Using Checklists At Work To Help You Succeed
Joseph Feibel – January 14, 2018
North’s three laws of success:
Do what you say you will do.
Do it when you said you would do it.
Do it at the price you agreed to.
Simple? Yes. Do most people adhere to them? No. The vast majority of people do not make them basic to their lives.
It was written by the economist Thomas Sowell.
Many years ago when I was teenager I worked at Jack’s grocery store in Harlem, delivering groceries and doing little chores around the store. One my chores was to keep the cooler filled with beer and soda. This was one of those old-fashioned coolers, a sort of square vat where you set the bottles and put in chunks of ice. As as the ice melted you had a pool of cold water water that chilled the drinks. Before I first filled the cooler Jack explained certain things: although he wanted the cooler kept full, he warned me against trying to force too many bottles together. When you did that with a beer bottle it could explode in your hand (the glass was thin during World War II.) “Do you understand,” he asked. Yes, what did he think I was, a dummy?Before very long I was busy filling up the cooler and forcing bottles together. Suddenly there was a loud noise, and I found myself holding the jagged neck of a beer of bottle, while the beer and fragments of glass were spread all over the cooler. It was a mess. We had to empty the whole cooler and drain it, and we couldn’t leave pieces of broken glass for customers to cut their hands on, so all those little pieces had to be carefully picked out one by one. Jack seemed to take a couple of deep breaths before saying anything to me as if he were trying to control himself. He seemed terribly irritable to me…anybody could make a mistake.
Some days later I was again filling up the cooler. Jack made some remark that I thought was sarcastic, so I just ignored it. Everything was going fine until the cooler was just about full. Then suddenly there was a loud noise. I found myself holding one half of a beer bottle while the bottom half was all over the cooler. It was startling, who would’ve thought something like that could happen? I was amazed. Jack seemed dumbfounded too. I told Jack I was never going to do that again, but never isn’t all that long when you’re a teenager.
Exploding beer bottles became a way of life at Jack’s grocery store. Each time it caught me completely by surprise. Some of the customers thought it was funny. Jack never did. He threatened to fire me. I thought that was very harsh. Decades later, I wondered how Jack found the patience to put up with me. If our roles had been reversed, I would have probably thrown him out on his ear. Not all my employers were as patient as Jack. Only so often could you keep forgetting what they told you and still have a job. (They even got mad when you came in late!) Compassion Versus Guilt, and Other Essays
People simply will not follow instructions. They do not understand the meaning of “I’m paying; do it my way.” This fact offers success to the dedicated few who follow instructions.
When you enter any field, you must follow instructions. If you think there is a better way to do a job, check it with your supervisor. Get approval, preferably as a memo, so that you will be able to say, “I got permission.”
Before starting, it is wise to re-state the assignment. Outline the steps in print. Then ask: “Is this what you want?”
If the project involves a series of repetitive tasks, complete the first step in the project and ask: “Is this what you want?” There are always parts of any assignment that have not been spelled out in advance. No instructions are both complete and consistent. So, present a preliminary finished product. Get the person who gave the instructions an opportunity to review your output.
Don’t be there to ask confirmation of every step, but show the finished first product. If there is a problem, the Supervisor or client will tell you.
Then repeat the process. Don’t change the procedure on your own authority.
Bosses must delegate, yet many fear to delegate. They know that it takes a self-motivated person to follow instructions.
This is why checklists are needed. Bosses forget to create them, because they think their subordinates think the way that they do. They assume that there is the same degree of commitment among the employees as there is in the hierarchy. There isn’t.
It is a good idea to make your own checklist for a project. Give it to your supervisor. “Is this what you want?” If he initials it, follow it. You will both be happy with the results.
For those of us who got the message early in life and have stuck with it, all this seems natural. It isn’t. It’s unnatural.