0:02 If the military relied on memory and expertise, equipment would be needlessly damaged or destroyed and people would be hurt or killed. That's why checklists can save your business. Today on Business Lessons from the Military, who are [music] you and where are you going?
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0:38 >> Hello and welcome to Business Lessons from the Military. I'm your host, Kevin Bemmel, and I'm here every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about military history, um, uh, doctrine and and leadership practices and then distill from them lessons that we can apply to our businesses and professional practices. So, today I'm going to be talking about checklists. And that may sound incredibly mundane, like I know what a checklist is. Uh yes, you probably do. You may be using them, but
1:14 perhaps you don't consider just how effective a tool they can be. And that's really what today's episode is all about. So when you know, we're not talking about a a grocery list or oh my list of things I need to get done today, per se. So, you know, we're talking more like, you know, the kind of checklist that a pilot goes through before taking off from the runway. And and that may seem somewhat
1:50 mundane as well, but that checklist probably is the difference between a successful flight and an unsuccessful flight. And an unsuccessful flight is one where people in equipment get hurt or damaged. So the idea of checklists is is to um institute uh discipline a standardization and risk management that saves lives and property and oftentimes in ensures
2:28 mission success. So if we think about the you know the modern military they we have especially the American military has some of the most sophisticated equipment that has ever existed in human history. fighter aircraft, submarines, missile defense systems, um UAVs, tanks, cyber networks. All of these uh are are demanding on even the most experienced service members and they cannot be expected to remember every
3:05 single step required in a given situation. and and the military recognizes this truth and understands that it's human nature that memory is fallible, especially when it's under when we're under stress. And so rather than relying on exceptional individuals, which even an exceptional individual is not exceptional all the time, the military relies on exceptional systems. And checklists are one of the most
3:41 effective, one of the simplest of those systems. So they reduce errors, they improve teamwork, they standardize procedures making it easier to train people. And in the end what they do is they reduce the cognitive load on service members so that they can focus their attention on making judgments rather than handling routine tasks. And and this is this is the most important aspect of why checklists are so
4:18 important and I would argue not just in the military but of course in our business and professional lives. So organizations that consistently outperform their competitors, they are rarely those with the smartest employees alone. They're the ones with the best systems that allow their smart employees the brain space to do what they think to do what they do best which is use their judgment, use their mo mental creativity
4:55 to deal with the various situations and problems facing the business and come up with good solutions. Okay. So looking at the military relevance of of check of checklists first. So first they reduce human error under stress. So combat especially but even something like the deck of an aircraft carrier during during um flight operations that are not combat related. It's it's a very
5:33 stressful environment. Um and even highly trained people can forget routine procedures. Uh me among them. So uh when when I was uh on the USS Ronald Reagan, I was up on the flight deck one day visiting my sailors and I was talking to one of them. We got very involved in the conversation and then you know we we we ended the conversation and I turned around and without even thinking about it took a step forward before the person I was talking to said ra stop. I froze
6:10 and maybe five six feet in front of me was a turning propeller. If I had taken another couple of steps I would have been killed. Right. And I've been on the flight deck many many times, but just, you know, a moment of of unawareness. And and and by the way, this was not during combat operations. We were just doing we were just doing routine training that particular day, but that that's how dangerous these environments are. And and and there and that's how stressful they are as well, right? And
6:45 so the other problem with with the the sort of environment is it's it's fatiguing being on a flight deck where generally speaking it's hot. Okay? I mean it can be cold but usually where where aircraft carriers are operating places like the Persian Gulf and such are hot and you're wearing a lot of protective gear. So, it's very fatiguing and this reduces concentration and short-term memory. Stress also tends to narrow um attention and so it and so people can
7:22 overlook familiar tasks, right? Like the example I just gave, the familiar task of you do not move on a flight deck without being conscious of where you are and and what are what is what are the conditions immediately around you, right? I if if not, you know, you could you could walk across where a plane is literally being shot off a catap on a catapult and bang, you're you're history, right? So, you have to always be mindful of movement on a flight deck.
