Here’s How You Can Transform Your Business Processes Using Checklists

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Though the tool looks simple and largely a no-brainer, it has saved lives in the medical field, enhanced profits in business, and even prevented buildings from collapsing. That said, the effectiveness of a checklist lies in how well you incorporate it into your business operations.

In every process, whether business or non-business, efficiency is one of the fundamental qualities sought after. Architects, surgeons, hedge fund managers, test pilots, manufacturers, and any other professionals including entrepreneurs and innovators, are always looking for ways to improve their business processes to serve their customers better and build their brands.

One of the simplest tools that can deliver efficiency in every space it is deployed, is the checklist. How it does this is simple; it breaks down complex processes into sizeable tasks that you can tick off as you progress.

Below are a few ways to structure your checklist to reap the maximum possible benefits from its application.

#1 Break Down The Tasks

Complexity in the workplace is increasing by the day. As a professional, you must embrace the art and science of breaking down these complex tasks into simple and verifiable steps. This will have extraordinary effects even in the day-to-day execution of tasks.

The steps should flow in a logical way so that none of them is skipped, take a look at company formations as an example. Due to the mini-processes involved, you may miss out on a crucial step such as documentation that, in turn, can delay or frustrate the entire process.

Whenever you witness a gap in the steps or a step being bypassed in the checklist, you should halt the process and re-track.

#2 Shorten The Checklist

Our working memory has a limit and too many items on a checklist tend to reduce the effectiveness. As a rule of thumb, keep the number of checklist items between 5 and 9. A short checklist disaggregates complex processes into essential steps only.

Shortening checklists could also mean keeping multiple checklists, each targeted at a defined set of circumstances.

#3 Simplify It

Clarity and exactness of language is the unwritten rule in the preparation of checklists. Try as much as you can to make the checklist a one-pager. Clean, concise, and well-formatted checklists are easy to follow and track progress.

Mind the use of lower case and upper case, colors, font types, and sizes. Once again, the checklist has a capacity to organize both your routine processes and emergency situations.

#4 Choose Between Or Integrate Do-Confirm & Read-Do

The do-confirm checklist is where you perform a task first and then consult the checklist to countercheck if everything that was to be done has been done. On the other hand, a re-do works like a recipe where you check the boxes as you progress.

Depending on the nature of your business processes, you can choose one or the other. There is also a possibility of having both checklists applied to different processes or departments within your business.

#5 Let Your Checklists Facilitate Communication

The use of checklists is not confined to less-complex processes. For instance, when building a skyscraper, a tool as humble as a checklist can make all the difference. Apart from helping you break down task by task, a checklist can enhance communication and problem solving when complications arise.

Using a checklist to ensure no step, however simple it may be, is missed, can transform the execution of processes and troubleshooting. Believe it or not, a checklist can ensure experts in a project consult with one another and resolve issues amicably.

Consensus building is a valuable application of checklists and can help your business move forward irrespective of the barrage of unexpected events.

Establishing A Starting Point

Having seen the qualitative characteristics of a checklist and how invaluable they are, it is now time to get a glimpse of checklist tools you can incorporate right away.

  • Trello – This is a service comprising a collection of checklists you can use to improve your productivity. It helps you to keep track of many things including work, home, friends, and family-related stuff. You can create your own boards, complete with unlimited tasks, notes, reminders, and schedules.
  • Tallyfy – The selling point of this checklist solution is the automation of your business processes with a key focus on collaboration. It helps you eliminate the pain of calls, phones, emails, spreadsheets, and papers through client onboarding, issue tracking, partners onboarding, and content approval.
  • Manifestly – This checklist app is targeted at teams. It helps them to standardize processes, create workflows, create procedures, meet compliance, and distribute tasks. When creating a workflow template, you can either import an existing process or begin from scratch with an easy editor. It also allows for slack integration in addition to 1000+ Zapier integrations.

A checklist is an invaluable tool that can transform your business processes however complex your industry is. If you want to establish a higher level of baseline performance at an individual and team level, mastering the best checklist practices cannot be emphasized enough.

 

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