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A checklist stops routine steps being forgotten: each item names one action that can be honestly checked, in the order the work happens; outcomes need a check with a standard, and the miss rate shows whether the list works.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
You will write checklist items that can be honestly checked, sort actions from outcomes and feelings, order a checklist as the work happens, and measure whether a checklist reduced missed steps.
A quality check looks for a named failure against a standard. A checklist is a different tool with a narrower job, and the two are often confused.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Checklist | A short list of actions, in order, each checked as it is done. |
| Item | One action on the list. |
| Honestly checked | The person can see they did exactly that action. |
| Outcome | A result, such as passing inspection, that a check mark cannot prove. |
| Miss rate | The share of occasions on which a step was forgotten. |
| Skimming | Checking items without reading them, the failure of long lists. |
Checklists work for a simple reason: people forget routine steps, especially at the end of a long day, and a list in front of them does not. The oven racks left on the dish rack, the compressor left on overnight, the allergen folder that was not on the counter when an inspector asked: these are forgettings, and a checklist stops them.
That only works if each item can be honestly checked. 'Oven racks put back in the oven' can: the cleaner did it or did not. Three kinds of line cannot:
Outcomes still matter. They belong to a quality check, with a standard: the reheated soup at 165 degrees on the probe is measured, not checked off.
Another way: table
Rewriting a weak checklist.
| Weak item | Honest item |
|---|---|
| Kitchen looks great | Oven racks back in the oven |
| Workshop in good order | Compressor switched off at the wall |
| Everything put away | Allergen folder on the counter |
Another way: steps
Write the items in the order the work is done, so the list can be followed without jumping about: food into the refrigerator while it is still safe, then the stovetop off, then surfaces, then trash, and the door locked last on the way out. Keep it short; a list of forty items is skimmed, and a skimmed checklist is checked without being read. Put on it only the steps that are easy to forget or costly to miss.
Then check that it works. Monica counted the market days on which something was left behind: 9 of 25 before her packing-up checklist, 36 percent; 2 of 25 after, 8 percent. That comparison is the reason to keep it. If the miss rate does not fall, the list is either being checked without being read, or it lists the wrong things, and the fix is to shorten it or change it, not to add more items.
Collect the forgettings. For two weeks, note every step that was missed and what it cost: the open window, the keys not returned, the compressor left running. These are the candidates for the list.
Write each as one action. A verb and an object the person can see: 'oven racks back in the oven', 'keys in the key safe'.
Order them as the work happens. Walk through the routine and put each item where it naturally falls, so the list is read top to bottom once.
Remove outcomes and feelings. Anything that cannot be honestly checked moves to a quality check with a standard, or comes off entirely.
Trim it. If an item has not been missed in months and costs little when it is, leave it off.
Check the list. Ask someone to follow it while you watch. Each item should take one action and be checked straight after it, without discussion about what it means. Then count the miss rate for a few weeks and compare it with before.
Writing only single actions is needed because a check mark is a yes or a no. A line with four actions gets a yes when three are done, and the fourth is exactly the step that was forgotten.
Keeping outcomes off the list is allowed because a checklist is a memory aid, not a measurement. An outcome needs a test, such as a probe reading or an inspection walk-through, that a check mark cannot replace.
Measuring the miss rate is allowed, and needed, because a checklist can be filled in without being used. The only proof it works is fewer forgotten steps, counted the same way before and after.
There are two styles, and each suits different work. In a do-confirm checklist, the person does the routine from memory and then stops at a set point to run down the list, confirming each item was done. It suits experienced staff doing a familiar routine, such as closing the shop, because it does not slow the work.
In a read-do checklist, the person reads each item and does it before moving on. It suits unfamiliar or rare tasks, such as a once-a-year equipment service or a first week on the job, where memory cannot be trusted. Say on the list which style it is, so nobody reads a do-confirm list as a script or skips a read-do one.
A checklist works best at a natural pause, when the person has a moment and the next step depends on the last ones being done. Before the van leaves for a job. Before the cleaner hands back the keys. Before the kitchen doors are locked. Before the anesthetic is given, in the clinic example below.
