Key Takeaways:

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▶  In dynamic work environments even expert professionals can unintentionally skip small or seemingly unimportant steps.

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▶  Employee errors due to fatigue or hurry can cause substantial financial losses.

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▶  Implementing short and clear checklists can significantly improve the efficiency of workers in many professions.

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▶  Insightful time and activity monitoring system can help you track the implementation of checklists, helping you further improve them and reduce losses due to preventable errors.

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Read time: 11 minutes

Small-scale human errors can bring about large-scale issues and costs for any company.

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Maybe the best examples of this problem can be found in the sphere of cybersecurity: According to Verizon, 74% of cybersecurity issues happen due to a human error.

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The situation is no different in many other industries, from call centers to insurance companies.

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So, are your employees trained well to avoid errors that come with complex tasks or fatigue? Do they always have a clear picture of all the steps they need to take when approaching complex processes?

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Unfortunately, lengthy training is not always the best solution. Your employees need a clear and simple picture of the process they are approaching.

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This is what Dr. Atul Gawande also realized while working on the best method to improve safety in operating rooms. Based on the research he did, he wrote a book about a time and productivity management method called the Checklist Manifesto.

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Read this article to learn more about the Checklist Manifesto method, how it reduces the occurrence of human errors, and improves time management. You will also find out how Insightful employee time tracker can help you implement, adapt, and get the most out of this method.

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What Is the Checklist Manifesto?

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The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right is a book by a renowned Surgeon, Dr. Atul Gawande. In this book, Dr. Gawande looks into the benefits of using checklists in almost every line of work. He argues that checklists can simplify complex tasks and reduce the occurrence of human errors.

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Dr. Gawande suggests in The Checklist Manifesto that even highly experienced and skilled professionals can benefit from following checklists.

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In his opinion, simple checklists, if formulated properly, can simplify and ensure positive outcomes for highly complex tasks.

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The reason he believes in this revolutionary effect of checklists is the nature of human memory. Especially when a person is under pressure, their memory can fail them. Even if they don’t forget the steps of a procedure, people tend to skip seemingly small unimportant steps. This can easily lead to staggering effects such as financial loss or irreparable reputation damage. In short, small omissions may lead to catastrophic failure.

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Benefits of Introducing Checklists into Your Company

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The number of surgeries worldwide considerably increased in 2004, and so did the number of complications and fatal outcomes which reached 3%-17%.

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In 2007, after examining his research on checklist benefits and their use in three hospitals, Dr. Gawande created a safe surgery checklist that WHO instituted as a compulsory procedure which keeps saving lives.

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The Checklist Manifesto found its application in many fields outside of medicine. It is considered significant in the construction industry, aviation, IT, etc., due to its reduction of errors and maximization of efficiency.

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These are some of the most prominent benefits of this principle:

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1. Reduction of Human Error

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Checklists ensure no critical steps are omitted when performing complex processes. In the medical world, checklists can prevent performing a wrong procedure on a patient or skipping an important test before surgery. In IT, a checklist can prevent poor handling of potential errors and software crashes.

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2. Simplifying Complex Tasks

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Well-structured checklists break down complex processes into simple easy-to-follow steps. In order to fulfill their purpose, checklists need to be straightforward and easy to understand.

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Following checklists like these, project managers can easily break down big projects into single tasks. The same goes for IT departments in case of a tech failure. With the right recovery checklist, they can easily get all services back up in a short amount of time.

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3. Maintaining Consistency & Quality of the Output

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When every member of the team follows the same checklist, your company ensures consistency in service or product quality. For example, in a call center, every caller will get the same level of high-quality service. In an operating room, every patient is protected to the same degree thanks to a well-built checklist of key preparatory steps.

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In many professions and with a powerful tool like Insightful, dedication to following quality-assurance checklists can even be remotely monitored.

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4. Upgrading Risk Management & Accountability

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To manage risk more effectively, it is important to identify the key steps that need to be taken. Carefully create a clear checklist so your employees can easily follow it.

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Checklists in combination with a powerful employee tracker can also improve the sense of accountability and motivate employees to stick to these lists. Thanks to the ability to follow each action, employee trackers, such as Insightful, enable even remote work surveillance. They can identify all the steps an employee has gone through as well as those they left out.