7:58 By the way, even when there's no flight operations going on and and we're just doing uh you know, uh we're just we're just walking the deck looking for fod, foreign objects uh that will damage uh you know, get sucked into a a jet engine or something like that. Uh there, you know, the arresting wires are strap are stretched across the deck. You could trip on them if you're not paying attention. You could you could walk off the deck. It's not like there's, you know, railings on the side of an aircraft carrier deck. There there isn't for most of it. So, you know, you have
8:33 to be aware all the time. And when we're under stress, we tend to overlook familiar tasks like just watching out for our own well-being. Also, complex equipment requires dozens, sometimes even hundreds of sequential actions, and it's it's just it's it's simple to miss one. It to hold all that in our heads is it's just way too much information. And so f so checklists compensate for for human limitations.
9:09 Limitations we know exist. Okay. Rather than assuming perfect performance we're not going to get perfect performance in this kind of environment without systems that are there to maintain that performance. Right? So uh so the the military understands that mistakes are usually not caused by incompetence but they're caused by normal human limitations under demanding conditions. Right? So first of all checklists reduce human error under
9:45 stress. Next checklists standardize performance across the force. So, I'm going to be talking mostly about uh naval aviation because it's it's the area where I'm most familiar. Uh, however, I you know, checklists were used in the sub in in the submarine community because I saw that as well and they're used in anywhere where maintenance is being done, whether you're motor T in the Marine Corps or you're doing aircraft maintenance or whatever. There are huge notebooks of checklists that the maintainers use to
10:20 make sure it's all done right. Okay. But but I'm going to be talking again I'm going to be talking mostly in terms of naval aviation. So checklists standardize performance across the force. So military units are comprised of people with different levels of experience and yet every soldier, sailor, airman, marine, guardsman, okay, they have to perform to a consistent standard in order for things to work. And so standardized procedures
10:56 produces predictable results. So then units from uh I mean um uh yeah units can integrate people from different locations with a minimal amount of disruption. So to to give you an example um when when I was deployed I had four fighter squadrons three naval fighter squadrons and one Marine Corps fighter squadron. Now, the procedures for maintaining an FA18 or at least the the the C variance and
11:31 the E and F variants that we had um on the deck were the same for all four squadrons. Now, by the way, um not all the squadrons, the generally speaking, squadrons are are equipped with just one variant of an aircraft because it makes maintaining them and keeping the supplies on hand, the parts on hand uh easier. But so I had I had uh uh the Marine Corps had the uh FA18C's. They were the only ones that have that, unfortunately for them. And then the uh
12:09 u my uh naval uh squadron um had uh I think they were single-seater D variants if I'm remembering correctly and then they had a two-seater variant which was either the E or the F something like that. So they did have they did have two variants um in in the uh naval squadrons. Um and that was there were various reasons why in some cases you want two people on board. Um, you know, I I I I would say it so they could have given me so they could give me a ride, but but clear clearly that was not the reason, although I did get to take a
12:44 ride, right? And so the maintenance procedures across the different variants were all the same. And so if a squadron was having a difficult time, um, they could borrow personnel from a different squadron and those people knew exactly what needed to be done. So, you don't have to worry uh you know if you know VFA 146 borrowed some people from VFA um I'm trying to think of one of my other squadrons. I think it was 152 I want to say. You know they could they could sort of move people back and forth when they
13:19 needed to to help each other out. So um with with a minimal amount of disruption. So also training becomes more efficient because everybody is following the same process, right? And so we're we're not uh you know we're not like one squadron isn't training their people this way and another squadron this other way. All the training procedures are the same as well. And that also makes progression in terms of getting more skilled in a particular process easier because again
13:54 it's it's the same process no matter where you go. And then finally leaders have objective standards against which to evaluate personnel. And so from that perspective it's it's a it's a fairer system. So it's not like you know one squadron is is using this standard for judging and another squadron is using a different one or it's all kind of ad hoc in terms of whether somebody is doing a good job. No, it's very clear here. Here here's the standards outlined in the in the manual and the checklists and you
