In Appreciation of the Humble Checklist

Posted on by Scott

ChecklistThere I was.

Out of town.

In a hotel.

And about to step into the shower.

That’s when I realized there was no soap.

It was the morning of an important meeting. Having stayed up late with an upset stomach, I’d hit the snooze button one or two times too many. There was no time to contact the front desk and wait for someone to bring a bar to the room. So I set aside my frustration and made good use of the shampoo.

Later on, as I reviewed the trip, I couldn’t help but think about the missing soap. It was a small oversight, but obviously a pretty significant one. How could something so critical to a guest’s stay be overlooked?

When you think about it, it’s really not that hard to understand. Today’s businesses have become increasingly complex. There can be hundreds of components to get right in order for things to work out perfectly. And with so many moving parts it’s very easy to miss one or more of the small ones. But it’s typically the smallest service misses that cause the most customer frustration.

So it’s no wonder that occasionally the soap is missing from a hotel room. From time to time a fast-food order is filled incorrectly. Every once in a while you open a box to find a part is missing. As hard as we try, every service provider is destined to miss something eventually.

But what if there was a simple tool you could use to make sure those little things weren’t overlooked? Would you use it?

Airline pilots use it; so do astronauts and quick-service oil change companies. Chances are you have one on your desk or in your computer or on your phone.

I’m speaking of the humble checklist.

When service providers perform the same steps over and over again, you’d think that things would become automatic; that nothing would be missed. But it’s for precisely this reason that small missteps happen. When service steps become routine, they can be taken for granted. And that’s when the details stand the greatest chance of slipping your mind.

In his book The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Harvard Medical School tells how implementing a simple pre-surgery checklist reduced complications and deaths by 35 percent. If highly skilled professionals like surgeons and airline pilots rely on checklists to get the little things right, why shouldn’t the rest of us?

The process is simple:

  1. Map out your service delivery process.
  2. Draft a checklist to document each step.
  3. Use the checklist religiously.

Think you don’t need one? Gawande didn’t either. After, all he’s a Harvard-trained surgeon. But he wrote the book and felt compelled to practice what he preached. He says not a single week has passed at the hospital that his checklist hasn’t caught something.

What could a checklist help you catch?

Doctor’s Orders

Posted on by Scott

Andrew ScrubsI recently read that 80% of U.S. adults do not meet federal recommendations for aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening exercise. In other words, they’re out of shape. Sadly, I’m one of them.

Now, before you get the wrong idea; I’m not a total couch potato. I spend a lot of time outdoors through my involvement with the Boy Scouts. In fact, my son Alex and I are about to leave town for a two week backpacking trip in the mountains of northern New Mexico. But unfortunately, I don’t get out as often as I’d like (or need) to. And the closest I get to regular aerobic exercise is watching “The Biggest Loser” with a bowl of ice cream in my lap.

I’m not happy with the way I look or feel – haven’t been in a long time. Just like most of the other people making up the 80% in the opening statistic, I know what to do. I’ve just lacked the motivation to do anything about it. Sometimes I ask myself “What will it take for me to change? Perhaps if a doctor were to deliver some bad news, it would inspire me to get serious.” Well last month I got my wish.

One minute, I was conducting a webinar. The next, I was doubled over in pain. It got worse and worse until I finally went to the local walk-in clinic. After a number of tests and a trip to the emergency room for a CT scan, I was diagnosed with kidney stones. I was treated with intravenous fluids and pain medication. If you know anything about kidney stones, you know they’re not life-threatening, but cause a great deal of pain. Furthermore, they can be symptomatic of larger health problems.

My doctor shared that I was at risk for additional kidney stones and suggested I make some changes in my diet and level of activity. Nothing he suggested was new to me. But thanks to the pain I’d just gone through, I committed myself to acting differently going forward. I’ve been drinking more water, watching what I eat and moving more – not rocket science; just simple actions I’ve known about all along.

Sometimes we have to receive some bad news before we make even the most simple changes. Operational tweaks, management priorities, even basic acts of customer service – they’re all easy to ignore, overlook or put off. But in the face of negative feedback, the basics take on a renewed sense of importance.

Earlier this year, I helped an organization develop a set of Customer Experience Standards. The standards outline basic expectations regarding how customers and coworkers are to be treated. Nothing included is revolutionary. In fact, most of the document is common sense – many employees even complained about the simplistic nature of the contents. As a result, some chose to ignore them or assumed they were covered.

About a month ago, they introduced a customer feedback survey and the results began pouring in. As you can imagine, some of the feedback was negative. Time will tell if the pain of negative feedback is enough to finally motivate them to action.

How do you react to bad news?

The Art of Simplicity

Posted on by Scott

You’ve probably heard of the old adage “Keep It Simple Stupid.” Commonly known as the KISS principle, this timeless piece of advice suggests that, in most cases, the simplest solution is the best. When you think about it, this makes sense. The more complicated an idea is – the more moving parts it has – the more likely something will go wrong.

This is a concept most commonly voiced in engineering and manufacturing circles. Machines with more moving parts have more potential points of failure. Software loaded with bells and whistles often has more bugs in it than code focused on a few core features. As a result, we constantly have to juggle patches and updates to shore up the short-comings inherent in complicated products and processes.

I believe the idea of simplicity has a lot of relevance in the world of organizational management as well. As leaders, it’s very easy to over-complicate things for those looking to us for direction.

In my experience, leaders tend to fail when they try to achieve too much at one time. You’ll be far more effective when you break complex ideas into simple, easy-to-digest parts.

If you want to communicate effectively, keep the message simple.

If you want employees to learn, keep instructions simple.

If you want your team to perform, keep goals simple.

If you want customers to respond, keep the value proposition simple.

I’m a talker by nature and by trade. I often have a great deal of information to share, and could probably write a book about any given subject when all that’s needed is a couple of short sentences. I’ve found that I’m much more effective as a speaker, leader, and consultant when I keep things simple.

In fact, I’m having to resist writing too much right now on the subject of simplicity. So I’ll sum things up with a few simple questions.

What part of your business could use simplifying?

How can you simplify things for your employees or your customers?

And what steps will you take today to incorporate the KISS principle into your day-to-day activities?