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5. Improving Efficiency

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When you have a clear and easy-to-follow checklist in front of you, you can save a lot of time on unnecessary steps and processes. In other words, checklists can significantly improve workflow efficiency and help your employees maximize their daily contributions.

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6. Enhancing the Training & Onboarding Process

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Checklists can serve as great guides during the onboarding process. They can help the new hires better understand all the processes and get used to them more quickly.

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Checklists also make the onboarding simpler for the mentors. They give a clear overview of all the key skills and pieces of information that need to be covered during the onboarding.

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How to Implement Checklists within Your Organization

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Things to Keep in Mind

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Dr. Gawande also consulted Daniel Boorman of the Boeing company to find out more about how they created new checklists for their safety checks.

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Boorman outlined two divisions of checklists:

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• Good & Bad
• Do-Confirm & Read-Do

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Good & Bad Checklists

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This division of checklists is conducted based on their practicality.

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✅ Good Checklists: To qualify as good, checklists need to be concise, clear, and practical. They don't go into details but rather list only critical steps and priorities to improve efficiency.

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❌ Bad Checklists: When a checklist is long and unclear, it is characterized as bad. In other words, it is too detailed and impractical, bringing no real value to the employee it’s supposed to be guiding.

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Do-Confirm & Read-Do Checklists

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This division of checklists is based on the types of decision points.

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✔️ Do-Confirm Checklists: These checklists are designed as a confirmation tool. When people complete a process from memory, these lists are used to make sure all necessary steps have been taken.

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✔️ Read-Do Checklists: These lists serve to support professionals in conducting complex processes. The employees first read the steps and then proceed to perform them.

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Implementation of the Checklist Manifesto Principles in the Workplace

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The steps to creating a checklist seem simple, but there should be a lot of thought and analysis before distributing the final list to your employees:

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1. Analyze the Task & Gauge Its Complexity: The task complexity will decode the number of steps on the checklist.

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2. Create the Checklist: Focus on the steps, i.e. their desired outcomes. Deciding on the way to get to those outcomes should be left to the employees. This way you allow the whole team to constantly work on finding the best and shortest path to these small goals.

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3. Distribute the List & Start Surveillance: Once you have the first version of the checklist, distribute it to your employees and track the efficiency of the team. Monitor every aspect so as to learn which steps work and which need to be perfected. Here is where Insightful can do a great job of extracting the minute performance and productivity data. This tool can work as both in-office and remote system monitoring software.

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Extra Tips for Building a Checklist

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✅ Keep the number of steps between five and nine

✅ Use simple words that are familiar to the professionals in your organization

✅ Be precise

✅ Keep the list on one page

✅ Avoid cluttering the list or using unnecessary colors

✅ Use Sans Serif font

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Which Companies Can Benefit from Implementing Checklists?

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The Checklist Manifesto is applicable across industries. It can be easily adapted to enhance efficiency and reduce errors for various professionals:

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Medical Institutions

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From diagnostics to performing surgeries, checklists can simplify and improve the safety of numerous procedures.

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Call Centers

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Call centers are fast-paced environments. This is why having a checklist in front of you can simplify many processes and ensure they are conducted properly.

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These processes include everything from customer data verification and addressing complaints according to company policies to quality assurance. Checklists also make agent supervision easier and can even help you monitor work-from-home employees. This also goes for companies that outsource call centers. In short, checklists can ensure all processes and all employees are up to the company standard.

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Insurance Companies

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Underwriters can find a reliable partner in a well-written checklist. Lists can help them maintain consistency when evaluating risk factors and ensuring all the necessary documentation is collected. They can also improve safety by listing potential fraud indicators and ensuring all regulatory requirements are met.

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Financial Services

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From transaction processing to creating financial reports and managing risk—checklist manifesto has wide applications in this sector.

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Processing transactions and creating reports is much easier when there is a checklist. It reminds you of all the steps you need to take to ensure the accuracy and completeness of data. Also, it helps you ensure all the necessary approvals have been collected.

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Compliance with internal controls, and risk identification and mitigation is also much easier with a checklist to guide the process.

