checklist

Morning Checklist

By Dave English

My boys are 6 and 4. School mornings can be … challenging. So this weekend I nailed a checklist in each of their rooms: It worked great! They were actually excited to check off items as they were completed. Of course, how long will this diligence last? How long before the checklist is ignored? It takes us all a while to learn that having a checklist is not the same as getting things done right. I’m going to try and be consciously, mindfully, fully present for each of my flying checklists this week.   BONUS – There’s a whole book on checklists, … Continue reading Morning Checklist

Surgical checklists

By Dave English

Checklists save lives! A major new study in the journal Annals of Surgery shows a 22% reduction in post-surgical deaths when a simple WHO 19-item checklist was used. It wasn’t a true random experiment, but the clear results are still impressive. “Safety checklists are not a piece of paper that somehow magically protect patients, but rather they are a tool to help change practice, to foster a specific type of behavior in communication, to change implicit communication to explicit in order to create a culture where speaking up is permitted and encouraged and to create an environment where information is shared between all … Continue reading Surgical checklists

Checklist complete! Or is it?

By Dave English

This airline training slide explains ‘active monitoring’ – visualize, act, compare. You must look for something, not just at something: It’s easy to say we should be mentally flying the aeroplane, but it’s also kind of a cop out. So it’s a nice addition to have some concrete ideas on how to actually do it.

Standard checklists

By Dave English

Despite the emergency checklists provided for abnormalities, it’s the standard checklists that you use before you begin your flight that often determine whether you live or come crashing down in a pile of mistakes. Erika Armstrong from her new book ‘A Chick in the Cockpit.’ The book has some good flying stuff in it, but is more about her personal life journey. One of the most engaging books I’ve read this year.

Frog, Toad and black swan checklists

By Dave English

Excellent article on checklist use – and when not to follow them. Quotes from Frog, Toad, and the black swan pilots of Qantas Flight 32. Written by a systems ergonomist/work psychologist with a real understanding of aviation issues. http://humanisticsystems.com/2015/10/01/toads-checklist/