Title: The Checklist Manifesto

Author: Atul Gawande

Year Published 2009

Kind of Book: Productivity/Organization

How strongly I recommend it 6/10

My Impressions

This book definitely could have been a blog post, however it still makes a big point—Humans make a lot of errors, especially when doing multi-step tasks. We overestimate our ability to execute these tasks and don't think we need to rely on something as simple as a checklist. But we do. So any time you're trying to execute a task that is more than one step (packing your suitcase, flying a plane, operating on a patient) use a damn check-list!

Date Read May 2019

Practical Takeaways

  • Make your checklist simple, brief, and to the point (minimum of necessary steps)

  • Trust the wisdom of the group over the wisdom of the individual

  • Use a checklist for any situation of complexity that you need to execute (especially if the stakes are high)

  • Always introduce yourself to people you will be working with ie. Make sure you all know each other's names

  • Make everyone in the group go around and introduce themselves

  • Do a verbal checklist as a team for best results

  • Make checklists precise and to the point

  • Make checklists that provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps (not ones that try to spell everything out)

  • Define a clear pause point when you're making a checklist

  • Try to keep the checklist between 5 to 9 items

  • Make the checklist fit on one page and be free of clutter and unnecessary colors

  • Revise your checklist after using it in the real world

  • Try to make the checklist possible to complete in 30 seconds

  • Don't think that using a checklist is beneath you or makes you any less of a man

  • 4 Items all checklists must have

    1. Pause Point

    2. Speedy (>60seconds 5-7 killer items)

    3. Supplement to Existing Knowledge

    4. Field Tested and continually updated

Big Ideas

  • We tend to overestimate our ability to execute multiple step tasks

 

Surprising Facts

  • People who don't know one another's names don't work together nearly as well as those who do.

  • Surgeons vehemently resisted checklists at first, until the evidence was overwhelming that less people died when they used them

Unknown Terms

Do-Confirm: Team members do their job and then pause to check the checklist and confirm that everything was done as it was supposed to be done

Check-Do: Team members read an item on the check list and then execute it. Much like a recipe.

Hawthorne Effect (Observer Effect): the alteration of behavior by the subjects of a study due to their awareness of being observed.