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IT Companies

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Software development processes can be fully standardized and kept high-quality thanks to well-built checklists. This includes:

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• All the stages of the software development lifecycle.
• The code review process.
• Maintenance.
• The incident response.

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The Checklist Manifesto Flaws—How to Eliminate Them with Insightful?

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Whether implementing a new process or testing the effectiveness of an old one, it’s important to have a reliable workforce analytics tool.

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Insightful is among one of the most dependable tools of this sort. Its wide range of features gives you an immediate insight into your employees’ work, activity, productivity, and logged time throughout the workday. With insights like these, you can easily detect anything from employee burnout to inefficient processes and risky employee behaviors.

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This is why Insightful is the perfect ally for implementing the Checklist Manifesto and eliminating its flaws along the way.

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📌 Difficulties in Creating Effective Checklists

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❗ Poorly designed checklists won’t boost efficiency or reduce errors. Yet, it is expected to have an imperfect list at the beginning of the Checklist Manifesto principle implementation.

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❗ Both poorly built and well-built checklists need “maintenance” and updating. In other words, they all need to be constantly revised and updated. They are works in progress which may be challenging without a proper system for tracking their efficiency and flaws.

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How Insightful can help:

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Insightful employee monitor software can help with both these issues. On one side, it can track the checklist implementation process and spot issues that arise. Whether it’s confusion with a step or too long completion time, Insightful can help identify any problem your employees have with following your new checklist.

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On the other side, Insightful employee timekeeping software can track all processes within your company. Its ability to integrate with different project management software further boosts its tracking capacities. This allows Insightful to identify those processes that seem to be causing confusion or time waste helping you pinpoint exact procedures that need to have a checklist included. This should make them more efficient and comprehensive for all employees.

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📌 Lack of Employee Motivation or Capacity to Stick to Checklists

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❗ Unmotivated employees may present one of the major hurdles when trying to introduce the checklist method.

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❗ They might try to cut corners and thus compromise the process of implementation but also the quality of your service or product.

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❗ Some of them may oppose the checklists because they see them as redundant.

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❗ There are also those employees who might struggle to follow your new checklist due to improper training or insufficient knowledge.

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How Insightful can help:

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All of these types of employees can be identified and dealt with thanks to the robustness of Insightful tracking software. This software can track every employee and their daily activities. From the time spent on one task to the websites and applications used during the day, it highlights the employees’ exact efficiency. In other words, it helps you discover both the disengaged and the struggling employees.

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Insightful employee computer monitoring software also enables you to take the proper next steps. It can help you find a way to motivate employees and provide additional training in the area they struggle with the most.

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Even those who don’t see the necessity of checklist implementation can be convinced otherwise. You can do this by sharing with them the detailed track record of the issues that occurred due to human error. 

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For example, you can use Insightful in-office and remote working tracking records to extract all security issues that you have had in the past. Explain to your employees how they would not have happened if there had been a checklist to streamline the process.

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In this way, Insightful can help you avoid employee turnover due to dissatisfaction together with the associated costs, and increase productivity and revenue.

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📌 Employees Experiencing Checklist Fatigue

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❗ If you immediately cover all complex processes with corresponding checklists, it might be too much for your employees. Too many new checklists in a short amount of time may easily and quickly bring about checklist fatigue. This further leads to reduced motivation, concentration, and productivity.

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How Insightful can help:

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Insightful enables you to recognize the signs of checklist fatigue, such as:

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• Longer idle periods.
• Reduced responsiveness to messages.
• Reduced overall productivity and efficiency.
• Extended task completion times.

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Thanks to InsighsAI, Insightful’s AI tool for automatic data analysis, you can, in a matter of seconds, identify the employees who are struggling in this way. Their numbers will tell you if the problem is systemic or individual, so you can appropriately approach its resolution.

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With its cost-effective pricing and proven impact on productivity, Insightful has often been ranked among the top employee monitoring software. It is an investment that quickly pays for itself. By reinforcing the implementation of the Checklist Manifesto, Insightful helps businesses cut expenses from employee errors and improve efficiency, ultimately saving money. 

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Don't miss the opportunity to streamline your operations, prevent financial loss, and boost your bottom line. Sign up for an Insightful free trial now!