I have written before about the importance of checklists for bringing a business to order—but below are some statistics that might convince you that YOU TOO might look into using them, if you still don’t see their value. They could save your business—they did for mine!
Many of the budget-killing mistakes that risk customer loyalty can be dramatically reduced or eliminated by putting together simple checklists, and getting everyone to follow them. Ah, there's the rub, you say! How do you make systems work consistently?
We found the way!
Consider the following who have implemented checklists that have saved whole companies from disaster; they have saved money and time—even many lives.
Medical Checklists
Disturbed by the thousands of needless deaths in hospitals due to infections, renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital critical-care specialist Dr. Peter Pronovost put together a simple five-step checklist in 2001 for installing lines in the human body during care. Almost immediately, infection rates plummeted at Johns Hopkins. Sadly, Dr. Pronovost could not get hospitals interested, primarily because physicians felt they didn't need checklists to do their job. Sound familiar?
Finally, Dr. Pronovost got the State of Michigan to try his simple checklists in a handful of the worst hospitals in the country. Results? In December, 2006, the Keystone Initiative published its findings in a landmark article in The New England Journal of Medicine. Within the first three months of the project, the infection rate of Michigan ICUs decreased by 65 percent. In the Keystone Initiative's first 18 months the hospitals saved an estimated $175 million in costs and more than 1,500 lives.
Checklists inspired by the B-17 Bomber
Boeing almost went bankrupt when one of its top pilots crashed a newly-designed bomber, right in front of top military brass. Realizing their new generation of aircraft was too complicated for even the best pilots, Boeing created a simple checklist and proceeded to sell over 13,000 planes that flew over 1.8 million miles without a crash.
Downloading what's in your head
YOU are the expert on your business! You know how it works, and the processes that have brought you THIS far! But, unless your company is staffed by mind-readers, you are a slave to your business every day, so long as others are not EMPOWERED and EQUIPPED to take charge of their area, their assignments, without your constant input. You need to DOWNLOAD!
Begin by creating a checklist system for all the processes in your business that need to be performed in a consistent manner (i.e. setting up a new customer). How your company operates (all the business of your business) will remain IN YOUR HEAD—if, as an owner or manager, you have never taken the time to download it OUT OF YOUR HEAD and into written documents (i.e. checklists, procedures, policies, forms, etc.).
Once you have created these detailed documents, they should be gathered and organized into an Operations Manual for your company.
Daily Routine Checklists for Personnel
The Daily Routine Checklist is like a Job Description, developed into a comprehensive list of duties, in the order a person performs them, from the time they arrive at work until they leave. It is to be prominently located for easy use, on a tablet or desk computer. No computer? A hard copy can be kept on the employee’s desk or on a clipboard by their workstation. With this document you, the owner or manager, also has for reference, a list of everything each employee does. Daily Routine Checklists are your eyes to see every task and duty performed in an organization, from taking mail to the post office, to total operation of your company, to mopping the floors.
These checklists, followed correctly—one step at a time—stop errors from being repeated, and virtually eliminate procrastination and chaos.
Quality and Service Control Checklists
Quality and Service Control Checklists are crucial to any company that wants to guarantee quality and service.
Every company and organization has a product it is selling or promoting. Your product may be a service, but it should be QUALITY service.
A verbal commitment to quality and service is about as predictable as bubbles in the air. Without a checklist system, you cannot guarantee or prove quality or service—because, as fallible human beings, it is impossible for one to remember to complete every process exactly as needed, every single time.
Have you ever read something, and it turned out you had read it wrong? Or, you were supposed to do something and it turned out you didn't, but you "just knew" you had? My point exactly!
We're human, and we don't see or do things the same way every time. Our mind may be thinking about numerous things, or something major, and overlook something small.
Imagine your next business trip, and how your airline pilot might be focusing on the weather or passengers, or some personal event in his/her life, that could cause them to miss a small light alerting them that the landing gear is up or down. Thankfully, airline pilots use detailed checklists that keep you and me safe from such mishaps!
There’s a SOLUTION for what ails your business...READ ON...
Imagine a browser-based program that could bring total ORDER to your company—all systems operated by each staff member on a PC or an I-Pad (paperless)—that would allow for lean and sustainable management company-wide! Think of it—with this program you could even create your own interactive, industry-specific documents that include instant access to your procedures and policies.
Imagine a program that could reduce your waste ratio, almost overnight, by 70 percent and more, and allow you (the owner or manager) instant reporting of virtually ALL your company's activities.
We've done it! You can, too!
Here’s to POWER for your business in 2015!
Did I mention? Great Systems Work!
Philip Beyer, founder/president of Ebiz Products LLC and founder of Beyer Printing Inc. in Nashville Tenn., is a chronic entrepreneur, business systems analyst and consultant. Author of "System Busters: How to Stop Them in Your Business" and recipient of an InterTech Technology Award for the design and development of System100 business process management software. Beyer speaks to business owners across the country on how to bring lean, sustainable order to their businesses. Contact him at (615) 425-2652.