There's a great article by Dan and Chip Heath in Fast Company about the value of simple, straight forward checklists to improve performance. It’s a reminder of the value of checklists as strategic tools to help ensure that you're thinking through both routine and new situations in structured ways. Problems on a trip underscored that point along with the realization that effective checklists don't always have to be written.
During a “major winter weather event” (KC television weather jargon for “snow”), I was monitoring the weather by looking out the window and watching The Weather Channel. I was unaware that our airport had been closed for hours until my traveling companion called to ask when I was going to the airport and what my alternatives were.
It was suddenly essential to develop a checklist to evaluate viable options so that our trip didn't fall apart.
The resulting checklist works in many instances where a plan looks as if it's in jeopardy of not succeeding:
The end result? We made it on an earlier scheduled flight that left an hour after our original plane was supposed to depart. Our 2-hour Chicago layover was consumed by the delay; we walked off the plane in Chicago and went right to our original connecting flight. We had food because we’d planned ahead, so it wasn’t a big deal to miss eating at Midway. We arrived only 15 minutes late vs. the prospect of arriving 5 hours late. And the checklist made all the difference!