Atul Gawande wrote in his bestseller “The Checklist Manifesto” “There are thousand ways that things can go wrong when you’ve got a patient with a stab wound. But everyone involved got almost every step right…Except no one remembered to ask the patient what the weapon was”.
Now replace the patient with your business and the weapon with your customers, and then acknowledge that our world of information has gotten very complex. We tend to satisfy a right-now-demand instead of focusing on the weapon, which gives important clues for how to save the patient.
Having a checklist prevents the slinking-in (term borrowed from Dr. Seuss) of pretend priorities. It may be priority to someone, but not to you.
In business, we suffer from too much information, too many distractions, another great idea you heard and a mind-blowing demand for speed. How do you stay on task and avoid business attention deficit disorder?
- Know your WHY
- Check in with your VISION
- Make a LIST
Checklists have multiple functions. They create clarity, priority, and a sense of accomplishment. They create repeat customer satisfaction, completing a process, and serve overall as quality control. Your plan for business, expansion or new product development should have a section with action steps. Create that master checklist, make sub-checklists, staff checklist, outsourced services checklist, payroll checklist etc.
As long as you are a one-man or one-woman business, you may not feel the need to share processes. The moment you have to onboard your first hire you wished you had kept the checklist. Here we are at the main purpose – save time, energy, assure consistency, and prevent distraction.
Checklists in business are your procedure manual. Most startup checklists are so important that you can actually attach a dollar value to them. Others may just be a daily to-do-list.
Know what needs to be organized, list the steps to take, add who, how and a deadline. Become a reliable, consistent business that gets products and services delivered one high notes. Patient saved!
Examples of “What needs to get done”.
- New customer target market (make a list of what needs to happen)
- EIDL loan repayment (terms, research, who to talk to)
- Tax year comes to an end (structure this year’s improved approach to tax filing)
- Holiday season in my business (plan to advertise, plan campaigns)