Yew Trees and Checklists

Hello everyone!

I’m going to restart publishing these rambling collections of interesting things I’ve learned?

regularly, I’m going to switch them up to once a week and see how I get on. If you enjoy them then please do share them and comment and if you don’t then… um… don’t?

Graveyards and Yew Trees

I’m working on improving my digital habits (amongst lots of other habits too, more on that probably in a future ramble) but in a weak moment last week I was in an Instagram Reel tail spin… It starts with an alarmingly accurate pastiche of “toddlers having a chat” and then it rotates through more toddler content (they know, they always know) and then up pops a Scottish historian chap I hadn’t seen before. Dressed casually in a football top he seemed like “my sort” of historian.?

He offered up a pleasingly simple explanation of why if you’re in the market for a Yew Tree you should pop along to your local graveyard. As we all know (!) Yew was a vital material for the production of the longbow. That ferocious weapon which, if my primary school history teacher was to be believed, was the major contributor to the English victory over the dastardly French at Crecy, Agincourt et al.

His thesis: graveyards were one of the few areas that were enclosed by walls so the trees would be protected from cattle grazing and could therefore be safely grown to make the weapons. They have continued to be planted due to tradition.

Simple. Pleasing. Logical.?

I enjoyed this “fact” so much that I shared it with my friend The Cultural Tutor. He’s a nerd, I’m a nerd. We share nerdy things with each other.

I also thought I would include it in the re-launch of these posts. But yesterday, before I did so, I thought it warranted some further research to ensure I wasn’t misleading my legions of readers.

Stealing (sort of) from Mr Wilde: The truth is rarely simple.

I found myself in another internet tailspin. This time there were fewer toddler jokes and many, many more Yew facts.

Very soon, the story didn’t add up. Firstly, Yew is highly toxic. Cattle would not graze on it because they aren’t stupid. In fact, Yew is used to keep cattle out of places, it doesn’t need the protection of a graveyard wall. It may have been the case that the Yew was planted to keep cattle away from graves (nobody wants their dearly departed being trampled) but it’s unlikely that it was planted there to keep the Yew itself safe.

Secondly, Yew in graveyards and Yew being associated with death and rebirth goes back a lot longer than the longbow. Back to pagan times and early Christianity.

And finally, the amount of Yew you could grow in a graveyard is nowhere near enough to provide an army with the weapons they need. A fully grown Yew tree can only provide enough wood for five longbows. You’d need a lot of graveyards.

So why are Yew trees in graveyards? The answer is, actually,? simple… nobody really knows. Go for your own internet tailspin and you’ll find out it’s probably a mixture of religion, history, warfare and biology.

P.S. As an amusing aside (to my infantile sense of humour) , practicing archery was required by law from 1252 onwards. This happened in places called Butts (snigger) and this is why we still have many roads holding that moniker.

The Power of the Checklist

And now to operations. Like so many things in good operations, it’s a simple one this week: believe in checklists.

I use checklists constantly. Whether it’s packing for a trip, prepping my bag to head to the pool before going into London for meetings, carrying out my weekly financial health tasks for the company or treating a patient in cardiac arrest, checklists are your friend.

Often people see referring to a checklist as a sign of amateurism. They could not be more wrong. Airline pilots are some of the best trained and most skilled professionals that exist. They use checklists all the time. Routine checklists before take off, emergency checklists when something goes wrong. So why?

1. The obvious answer. A checklist means you don’t miss something important. It’s a list. You work down the list and you physically (or digitally if you are that way inclined) tick off each item as you do it. As long as you’re honest with yourself and don’t cut corners then you simply cannot miss a step.
2. They reduce cognitive load and allow you to use your incredible brian power for higher order thinking. Every Monday I don’t need to worry about what steps I need to follow to make sure the finance reporting is in order, I just follow the checklist. I then use my brain to solve any issues the steps of the list throw up. During a cardiac arrest, I’m stressed. Somebody is dying. My brain needs to be focussing on the scene, managing my crew resources, managing my own emotions and solving problems. Not trying to remember what my 4 H’s and 4 T’s actually stand for. A checklist solves these problems.
3. Most importantly, for an occasionally anxious over thinker like myself they give me a sense of inner calm. I know I did it right because… yep… I followed the checklist. I don’t need to empty my bag in the airport to check if I put that charger in because, you guessed it, I followed the checklist. It was ticked off, it’s in the bag. Chill.

So don’t be proud, make checklists. Whether you use Asana, Monday or a printed out list and a pen. Make templates and use checklists.

Until next week!

Chris

P.S. I’m going to start collecting these posts on a Substack, if you’d like to subscribe then please visit here.