Another great article from NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System that applies to a much broader audience than just aviation folks. If you use checklists, there something to be learned from this article. Click on the picture of the article below to read more…
Category: Accidents, Current Events, Documents, Investigations
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Angie ComerSoftware
Anne RobertsMarketing
Barb CarrEditorial Director
Chris ValleeHuman Factors
Dan VerlindeVP, Software
Dave JanneySafety & Quality
Garrett BoydTechnical Support
Ken ReedVP, Equifactor®
Linda UngerCo-Founder
Mark ParadiesCreator of TapRooT®
Michelle WishounLicensing Paralegal
Per OhstromVP, Sales
Shaun BakerTechnical Support
Steve RaycraftTechnical Support
Susan Napier-SewellMarketing
Wayne BrownTechnical Support
In 2002, we decided that to reduce accidents, prevent…
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit AuthorityReporting of ergonomic illnesses increased by up to 40% in…
Ciba Vision, a Novartis Company
Good information. Thank you for sending these short articles out.
Comment by John — August 16, 2016 @ 9:42 am
Thanks for the tips and the associated examples. The check list is in fact a very good tool to avoid errors. However could I suggest to rephrase the #4 and #5:
‘4 – Read it correctly. Do not interpret.’
As a matter of fact, often misreading is not a question of “reading” but of understanding the words. This also put a part of responsibility on the authors of the checklist to unsure there is no ambiguity. The best way for that is to test your checklist with someone which has not been involved in its creation, in a context different from what you thought when you created it, or with someone not native in the language you use.
‘5 – Tick each step when completed. If interupted, restart from the last tick. ‘.
In fact this is not always possible to use a pen / pencil to mark the completed steps, for instance when the checklist is part of a book. However you may find a way to do this (for instance using repositionable “post-it” arrows). Why I suggest to restart from last tick rather from the beginning? To be realistic and increase the “adherence to the rule” ratio… If you’ve already took 15 min to made 80% of a checklist, do you really think you would decide to restart from the beginning because someone disturb ou and ask if you’d like a drink? When giving rules, like the #5, think they will be applied by human beings – not robots. And (self) time pressure is a trap to make errors – like not applying rules…The more a rule makes sense for the individual at the time they have to decide to follow it….or to take a shortcut, the more you can hope they will do the right choice.
Thank you for your comments, especially if you disagree – it would help me a lot to hear your points of view.
Regards
Luc
Comment by demange — August 17, 2016 @ 3:11 am
These make great safety talk topics. I particularly like “read it correctly”.
This is not an exercise in ticking a box but actually an exercise in comprehension skills.
Comment by Juliana Pierre — August 17, 2016 @ 8:44 am
Great stuff!
This is what Shared Success looks like to me. The checklist item that touched me most is #3. Taking a deliberate move to slow down and confirm critical items is cardinal not just in the ASRS but also in many aspects of our varied work environments. We should resist the temptation to rush over checklist items even if we have been using these checklists for many years. Remember people with experience do get involved in work incidents when they are complacent. Surely, it saves us time and resources should anything go hey-way in lieu.
And thanks for making these articles concise and to the point. We are being educated for life, really!
Best Regards
Joseph
Comment by Joseph Mumba — August 23, 2016 @ 2:11 am