14:30 know you're either doing a really good job at uh following that or you know or you're not or you're doing a mediocre job whatever it is. So it gives a standard for understanding how well people are performing, right? And so this kind of consistency allows military organizations to operate effectively even as personnel rotate between various assignments. Right? So uh checklists standardize personnel across a performance across the force. Um, next, uh, checklists improve team
15:07 coordination. So, virtually everything in the military requires multiple people to get it done. We may think about, you know, the the single pilot uh, in in a in a jet. he's flying off on his own or whatever. But the reality is that jet, if it's a if it's a Navy jet, does not leave the deck until the team who's responsible for seeing to it that it can leave the deck and come back safely has said, "You're leaving the deck." And generally
15:42 speaking, that pilot is is a much higher rank than the enlisted people who are responsible for deciding whether it leaves the deck or not. I've told a story about this young airman before. She was 18 years old. She was what's known in the Navy as a plane captain. And she made the decision about whether uh one particular plane who the pilot was a Navy lieutenant commander. So he was an ' 04, she was an E3. He did not decide
16:17 whether his plane left the deck. She did. Right? And you say, "Wait, how can an E3 be giving orders to an 04?" That's how the system works. Because she her sole job is to make the decision whether that plane is safe to leave the deck and the pilot is going to be able to come back and and recover safely. That's her job. The pilot has a different job. His job is to execute the mission. and he can't be doing both, right? Because
16:52 they're in conflict, right? Pilots want to fly. So, they are not the right person to decide whether their plane is is fit to leave that deck. Okay? Now, most pilots would be sensible and they wouldn't take undue risk, but some would not necessarily be sensible, right? And they would take a risk when they shouldn't. And that's why those two roles are separated, right? And so there's a whole and there's a whole team of people uh with whom that plane captain works to make sure that the jet
17:28 is properly maintained and is ready to go, right? And so so that and that's just one team. Now now, by the way, in other uh platforms, if we're talking about the E3, which is the command and control aircraft, it's a twin uh turborop engine platform, right? So there's uh I believe four flight crew on board that plane, right? So just the flight crew alone is a team, not to mention uh the team that's responsible for maintaining it, right? So you have flight crews and maint and maintenance crews. You have tank crews. Tanks are not manned by one person, right? You
18:05 have the team that's on the bridge of a ship, right? So on on the aircraft carrier, I would say there's probably typically 10 people on the bridge. I think around there, 10, maybe 15 on on a carrier. Okay. Of course, when when I would be up there, [laughter] right, there was an extra an extra person. I liked going up there because they'd let me steer the ship, right? Um under instruction, right? But um but it's it's a big team, right? uh you have medical teams, you you have, you know, SEAL teams, you have EOD,
18:40 explosive ordinance disposal teams, right? Almost everything in the military is a team. Even that lone sniper who's out there in the field, okay, is backed up by a team. That team may not be with him in the field, okay? But he he still works as part of a team, right? And so the checklists improve team coordination because everyone knows what to expect in in in the routine things that they do and a lot of the military is routine.
19:16 That's and that's one of the problems. So it's very routine to maintain aircraft or tanks or whatever or or for that matter a nuclear submarine. The problem with routine is it can sort of seduce people into not doing a thorough job. And so we need to have these checklists to make sure that everything is well coordinated and the routine work gets done properly. Also responsibilities are clearly assigned. So it's no surprise the military is a hierarchical organization and so the
19:52 you know uh petty officer first class who may be in charge of a particular maintenance team he has certain responsibilities and they're and they're outlined in the manual and then the you know petty officers petty officer second class and the petty officer's third class and the seaman on that team they have different subordinate roles Okay, but that checklist keeps them all coordinated. Each one knows what the other the things for which the other ones are responsible. Finally, team members can verify one
20:27 another's actions, right? And so when you have clearly uh assigned responsibilities, uh you know, if if a one team member sees that something isn't done, he doesn't need to be going, hey, you know, who didn't take care of blah blah blah blah blah. He knows it's part of the standard procedure. And then finally, communication can become more precise because everyone is operating on the same in the same sequence. They're they're all aware of what the overall picture looks like and so they can make sure that whatever they're saying or
21:02 whatever they need to find out fits within that overall rubric. Okay. So, um, checklists improve team coordination as well. Finally, and this is this I think is is one of the most important aspects is checklists free us to think to give mental focus to what's most important. So one of the greatest advantages of having a checklist is or having checklists is as I mentioned at the beginning it reduces cognitive load.
