Checklists As an Academic Leadership Tool

There are probably few tools we can use in academic leadership that seem less interesting than a checklist. We may sometimes even refer to checklists as though they were akin to sleepwalking our way through our jobs: “Well, if I never get to exercise my own judgment, you really don’t need a provost [or dean or department chair]. You may as well just use a checklist.” But as Atul Gawande argued in The Checklist Manifesto…