“Top 10” Reasons to use Check-lists…

1. Eliminate Mistakes

• Follow a check-list to prevent skipping important steps, doing things out of order, forgetting to do things that could lead to a job being done incorrectly.

2. Stay Safe

• Injury and death is often the result of failure to follow proper procedure. Simple, easy-to-understand check-lists make following safe procedures more likely.

3. Reduce Stress

• Stress is often the result of uncertainty – not knowing how to do a job or worrying that a job will not be done correctly. Having a check-list makes the job to be done very clear, eliminating the uncertainty that causes stress.

4. Save Time

• Trying to recall what steps to perform to complete a procedure, “reinvention,” can take a lot of time, especially when there are multiple procedures that need to get done.

5. Delegate Confidently

• Eliminate the fear and worry that often results when asking someone else to to do a job. Providing a check-list helps to ensure that team members know what steps to take to complete the job successfully.

6. Continuous Improvement

• Having a check-list can enable people to gain experience and discover improvements for the procedure or policy in question.

7. Summarize Training

• A check-list can serve as a quick reminder and summary of the key points made in a training course.

8. Knowledge Retention

• People forget how to do things; people transition out of jobs. Having a check-list can preserve the knowledge needed to perform a job.

9. Cost Savings

• Having a check-list can eliminate the costs associated with mistakes, rework, injury, and the wasted time it takes to remember how to do a job.

10. Project Management

• Check-lists can make it easier for a manager to keep track of all the work that needs to be done, estimate the time required to do it, and know what team members are able to perform the job.

DMW