21:38 Right? So we don't have to be thinking did I remember every step or what comes next or or we don't have to fill our brain with those routine steps. We can be asking is this the right course of action? Is is this bigger picture the thing on which we should be working right now? And that's important because we can lose the broader picture if we're too imshed in the details. Right? And that's a danger uh for for any organization but especially a military one. So when routine tasks become
22:16 standardized um mental energy shifts toward decisionmaking right and they can be focused on you know we can open up our aperture. So, if we know the next step we have to do is is to, you know, replace these four bolts and we're not worried about the step that comes after it, we can be focused on, okay, I'm putting in these bolts. Are they turning down correctly? Does this seem to be fitting the right way? Because that's really, it's not the putting in the bolts that's so important. It's the overall piece of machinery on which we're working, right?
22:52 And so if there's something wrong with the putting in of the bolts, then we can be aware of that and we're not focused on, okay, after I put in the bolts, well, what is my next step? I already know after I put in the bolts, my next step is to look at the checklist and see what's next on the checklist. So I don't have to worry about what comes next. I can focus on the task at hand. Finally, um leaders spend less time supervising uh basic procedures and so they can focus on the overall performance of their team, right? So as
23:28 a result, teams can become um more adaptable because all of the foundation tasks are being dependably handled. Right? So in in military operations, the dis this distinction between being able to focus on the broader picture and not be cognitive cognitively loaded down by routine tasks means that we can stay focused on the mission right instead of being consumed by all these routine details. So, I always give an actual
24:03 example. Uh I I I you know, I have a huge collection of um diecast military models, but they're they're packed away, so I couldn't get out, but I I thought I would show you. So, um this right here is uh an aircraft known as the Boeing B17 Flying Fortress. And for those of you who are at all uh World War II uh you know people who you know who studied World War II, you'll there's a couple distinctive things about it. First of all, you see gun turrets like there's the the ball turret on the bottom that
24:38 was retractable when the plane landed. A very dangerous place to be. But there were there were gun turrets above on the front of the plane. There were there were side turrets which you you can't really see because the wings are blocking it. And the reason it was known as the Flying Fortress is because it carried so many guns. It was the B7 was one of the most successful bombers of of all time and it was certainly instrumental in the Allies success in World War II. So uh the the the the the
25:16 issue with the with the B7 was in 1935 the US Army Airore held a competition to select its next generation long range bomber and uh the favorite was the Boeing what was originally called the Boeing model 299. It was a revolutionary platform for its time. Um and it it it later became known as the B7. And oftentimes, by the way, the initial number of an aircraft back then was different than the number with which it would uh be known once it entered uh in
25:51 the Navy, we call it the fleet, once it entered, you know, active duty, so to speak. So in n um and so the this aircraft was unlike anything that had been built before. First of all, it featured four engines. It had variable pitch propellers which gave it greater stability and range. It had advanced flight controls. It had a very long range capability for its time. And there were just all kinds of switches and levers and control locks. It was a very complicated aircraft. And part of the
26:27 concern was it was too complicated. And indeed during a demonstration flight at Wright Field, [snorts] one of the Army's most experienced test pilots, his name was um Ma uh Major Pyer P. Hill, he forgot what seemed like a minor step before takeoff, which was he failed to release the elevator gust locks. It just had something to do with, you know, the performance of the plane. Um, and the aircraft lifted off the runway. It
27:02 stalled, okay, and it crashed and burst into flames and Major Hill and and another crew member unfortunately later died from their injuries. So there there was of course an investigation and and they found no mechanical failure. The airplane had performed exactly as it was designed. the accident had come from that just this simple omission. He had forgotten to click one switch or move one lever dealing with these elevator gust locks. And so
27:38 many people who observed this though they concluded that this aircraft was just too complicated to fly. But the army instead of abandoning this this absolutely almost revolutionary aircraft, they adopted a different solution and that is they created written checklists so that pilots and maintainers would not forget any step that was necessary in making sure that this aircraft could fly and complete its mission successfully.
