A plane crashed because the crew didn’t honor the pre-flight checklist.
A student failed the test because she didn’t study the provided materials.
A manager made the wrong priority call because one of the team members neglected to update his status on the Trello board.
And also…
A plane crashed because the pre-flight checklist didn’t cover the piece that failed.
A student failed the test because she couldn’t access the required materials.
A manager made the wrong priority call because some required work was not shown on the Trello board.
Our systems both solve and cause many of our problems, and when something goes wrong, we often debate whether the problem is with the human or the system.
First, we must recognize that a system only works if the people respect it and work within it. We have some level of human culpability within the system.
At the same time, if the system is not producing the desired outcomes (regardless of its correctness), we must ignore or, better yet, rise above it. Only then can a new and better system result.
Even when a system exists, we must always ask ourselves, “Is this a good system? Can we improve it? How can we make it easier to follow?”
It seems to me that getting better at teaching, creating, questioning, and improving systems might be one of the best educational investments we could ever make.
