Checklists

If you have ever had the good fortune of being in the cockpit as a pilot prepares for takeoff, you’ll notice they have a “before takeoff checklist” prominently posted. It involves checking every aspect of the plane to make sure it can run properly. Once they go through their “before takeoff checklist,” they then go through a “final checklist” to ensure they are all set. When landing, they also have a “before landing checklist” and a “final checklist.” As passengers, we put our trust in our pilots’ ability to take off and land safely. Flying a plane is a matter of life and death, and no matter how many times a pilot does it, they still need to go through their checklists.
 
After recently flying, it got me thinking about other areas of our lives that could use checklists. How might they help us prepare and perform? I thought about teamwork and communication. So many of us work with partners to get to where we want to go; what if we approached our partnerships like co-pilots and leveraged the power of checklists? Checklists serve as checks and balances between co-pilots, and they can do the same for parents, colleagues, and teammates.
 
How can we communicate the checklists to people in our lives to ensure what we value is getting taken care of? Perhaps, you can start with a checklist today.