28:14 So the checklists were were divided into distinct phases and those phases were before starting the engine, before taxi, before takeoff, climb, cruise, descent, landing and shutdown. Right? So you had two, four, six, eight checklists that that related to the operation of this aircraft. And so pilots no longer relied solely on memory. And the results were extraordinary. Uh the the B17 accumulated 1.8
28:51 million flight hours during World War II. And as I mentioned before, it was one of the most successful heavy bombers in military history. And this concept of using checklists afterwards spread rapidly throughout the entire military, especially military aviation. And eventually it became standard practice in commercial aviation. It became standard practice in in n in the nuclear navy and nuclear power in medicine and in all kinds of other highrisk industries. So um why did the checklist
29:30 change military aviation? Well, the B17 demonstrated several enduring principles and one was expertise does not eliminate mistakes. Someone can be highly highly competent but they can have a just a a lapse of memory and that lapse of memory can be fatal. Also, complexity increases the likelihood of omissions because of the cognitive load created by this complexity. And so, in order, you know,
30:07 somebody was going to figure out this problem. We weren't going to not have ever more complex aircraft. Okay? So, we needed to figure the military needed to figure out a way how to successfully deal with complexity um while still, you know, keeping flight crews safe. Also, standardized procedures improved reliability, right? So, aircrafts had aircraft had more uptime. That's the amount of time they're they can actually fly. And and it it helps streamline maintenance operations. So all kinds of good came
30:43 from the standardization imposed by checklists. And then finally they realized that systems consistently outperform memory. We may think we have great memories but the reality is oftenimes we do forget things even if it's just temporary. Uh and and and in many cases in our day-to-day lives that may be fine. Oh, we forget to go to the cleaners and our spouse gets upset at us or whatever. Okay, you know, not a big deal. Uh but when forgetting a detail could mean damage or destruction of
31:18 equipment or worse uh you know harm or or death of of somebody then we you know we cannot tolerate those lapses of memory. And so the lesson of the B17 was profound and it really did completely change how the military approached uh just all of its systems. So rather than demanding perfection from individuals, the the military improved the systems in which the individuals worked. and and and this philosophy now of course has
31:55 has um been taken on across the armed forces and it really is the backbone of why the American military is so successful. Okay, so let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about some business lessons. When life brings unexpected changes, managing inherited property shouldn't add to your stress. Magnum Properties specializes in probate and trust real estate management. We handle the complexities while you focus on what matters most. From property maintenance
32:32 to tenant relations, from legal compliance to maximizing value. We're your trusted partner through every step. Magnum Properties, Inc., turning property challenges into peace of mind. Call us today at 213-264-4396 or visit magnumprops.com. Okay. So when we transfer this concept to business then first of all what we want to do is we want to build systems that compensate for human nature. So even
33:10 outstanding employees forget routine tasks. It's just the nature of of human beings, right? So, organizations should create checklists for recurring processes, right? So, anything that needs to be done on a routine basis, there should be a checklist for it. And that way, people can just go through it and make sure. I know, look, I'm a I'm a solo practitioner, right? And if you could see my computer right over here, uh it's actually behind my current browser, but I keep checklists of all kinds of things. Whether it's how I uh
33:48 set up uh for these shows, whether it's how I report to my clients, they're all checklistbased so that I don't leave something out. And I'm I'm always working to uh to update those checklists, make them more thorough and and and in that way I take the cognitive load off of myself and and I can focus on what really matters which is serving my clients as well as possible. Right? So um along with building uh systems that compensate for human
34:23 nature, I you know standardize critical workflows. Again, that's something I've done in my own business, and I'm just one person. The more people you have in your in your company, the more important these concepts are. So, design systems that assume occasional human error, right? That's and that they're built to identify those and compensate for them and then continuously improve this the the procedures after mistakes occur or even if mistakes don't occur but you see
