One of my former bosses once remarked that if project checklists were so great, anyone could be a project manager and no one would ever need any training. He’s right, and wrong.
He’s right in that it certainly takes more than checklists to be a good project manager. He’s wrong in that checklists can help us be better project managers.
In his very popular book The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande discusses how valuable checklists are for a wide range of tasks, from disaster response to investment banking. As a frequent flyer, which I bet you are too, I always hope the pilot and the co-pilot are going down through their checklists before taking off just so they won’t forget anything rather than sitting there shooting the breeze about the latest sports event. If you have a lot of things to consider before making a decision, checklists can help us to remember everything we need to do.
Gawande, in a recent Harvard Business Review podcast, mentioned a study of venture capitalists by psychologist Geoggrey Smart, who analyzed how folks in that field made decisions. What Smart found was very interesting. “The ones who took a more checklist-driven approach had a far higher success rate” Gawande says. Their return on investment was also higher. But what’s amazing is that Smart found that only 13% of the VCers took a checklist approach. Think of it this way, if you’re an investor in a VC fund wouldn’t you want your firm using checklists? Based on these findings, you definitely would.
The fact that checklists can be helpful is not altogether new. What’s revealing here is if you use the right one at the right time, it can be a major boost to overall performance.
By the way, in his book, Gawande has created a “checklists of checklists” just in case you don’t know how to create the best kind. This might be carrying things a bit far; then again, it might not. Maybe I need a checklist to see if my checklist is o.k.!
What’s the best project management checklist you use?
J. LeRoy Ward, PMP, PgMP, Executive Vice President, Product Strategy & Management, ESI International, brings more than 35 years of expertise in project and program management to the refinement of ESI’s portfolio of learning programs. He works closely with ESI clients worldwide to guide the assessment, implementation and reinforcement of knowledge and skills that allow for the effective measurement and successful adoption of learning program objectives.
Checklists are definitely a must to help us to manage our projects. In the Companies that I worked with, we used checklist to help us access if we are ready to clear a certain Gate, if we are ready for product launch, etc. These helped us to avoid missing any critical points missed and also remove ambiguity. Certainly we must have good checklist so over the years they have to be modified and updated to ensure that the items to be check are still applicable. Based on years of experience, the checklist will be much more accurate for that organization.
I totally agree with your article. I highly rate checklists and use them on a daily basis. I think there’s a bit of satisfaction gained from ticking off each task!