Tie each list to one pause point and keep it to what matters there. A leaving checklist for the cleaner has five items; a separate arrival checklist has its own. Mixing them into one long list means half of it is irrelevant at each pause, and the irrelevant half teaches people to skim the whole thing.
The format matters less than where the list is when it is needed. A laminated card by the back door works for closing; a printed line on each job sheet works for a cleaner leaving an apartment; a short list in a phone app works for a driver. What matters is that the list is in front of the person at the pause point, not in a drawer.
Where the list must be signed, such as a temperature log or an allergen check, paper or a simple app that records the time and the person is best, because the record proves the step was done. Where it is only a memory aid, a card on the wall is enough.
A checklist ages. The business buys a new oven with an automatic shutoff, and 'oven off at the wall' becomes unnecessary; a new key safe means 'keys in the lockbox' becomes 'keys in the key safe, code reset'. Review each list every few months against the miss record. Remove items that are no longer missed or no longer needed, add any new forgetting that has started costing money, and put the date of the review on the list.
A list that stays short and current keeps being read. A list that only ever grows becomes a page nobody looks at.
Introduce a checklist as help, not as suspicion. 'This is so nobody has to remember twelve things at the end of a long shift' lands very differently from 'you keep forgetting things'. Write the list with the people who will use it: they know which steps get missed and why.
And use it yourself. An owner who skips the closing list when they lock up tells everyone it is optional. An owner who runs down it every time, and adds an item when they catch themselves forgetting one, shows that the list is how the business works.
Sometimes a new checklist changes nothing. The usual reasons are few. The list is too long, so it is checked without being read. It is in the wrong place, so it is filled in later from memory. Or it lists steps that were never the problem, while the step that keeps being missed is not on it.
Go back to the forgettings record and compare it with the list, item by item. Cut whatever is not earning its place, move the list to the pause point, and make sure the most-missed step is near the top. Then count again for a few weeks.
A landscaping company in Denver ran three crews and kept losing equipment: a leaf blower left at a client's curb, a hedge trimmer on a lawn, a gas can in a driveway. Replacing them cost about 2,400 dollars a year, and two clients complained about tools left behind.
The owner counted: on 22 of the last 120 jobs, something had been left behind, about 18 percent. She wrote a five-item do-confirm checklist taped inside the trailer door, read at one pause point, before the truck pulls away: blowers on the rack; trimmers on the rack; gas cans strapped; tarps folded in the bin; gate closed and latched. Each crew lead checks it and initials the job sheet.
Over the next 120 jobs, something was left on 3, about 2.5 percent. Lost tool costs fell to a few hundred dollars for the year. The checklist did not make the yards look any better; that remained the job of the crew lead's walk-through. It stopped the forgetting, which is what it was for.
The World Health Organization's Surgical Safety Checklist, used in many US hospitals, has a few items read aloud at three pause points: before anesthesia, before the first incision, and before the patient leaves the operating room. Studies of its introduction found fewer complications and deaths, because it caught simple, forgettable steps under pressure.
A checked checklist proves the job was done well. It proves steps were not forgotten; quality needs a check.
Put the outcome on the list so nobody forgets it matters. An outcome cannot be honestly checked.
Longer is safer. Long lists are skimmed; short lists are read.
Once written, it works. Measure the miss rate to find out.
One list for everything. One list for each pause point.
Read the weak item.
$\text{kiln loaded properly}$
A judgment, not an action.
Write the first action.
$\text{shelves wiped of glaze drips}$
Done or not.
Write the next actions.
$\text{pieces half an inch apart; cones in place}$
One action each.
Write the last action.
$\text{lid bolt closed}$
Before switching on.
Choose the pause point.
$\text{before the kiln is switched on}$
Where the list is read.
Read the old list.
$\text{everything clean; client happy}$
Nothing can be honestly checked.
Collect the forgettings.
$\text{open windows; keys not returned}$
From two weeks of call-backs.