34:59 there's a better way to do it then then you know make those adjustments and and that will hopefully um avoid future mistakes. So great organizations are designed for real people, not perfect people, right? And and that's that's how these organizations become great because they deal with reality. Okay. Next, standardiz standardization of procedures produce consistent quality. So what customers and clients value most is
35:36 reliability. So businesses should develop written standard operating procedures. Okay? And that way everybody in the company knows what's expected and everybody knows who's responsible for what and so there's no sort of garbled um you know nature of oh you I thought you were going to do it. Oh I thought you were going to do it that kind of thing. Now those those sort of lines of involvement and responsibility should be clear. Okay. Next, create onboarding
36:11 checklists for new employees. So what are the things they need to do and you know from a payroll from a personnel standpoint and what what what are the things they need to do to orient themselves to the company to meet the other people to learn about the the mission of the company and the objective of the people and and all of these things right so that nothing is missed and new people get inculturated as efficiently as possible. Next, standardize client interaction where
36:46 appropriate. Now, here's where we have to balance things out, right? Because we do not want to be automatons in dealing with our customers and clients, okay? We want to be efficient. We don't want to waste their time, but we also want to connect with them. And that's that's what's so important. And this is where I think there's so much discussion going on now with with AIS that maybe are being embedded into customer service systems and that sort of thing. The challenge with an AI is
37:21 will it differentiate where it's important in interacting with customers or interacting with employees if it's a an AI maybe uh designed to handle uh employee benefits or something like that. So um the recently in the news there's been discussions about the city of New Orleans uh taking using AI in their emergency response system and at least one dispatcher uh he did not name himself I'm assuming it's a he I don't know uh came out and
37:56 said this is a horrible idea because an AI cannot pick up uh um audio audio clues uh from the people who are calling. And so sometimes someone will call in and they're actually in a dangerous situation, but they're what they're saying isn't conveying the danger of the situation, but it's picked up in in the tone of their voice, those kind of things. And so he's concerned that this will lead to a less effective
38:31 emergency response system. Right now, the city of New Orleans is saying it's only going to be used in very in very specific circumstances. It's really a backup for human beings, etc., etc. I mean, it will be interesting to see how this works out. Uh, and and you know, God willing, no one will be harmed uh a as a result of the use of AI in emergency response. Okay. But um we you know overall we want to standardize but we want to standardize in a way that does not uh
39:10 that that that does not give up the quality of the service or the quality of the products that we're delivering. Right? And so what we want to do as much as possible is see to it that uh checklists as a standardization procedure are designed to improve overall quality not detract from it. Okay. Next, use checklists for high consequence activities. Right? Not everything needs not every task needs a
39:47 checklist. Okay. Uh the military reserves checklists for where errors have very significant consequences. So like for example with aircraft where if an aircraft is not fit to leave the deck or the ground um because it would crash, you're going to end up with somebody hurt or killed. You're going to end up with the destruction of an aircraft. that kind of thing. That's a s that is a consequential situation. Okay. Um whereas uh you know do do you need uh
40:24 you know a checklist for putting on your uniform? I mean hopefully not. First of all, it's not a particularly consequential uh task. And second of all, you know, do we need a checklist to remind us to put on our pants and our shirt or whatever? Right? So we want, you know, we don't want to overinundate our people with checklists because then they will tend to discount them because there's just too many checklists, right? So, um, examples in a business where we we would want to develop a checklist in hiring an
40:59 employee to make sure that we've covered all of the procedures and we haven't violated any laws related to hiring employees. If there's for handling a merger and or an acquisition, we we want a checklist for regulatory compliance. That's particularly uh necessary because often times regulatory compliance has so many small steps and any one of them could be a problem if it's missed and then now all of a sudden you're you know imshed with
41:34 regulators you know crawling through your whole business right uh financial reporting right I have checklists on financial reporting what I need to go through to make sure I I you know I handle each each issue. Okay, cyber security, product launches, client onboarding. Okay, all of these you know you you know best what are the most con consequential activities in your company. Those are the ones for which you should develop checklists and then just you know don't worry about the the
