Problem
- The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably.
- Three different kinds of problems in the world: the simple, the complicated, and the complex.
- Whether running to the store to buy ingredients for a cake, preparing an airplane for takeoff, or evaluating a sick person in the hospital, if you miss just one key thing, you might as well not have made the effort at all.
- A further difficulty is that people lull themselves into skipping steps even when they remember them.
Solution
- The Checklist is a simple tool aimed to buttress the skills of expert professionals.
- Under conditions of complexity, not only are checklists a help, they are required for success.
- Checklists established a higher standard of baseline performance.
- Checklists offer the possibility of verification and instill the discipline high-reliability, high-performance organizations.
- Checklists remind us of the necessary steps, makes them explicit and accountable.
- Checklists defend anyone, even the experienced, against failure.
