Let's Get Brainwashed.

On the way to work I heard an interesting story on the radio. It was about a new book called The Checklist Manifesto. It's for doctors, and it's about the importance of having a checklist to reduce errors and not diagnose something wrong.

I am especially interested in this because checklists are a kind of technical writing. I make checklists as part of my job. Most people prefer them over pages of procedures. Checklists are useful for people already familiar with a process, but need some reminders. It's crazy to realize all the things we try to remember, and as humans, there's always a chance for error. A checklist doesn't always stop an error, but in more life-threatening situations (especially for hospitals, not so much for financial companies), a checklist could help. It sounds like there is some research in the book on how doctors initially rejected checklists, but later the majority found them important.

People can get offended with such things - they might take it that after all their training, all their experience, they shouldn't need a checklist. I think we all mentally create checklists, but the problem is that they?re in our heads, and if you're working with a team, everyone's checklist might be different or slightly off. Even though standardization sounds like it kills creativity, there are many situations where it's needed so that people don't mess things up. If you were a patient, would it bother you, or even comfort you, to know that all the doctors and nurses had a checklist?

Technical writing saves the day again!

Here's the article:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122226184