Lessons from a Forgotten Pair of Bike Shoes

I was so proud of myself. The night before a big ride, I had prepared everything — bike, helmet, water bottles, and gels — all packed neatly in the car. I was ahead of the game. Then I went to add my bike shoes and realized they smelled like a cadaver. Knowing my car would reek the next morning, I left the shoes in the garage to air out. There was a risk I’d forget them, but I reassured myself: “I’ve got my trusty checklist. What could go wrong?”

Two people working on a checklist — Illustration by lemono/Getty Images

The next morning, everything was running like clockwork. I bounced out of bed, headed downstairs, and started the car. Right before I left, my wife asked me to cover a medical appointment for our son, and I agreed, mentally shifting gears mid-checklist before speeding off to meet my cycling buddy.

When I got downtown and went to pull out my bike, it hit me: No shoes! They were still in the garage. I had to drive back 30 minutes each way, costing me an hour while making me late for our ride. All because I didn’t pause to double-check my checklist.

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One of my mentors often says, “We never seem to have time to do it right the first time, but we always find time to fix it.” If I had just taken 30 seconds to review the list one more time, I could have avoided this mess entirely.

It got me thinking: How often in our businesses do we rush through checklists, or worse, go nose-blind to them? When they’re used properly, checklists help us avoid failure. But humans are terrible at monitoring automated systems and wonderful creatures of habit. Complacency sets in. In other industries like aviation, that complacency can cost lives. In custom installation, it costs time, money, and client trust.

Here are a few practical strategies I’m committing to that might help in your business:

Team Timeouts: Build in a mandatory pause where the whole team (project manager, sales rep, and installation team) runs through the checklist or narrative together before work begins.
Buddy Checks: Especially effective with two-person crews. One person reads; the other verifies before leaving for the day.

Checklist Methods That Translate to Our Industry

Read-Do Method — The person reads each item of the checklist and performs it immediately before moving to the next.
- Pros: Reduces missed items, great for low-pressure environments.
- Cons: Slower, may reduce situational awareness under pressure.
Do-Verify Method (My favorite) — The person performs the checklist items from memory or habit and then uses the checklist to verify that all items were completed.
- Pros: Maintains flow, efficient for experienced teams.
- Cons: Risk of missing items if verification is skipped. Memory-reliant.
Challenge-Do-Verify Method — One person challenges by reading an item, and the other person does it. They both verify that the action is complete.
- Pros: Excellent for crew coordination, reduces missed items.
- Cons: Slower, not ideal for solo work.

Clearly, I didn’t follow the Do-Verify method this morning, but I won’t forget the lesson any time soon. Complacency isn’t so much a switch as a slow creep.