonderful tools to manage a process and keep us on track for those things we know and control, such as releasing the brakes on an aircraft prior to takeoff or ensuring our parking lot teams are friendly, safety-oriented and well trained. But they are not magic wands.

But if we’re not careful, we can develop a “checklist mentality” and leave people out of the equation (which applies equally to the business and church world) and the random nature of human behavior. Worse yet, in the church world we can take this checklist mentality even further afield and leave God out of the equation. We find a wonderful illustration of this in Romans 9:14-16, as the Apostle Paul is explaining the sovereignty of God, via the Old Testament, “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” Yes, God wants you to use a checklist to monitor things we’ve identified as building blocks for church success but we’re always ultimately dependent on the Holy Spirit. Some plant, some water, but God gives the increase. (I Cor. 3:6)

Is there a corollary in the business world? Yes, it’s understanding your business and what you can control and what’s outside of your control. For those things amenable to control, consider using a checklist for all of those “dumb things everyone knows!” And recognize that no matter how hard you try, you’ll never control everything.  As the band, 38 Special, said in 1981:

“Just hold on loosely
But don’t let go
If you cling too tightly
You’re gonna lose control.”

38 Special may have been talking about a different topic, but it’s good advice no matter the topic!

I do highly recommend Gawande’s book for greater insight into the benefits of checklists and his many helpful examples.