#24 Has Life Become One Big Checklist?

Have you noticed that almost everywhere you turn, life has been reduced to a checklist? Is that because no one can think and decide things for themselves, or are citizens, workers and students no longer allowed to think for themselves?

Students are no longer taught how to think -- colleges will readily acknowledge that graduates are lacking in critical thinking skills, they possess few analytical skills and writing skills are practically nonexistent.  Why then are our students being taught only things that they need to remember on a standardized test?  Students are taught to memorize, but not to think, why?

Managers are creating checklists of what to say on telephone calls in call centers -- not just a checklist of what to cover in a conversation with a client, but the actual words employees need to use.  In several instances in call centers, when employees do not use the exact words they are considered to not be meeting standards as set forth on a quality assurance checklist.  Amazing!!

Managers are also setting criteria and issuing multi-page memos on how to write up  yearly performance evaluations.  Top level managers are providing the context and the wording to be used when their supervisors and subordinate managers are evaluating their employees.  There is no longer any discretion left to the individual supervisors/managers.  Why?  If leaders think that their employees cannot do a performance review on their own, why were they hired?  Or do leaders want absolute control --  "my way or the highway"?

Just last week at a state hearing regarding the consolidation of the State Personnel Board and the Department of Personnel Administration, it was agreed that a uniform set of standards for disciplining employees would be developed.  With that kind of checklist approach, it eliminates the discretion and discernment necessary to run a fair and equitable human resources management system.

Every person is different and every situation is different.  No two people are like and very rarely are two  situations alike.  There are usually mitigating circumstances which may alter the kind of discipline necessary.   As we know from clothing, one size does not fit all.  But yet that is what is being proposed.  And that approach has already been instituted in many schools -- zero tolerance --  whether the situation warrants it or not.

I have to wonder why?  Why can we not use commen sense anymore?.  What are leaders so afraid of? Are they afraid  that when people start to think and feel, they will realize that the leaders are not so smart, or as good intentioned as the leaders pretend to be. They would rather run the organization, state, or country off of the rails, than do the right thing -- the risk of not being re-elected or being replaced as a leader is too great. 

It is time to start abolishing this risk aversive checklist mentality. Since we collectively pay the salaries of all public workers -- schools, governmnent -- state and local, and all elected politicans, we can demand better for ourselves and our children.   It is time to stand up and be counted.