A number of issues and articles have converged recently that makes me wonder whether the proliferation of "check lists" is actually becoming counter-productive????
A couple of examples;
It appears members have forgotten to collect the tow ropes at the end of a days gliding...very naughty...a safety issue apparently...for who?? I'm not sure...The mower driver perhaps??
It also appears that some forgot to lock all the doors on the hangers...very naughty...a safety issue apparently??? We really should lock the doors (remember this from some-one who left his keys in the car and had it removed)...
On the Soaring Cafe website this morning there is a helpful check list for wing runners and pilots to complete in the last minute or two before take-off. It's a whole A4 page long...good grief...
We have a long list of pre-flight checks, landing checks, re-rigging checks, pre-aerobatic checks, landout checks, and so on and so on...
Do you know how many road signs there are between my place and the end of the road? It's only 8 kms...go on, count them one day...I know you won't...
There remains the question - can anybody be reasonably expected to remember all these lists and procedures and signs???
There is a really neat example of what happens when you over prescribe what people should do (as in when committees get involved in determining an outcome). In Europe they removed all the road signage from a series of round-abouts. You know...those helpful signs like..."roundabout ahead", "50 km", which way to turn, lane markers, pedestrian crossing markers, stop signs etc etc. All brightly colour coded.
So what was the result...less accidents and crashes, the pedestrians were safer, as were the cyclists. Why? Because people had to think for themselves. They didn't automatically assume that because they were inside the lane markers that they could safely forget all other considerations...
So what about gliding and life in general?
Could I suggest 2 things;
Firstly, that if anything is to be added to a check list or procedure then something else should be removed. An example...when I started gliding we had this procedure -the first tow of the day we did a "check release". Great idea...when we had tow rings of different sizes... But we standardised ring sizes years ago...and yet this procedure persists...why??
Secondly, do everything possible to solve the problem, issue or general stick waving, by finding another solution. People leaving the tow ropes on the runway after the end of the day??...paint them red or tie some red ribbon on them so there are easily visible. We seem to specialise in procuring dull grey ropes...so is it any surprise there aren't visible from the clubhouse??
Hanger doors not all locked at days end...rig the alarm system so its not possible to set it until they are...
Work very hard to get people to think for themselves...
In the manufacturing sector there is a process called "Lean". It revolves around getting floor staff, line managers, and so on up, to think through their tasks and suggest better ways to save time, effort and money. It works because instead of following check lists, and doing it the same way we did it yesterday, people try for improvement.
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