Stars shine down...

Last month, on 25th May, Infospectrum, the company I work for as a technical writer, felicitated me as Star Performer in Quality and Process Services category, at the hands of Jay Chopde, CEO of Infospectrum. Other categories, in which awards were handed out, were: Engineering, Management, Business Development and Support Services.


I would be a hypocrite to say I wasn't happy to be felicitated. However, the thought of being selected had never occurred to me, and in fact, barely minutes before the awards were declared, I was at my machine, working on an urgent deliverable that was to be submitted an hour later. So, the awards came as a pleasant surprise.

My tenure so far in this company has seen me working on almost all the major projects across diverse domains (marine logistics to satellite imaging to security software to business intelligence), on various platforms (Windows, Linux, and a bit of work on Mac), working with teams of various sizes (comprising from 5 to more than 30 people). Work has sometimes been challenging, sometimes relaxed; nevertheless, it has always been fun working with some smart people!

But, of course, there is a tinge of dissatisfaction: it could have been better. My deliverables could have been better, my work-process could have been more efficient, my interaction with the team could have been more productive. There is a huge scope for improvement and to make things better.

Perhaps, I should better sit down and start reading "Better", written by my current favourite author: Atul Gawande.

Check it out!

[This is a companion blog-post to my review of The Checklist Manifesto, which can be read at GReviewz. For a technical writer's perspective on checklist, visit ByteSpace.]

Reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande has been a satisfying experience. Not because the book gave me a new insight or approach. It doesn't. But it validated something that I have been following over the years: using checklists.

I must have got this trait from my father. He is a very methodical man, very painstakingly so. We have never seen him miss out on any aspect of a process or a transaction. He is always very clear about which step he is at, what needs to be done next, which documents will be needed, whom he needs to meet, and so on. He has never come back from an office because he didn't carry the necessary papers with him.

Whenever the family goes out for an outing, he is the one to close the house. This seemed easy, until we had to do it ourselves in his absence; and invariably we would miss out on something: forgetting to keep the milk in the refrigerator or forgetting to close the knob of the gas regulator.

As I watched him, it became clear that he followed some kind of checklist, albeit from the memory.

I created my first checklist as a student: an exam checklist. It listed the things needed to appear for a paper: the writing pad, the Camlin compass box with all the necessary instruments, extra pens and pencils, and so on. It proved immensely useful: never did I have to borrow anything in the exam hall.

After finishing the studies, I joined my first company. Living alone, it soon became a chore to get all the necessary accessories in place before leaving for the office. This was when I created a checklist based on a Marathi acronym: मोरूचा पापा  which meant: मो (Mobile), रूमाल (Handkerchief), चावी (Keys), पाकीट (Wallet), and पास (Gatepass). I still follow a more enhanced version of this.

A friend of mine often chided me for using these kind of checklists, saying such "simple things should be obvious". Well..... HP, if you are reading this and still feel so, do check out  The Checklist Manifesto.

There ain't no shame in usin' checklists.