You, me, everybody would prefer not to follow a checklist, yet they keep us alive in many walks of life. Checklists can keep your business alive too and help it thrive.
Set up and insist on the use of a checklist for the business critical tasks in your business. Even if people know what they should be doing.
It was proved in the slums of Karachi, Pakistan in the 1990s that soap and a 3-point checklist really can save lives.
All the local water sources were contaminated with sewage. 1 in 10 children died before they were five years old. Diarrhoea was a major cause.
A young public health worker, Stephen Luby, had an idea that anti-bacterial soap might help. The idea failed, Anti-bacterial soap was no better than normal soap, but his test achieved a better use of soap and did reduce cases of diarrhoea and pneumonia because it made the use of soap more systematic. The checklist they then implemented was as simple as:
· Wet both hands completely
· Lather well
· Rinse all soap off
Simple and obvious – but in the slums of Karachi it was life changing.
Can you really afford to ignore even a simple 3-point checklist – to read more about the success of a business critical checklist click here.