Recently I heard a disturbing story. A student taking flight lessons became extremely upset with the flight instructor. For good reason.
The flight instructor told the student that following checklists didn’t matter. The instructor also went on to tell the student he would pass the first portion of the flight syllabus regardless of performance. Are you enraged!? I am and you should be as well.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about patterns and the importance of establishing patterns in your workplace. In aviation, we say checklists are written in blood. The patterns we follow keep us alive. Checklists were created based on the errors pilots have made (many fatal) when taking off, in-flight or upon landing. While we can memorize our checklists, we are trained to use our physical written checklists. Why? Because under pressure it is too easy to forget a step. Relying on memory alone, the wrong engine gets shut down, or the wrong procedure is conducted. Then the single engine emergency becomes a dual engine emergency. Or the landing gear doesn’t get lowered. See what I mean?
The aviation community relies on checklists so that we stay alive, and you do, too. They work so well that the medical community now incorporates checklists for surgery, and they are used in many more industrial procedures.
Patterns are important. Checklist were developed to create patterns and are essential to safety. Patterns and their supporting checklists are the pathways to outstanding performance, both in aviation as well as in our professional lives.
What’s not working in your organization? Have your team members started overlooking essential elements by ignoring checklists, not developing beneficial patterns or are they creating patterns that are not beneficial to the organization? Need help with pattern recognition or pattern creation? A few checklists may help increase your team’s performance. Let me know…
Fly high and fly safely!
Barbara
Connect with me at CaptainBarbaraBell.com. Of course, check out my book, Flight Lessons: Navigating Through Life’s Turbulence and Learning to Fly High.
#leadership, #patternrecognition, #checklists, #disruption, #culture, #relationships, #womenveterans,#veterans, #coaching, #mentoring