Write single actions.
$\text{oven racks back; refrigerator shelves back}$
One action each.
Add the leaving actions.
$\text{windows shut; alarm set; keys in the key safe}$
In the order the cleaner leaves.
Move the outcome to a check.
$\text{inspection standard: owner's walk-through}$
Not a check mark.
Measure the miss rate.
$\text{call-backs: } 7 \text{ a month} \to 1$
The list earns its place.
Collect the forgettings.
$\text{leftovers undated; back door unlocked}$
Each cost money or risk.
Count the miss rate before.
$9 \div 30 \times 100 = 30$
Closings with a step missed.
Write and order the items.
$\text{leftovers; stovetop; surfaces; trash; door}$
As the work happens.
Choose the style.
$\text{do-confirm, at the back door}$
An experienced crew.
Keep it short.
$5 \text{ items}$
Read, not skimmed.
Count the miss rate after.
$2 \div 30 \times 100 \approx 6.7$
The same measure.
Read the change.
$\text{from 30 to about 7 percent}$
The list works.
Rewrite 'workshop in good order' as actions.
$\text{compressor off; tools on the board}$
One action each.
Add the money step.
$\text{register drawer counted and in the safe}$
A single action.
Put the lock last.
Bright Home Cleaning is writing the checklist its cleaners fill in before leaving an apartment. Which line is a good checklist item?
Complete the worked solution: Northside Repairs checked its closing routine. In the $50$ closings before it used a checklist, a step was missed $15$ times; in the $50$ closings after, $2$ times. Find the miss rate before, the miss rate after, and the fall in percentage points.
Find the miss rate before.
$(\text{misses}) \div (\text{closings}) \times \text{a hundred} =$ p
Closings with a step forgotten, per hundred.
Find the miss rate after.
$(\text{misses}) \div (\text{closings}) \times \text{a hundred} =$ q
The same measure with the checklist.
Find the fall.
$(\text{rate before}) - (\text{rate after}) =$ d
What the checklist bought.
Say what it does not show.
$\text{whether the shop was clean}$
That needs a check with a standard.
Neighborhood Kitchen is sorting ideas for its lunch-service routine. Sort each one.
| Checklist item | Needs a check against a standard | Belongs on neither | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refrigerator door closed and seal pressed | |||
| Reheated soup served at $166$ degrees or above | |||
| Staff feel ready for the rush | |||
| Allergen folder on the counter |
Dev's draft closing checklist for Northside Repairs. Mark every item that could be honestly checked.
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
Put Neighborhood Kitchen's closing checklist in the order the work happens.
Number the steps in order (write the number in the box):
Before its closing checklist, Bright Home Cleaning's office missed a closing step on $29$ percent of evenings; with it, on $3$ percent. The office closes $300$ evenings a year. How many evenings a year with a missed step does the checklist prevent? Fill in each figure on the sheet.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Fall in the miss rate, percentage points | |
| Missed closings avoided in a year |
A veterinary clinic in Tucson added a short surgical prep checklist: patient weighed, fasting confirmed with the owner, consent form signed, surgical site clipped. In the $50$ surgeries before, at least one step was missed in $10$; in the $50$ after, in $1$. By how many percentage points did the share of surgeries with a missed step fall?
Answer:
A small gym checked its closing routine. In the $20$ closings before it used a checklist, something was missed $9$ times; in the $20$ after, $3$ times. Complete the sentence.
Before the checklist x percent of closings missed a step; after it, y percent.
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
Monica's stall had $25$ market days in each of two seasons. Before her packing-up checklist, something was left behind or forgotten on $6$ of them; with it, on $4$. Fill in each season's miss rate, as a percentage.
| Miss rate, percent | |
|---|---|
| Before the checklist | |
| With the checklist |
You can write a short checklist that stops forgetting and say what it cannot prove. Tell someone why 'client is happy' does not belong on a checklist. Next: handling a complaint as a process.
20. Your turn: Northside Repairs' closing, step 3
$\text{alarm set; door locked}$
On the way out.