42:10 the you know the the the routine not not the routine the the sort of inconsequential things right so often times a checklist can prevent expensive mistakes and that's really where you want to build them right [snorts] okay uh free we want to use checklists to free our people to think about what matters. Right? So the purpose of the checklist is not bureaucracy especially for bureaucracy's sake. That is the exact opposite of where checklists or
42:45 why checklists are useful, right? They're most useful because they preserve our mental capacity, right? And so leaders should automate uh repetitive decisions, right? so that people don't have the cognitive load of having to make these over and over and over again. Just automate that and relieve your people from having to deal with it. We also want to use checklist to reduce unnecessary mental workload. So if we've got uh a highly complex piece of machinery that we need to maintain, having a checklist
43:22 will relieve our people of the mental burden of having to remember all those steps. they can just pull out their manual. They can go through the checklist and make sure everything's been covered, right? And there's nothing wrong, by the way, with having an item on a checklist. Maybe it doesn't have to be dealt with every time. So you have, you know, step five if necessary, that kind of thing, right? And the and the the person handling it can quickly assess whether that particular step needs to be done and if not, they move on to the next one, right? And that way
43:57 they can spend more time solving problems than remembering procedures. Again, that is at its root why we want to create checklists. So we want to encourage creativity um where judgment matters the most and that is not in the repetitive parts of our business and everybody ha every business has repetitive routines whether they're maintenance or whatever they are financial reporting etc. So if we can reduce the cognitive load on those tasks, we empower our people to deal
44:32 with the more the more complex situations where it requires more brain space. Finally, we want to learn from mistakes by improving the process. Right? So the military almost never stops at asking who made the mistake and and and who made the mistake is largely only important so that the next and the more important question can be asked which is what allowed the mistake to happen, right? Was
45:08 was the maintainer just overloaded with things to do and so we've got to change our procedure or you know was it was it fatigue and if and and he didn't follow procedure what you know what what what caused the mistake right and you know you could say well if he was fatigued and didn't follow the procedure it's his fault right but then why was he fatigued okay well you know so much time was spent or he was up so late the previous day uh you know working he didn't have enough time to sleep and and then you
45:45 know he had to get up and get back and do it the next morning and so he was just too fatigued in spite of the checklists to do a good job that may mean that the you know the the maintenance chief needs to rework the scheduling so that his people can get adequate rest right so again we want to we want to learn from mistakes But we want to look beyond the person who made the mistake to what were the conditions that essentially I don't want to say caused the mistake to happen per se but kind of you know
46:20 added to the mistake happening maybe that's the better way to put it. So, so businesses can adopt the same mindset by conducting um objective post-p project reviews, right? If something goes wrong, do a hotwash. I've talked about those on this show before. And figure out what happened, why did it happen, what can we do to prevent it in the future, right? And then they can update procedures after a failure. That's that's good business, right? To prevent it from happening again, knowing that something else is going to fail. It's an ongoing
46:55 process, right? And then they can share lessons learned across the organization so that other departments maybe who are doing somewhat similar tasks, they can learn where some of the holes may be in their procedures and adopt the revisions before a problem happens. And then finally, treat mistakes as opportunities to improve systems rather than simply assigning blame. Right? And part of what checklists do is they let us get down
47:30 into those details to find out where did the process fall short. Right? It's easy. You know, look, if you've got one person maintaining a piece of machinery and the machinery breaks, he's Well, it was Joe's fault. Well, that's all good and well, but I mean, telling Joe to do it better next time isn't a very good way to improve. So, we want to be able to dig in with Joe, you know, where did things go wrong? How do we improve the conditions under which you're working so that this mistake won't happen again?
