Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, John Bedford Lloyd Macmillan Audio 2010 (Audio CD) ISBN: =”1427208980”

My Review 4/5

It’s the study of identifying crucial processes and force fixing them. I liked the breakdown of simple, complex and complicated problems. I also liked all the anecdotal stories, there is a heavy emphasis on surgery stories that may upset the more squeamish.

Simple - repeatable by recipe and steps, low skill involved

Complicated - Many sub-systems joined together with many experts, still repeatable (think moon launch)

Complex - Raising kids. Enough said

A checklist is not always a box, it is identifying the 10% that effects the most change. See the The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less for more on this.

Also there are ‘do-confirm’ check list and ‘read-do’ checklist. The former to catch missed steps the latter to step-through processes. Each checklist should be 5-9 items in length, no longer than 90 seconds to execute, should fit on one page.

Key takeaway: whole processes should not require a checklist, we want to have a mechanism to confirm no ‘stupid’ mistakes were made.

Date Read

2016/09/30

Date Added

2016/09/12

Significant Revisions