Santa is no dummy.
He knows that human error often occurs and it’s easy to forget stuff, especially lots of stuff like delivering toys around the world in one night to all good boys and girls. To help him avoid or minimize mistakes, Santa uses a checklist.
We all recall the Christmas song Santa Claus is Coming to Town:
He’s making a list
He’s checking it twice
He’s gonna find out
Who’s naughty or nice
Santa Claus is coming to town….
Santa knows that a checklist provides certain benefits.
- It’s a guard against human error and our tendency to forget things; it’s a memory jogger.
- It provides assurance that steps or procedures will be carried out in the correct order or that an item at the grocery store will not be forgotten.
- A checklist makes delegating easier because it provides an orderly process to carry out procedures or instructions.
- It relieves the brain of having to work too hard.
- It helps save time.
- A checklist helps those who are less knowledgeable of procedures.
So the next time you need to recall a lot of stuff in a hurry or conduct a series of steps while minimizing the likelihood of error, consider using a checklist. Santa does.