48:05 That's a much more productive way to approach this whole issue. Okay. So, um, finally, learn from mistakes and improve processes. So, the B the Boeing 7 uh B17 crash, it reminds us that even the most skilled professionals are human. So, the answer was not to find better pilots. In fact, one of the best pilots in the Army Air Corps was the one who ended up getting killed. Okay. The lesson was to
48:43 create a better system and that insight transformed military aviation and eventually influenced industries throughout the entire world. So one point I want to emphasize is uh checklists are not a substitute for expertise. Okay. So in the military inexperienced personnel cannot simply follow a checklist and expect they're going to succeed. They still have to be trained. they still have to have the
49:19 opportunity uh to work with people who who know what needs to be done so they can see what needs to be done and they can learn right having learned what needs to be done then the the checklist will keep them on track but the checklist is not a substitute for proper training in the military nor is it in our businesses either to me merely hand one of our people a checklist and say hey go at it is basically to set them up for failure, right? And so this
49:54 distinction between uh checklists as a productivity tool and training to develop expertise is one of the main reasons why the military uh can operate some of the most complex systems in the world with remarkable consistency. Right? So, businesses often believe that success hinges on hiring exceptional people. Here's the problem.
50:30 Exceptional people are not exceptional all the time. Okay? They have down days. They get sick. Um, they, you know, to use a coin a term, lose their mojo sometimes, right? So to build a business around so-called exceptional people is to really build in a great deal of fragility to that business, right? And so the the the military reach well they they came to the realization that building great systems
51:05 in which ordinary people operate is a much better way to build a resilient effective force. Right? And so this is why or one of the reasons why anyway that the US military has remained so dominant and and so in businesses we need to do the the same thing. So uh we need to build them to help people to help ordinary people do an extraordinary extraordinarily good job. Right? So
51:40 checklists do not replace judgment, experience or leadership. Instead, they allow people to apply those qualities when they matter most by reducing the cognitive load. Okay? So whether you're a startup, a law firm, a manufacturing company, or even a multinational corporation, the question is the same. Are your people relying on memory, or are they supported by systems that make excellence repeatable? Okay. So, the
52:16 military's answer has been clear for decades. Great organizations don't take critical tasks. Uh they they don't leave them to chance. Okay? They put them on a checklist and that way ensure that their people and their teams know what to do. So, uh if you look right down below you in the show notes, you'll see links to social media. Where do you use checklists in your Well, do you use checklists in your business? If so, where? How do you use them? Share an idea uh with with uh you know, the other
52:52 viewers of this show that may help them um improve their business. Okay? And I I always love to read comments. So, uh plea please do comment. And if you know someone who uh you think would be interested uh in this topic, so share this with them. If you're on Apple Podcast or Spotify, you can use the share function if you're on your phone. Same with YouTube. And um you know, would really uh appreciate having the opportunity to gain uh your friend or colleague as a viewer. Okay.
53:27 So, uh schedule of shows, Mondays at 10:00 a.m. Uh trusts and estates weekly, Tuesdays at 10 a.m. These are all Pacific time like today. uh uh business lessons from the military. Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time, people making money. And then every other Thursday at 5:00 p.m. is join me at Jiggers's Place. We'll have a cocktail and a smoo about all kinds of topics not related to finances. So, I thank you again very much for joining me today. Wish you a wonderful rest of the day and signing
54:02 off as I always do. Marie darling, you are my bell. Courage at all times, my friends.