According to Atul Gawande:
The primary aim of a checklist is to prevent human failure, either from ignorance (you don't know what you don't know) or ineptitude (knowledge is applied inconsistently or incorrectly).
The secondary aim of a checklist is to force people to talk to each other and foster teamwork. This is known as "activation phenomenon": giving people a chance to say something at the start of a procedure seems to activate their sense of participation and responsibility and their willingness to speak up.
- Define clear pause point at which the checklist is supposed to be used.
- Choose either “DO-CONFIRM” or “READ-DO”:
- DO-CONFIRM: checks after tasks are done
- READ-DO: carry out tasks as they are checked off
- Checklist cannot be lengthy. Rule of thumb: 5-9 items. Depends on context/situation. After 60-90 seconds checklist becomes a distraction, people begin shortcutting. Focus on "killer items"; the steps most dangerous to skip and most often overlooked. This is the most difficult part of checklists: managing the tension between brevity and effectiveness.
- Wording should be simple and exact, familiar to profession
- Look matters: fits on one page, free from clutter and unnecessary colors, use upper and lower case for ease of reading, sans serif font.
- Test in real world and iterate to improve effectiveness. The goal is not to check boxes. The goal is to embrace a culture of teamwork and discipline.
You may find it useful to look at Gawande's famous WHO surgical checklists.