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The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
Audiobook6 hours

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

Written by Atul Gawande

Narrated by John Bedford Lloyd

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

The New York Times bestselling author of Being Mortal and Complications reveals the surprising power of the ordinary checklist

We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies—neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. First introduced decades ago by the U.S. Air Force, checklists have enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors and nurses respond to everything from flu epidemics to avalanches. Even in the immensely complex world of surgery, a simple ninety-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third.

In riveting stories, Gawande takes us from Austria, where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim who had spent half an hour underwater, to Michigan, where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. He explains how checklists actually work to prompt striking and immediate improvements. And he follows the checklist revolution into fields well beyond medicine, from homeland security to investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds.

An intellectual adventure in which lives are lost and saved and one simple idea makes a tremendous difference, The Checklist Manifesto is essential reading for anyone working to get things right.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 22, 2009
ISBN9781427208996
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
Author

Atul Gawande

Atul Gawande is the author of three previous bestselling books: Complications, a finalist for the National Book Award; Better, selected by Amazon.com as one of the ten best books of 2007; and The Checklist Manifesto. His current book, Being Mortal, was a New York Times Bestseller. He is also a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, a staff writer for the New Yorker, and a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He has won the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science, a MacArthur Fellowship, and two National Magazine Awards. In 2014, he delivered the BBC Reith Lectures. In his work in public health, he is director of Ariadne Labs, a joint centre for health system innovation, and chairman of Lifebox, a nonprofit organisation making surgery safer globally. He and his wife have three children and live in Newton, Massachusetts.

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Reviews for The Checklist Manifesto

Rating: 4.498507462686567 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Thought this might be a bit dry but it was interesting. Anyone interested in process analysis, process control or systems management should read this book.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fascinating. Gawande is just a great writer, to start with, connects practice and theory really well. Walks through the problem of medical errors, especially in surgery, and then connects it to other fields handling complex decision-making: flying and construction in particular. I want to put this stuff to work in my professional and personal life.

    [ed, 4/2/2011: I realized on Friday that I already do some of this. I was updating Drupal on my work site, and I have a very clear checklist that I've refined over the last year, so that I don't leave out any crucial steps. I often find that I would have forgotten something, either in back up or in the actual order of updating, too! Checklists FTW.]
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book was recommended on the Freakonomics blog (I think) so I decided to check it out. The author, a surgeon, explores how simple checklists at critical points can have dramatic effects on the outcome of complex processes. Although it dragged at times, overall I found it fascinating. All my pilot friends will definitely enjoy the discussion of how aviation embraced checklists and how new ones are developed and tested.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The title didn't grab me, but I'm glad I trusted the reviews. Fantastic insight into how the checklist came about and influences many different professions
    Highly recommend!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Attention high performers & leaders! Enthralling & important. Must Read!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great insight on why checklists are such a wonderful tool in our lives!! I’m convinced!!:)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Interesting read filled with practical knowledge ordinary people can use
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The book could have been condensed. Basically, it's important to have a checklist as it will prevent major errors from happening.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great read with lots of real stories that keep you engaged! Tons of wise words that make me want to implement checklists into my own field. Highly recommend for any profession!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a great book. It doesn't tell you how to write a checklist, rather it shares many amazing stories of where the use of a checklist made all the difference. It is quite remarkable that such a simple tool can make the difference between life and death.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a fascinating read, a real page-turner which I've already shared with others, who were equally excited about it. The idea is absurdly simple, and that's exactly why it gets ignored. People think anything that easy and obvious cannot possibly be useful. Dr. Gawande builds his case with care, providing powerful, far-reaching and riveting stories of this tool at work in the worlds of medicine, aviation, and construction. He also provides guidance for taking the idea home and building one's own effective checklists. The idea may be simple but there is a science to using it properly! Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    As a former transactional attorney, I was trained to use checklists. The transactions were too complicated to keep track of everything in my head. I also needed to communicate with the rest of the transaction team. In The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande approaches checklists from the perspective of a surgeon.I had put off reading this book because I’m already a fan of checklists. I didn’t need to be sold on their effectiveness. But I was still floored by the effectiveness Gawande reported in his studies.In using a checklist for placing a central line, the ten-day infection rate was reduced from 11% to zero. He cites many other examples and studies that show that checklists can improve the performance of highly-trained workers.“In a complex environment, experts are up against two main difficulties. The first is the fallibility of human memory and attention, especially when it comes to mundane, routine matters that are easily overlooked under the strain of more pressing events…. A further difficulty, just as insidious, is that people can lull themselves into skipping steps even when they remember them. In complex processes, after all, certain steps don’t always matter.”I was particularly happy to see Gawande cite the correct story about Van Halen’s use of M&M’s as a compliance checklist tool. (See my prior post: Compliance Van Halen and Brown M&M’s.)If you haven’t already read The Checklist Manifesto you should add it to your reading list.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I agree with some of the lukewarm reviews. I found the perfect description in another review: "gladwellian". a bit disappointed with its (lack of) depth.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A worthwhile, thought-provoking book even for those not in any of the health care fields
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Atul Gawande is a surgeon who has written this book about checklists but it is not a book on how to make checklists for shopping lists or planning weddings nor is it a book about productivity. This is a book on using checklists as a tool to deal with modern technology's extreme complexity to avoid disasters and death.This came to the forefront with the development of the B-17 Bomber in the 1930's. The plane was very complex and difficult to fly under the best of conditions. When things went wrong pilots made very obvious mistakes that led to crashes. In response Boeing developed very simple checklists that when used cut down on the number of crashes considerably.He also talks about modern buildings. The incidence of failure of high rise buildings has been ridiculously low. Much of that is because of the use of checklists during the design and construction of the buildings. Everybody knows that know one person can think of everything in such a project so they depend on codes and lists in order to ensure the safety of the buildings.Dr. Gawande really blasts his fellow doctors for being so resistant to standards of care and checklists for even the simplest of procedures. Standards and checklists that have been proven to work if followed. The problem is the ego of many doctors to hand power briefly over to somebody else for the briefest of times in order to make sure that the procedure is to be done.The problem, as almost everyone who has ever dealt with the medical profession knows, is that doctors are treated like royalty and everyone else, nurses, technicians, and other highly educated, trained, and experienced professionals and especially the patients, are there at the doctor's bidding. I asked a nurse last year when a family member was hospitalized what her number one problem was in her job. She said that, besides the workload, trying to explain to patients and their family members that she couldn't tell them anything about test results or treatment plans or anything else. They had to wait for the doctor to tell them that and then telling the patients that she had no idea when the doctor was coming by, that in fact he or she was going to come by when they pleased and not a minute before. Further, they could page or call him or her till the cows come home and it would not do any good. She said that the whole floor of the hospital was full of people wondering and waiting when the doctor was going to come.She said it as pretty frustrating. I think that there has to be a better way.What do you think?Oh yeah, I rate this book 2.5 stars out of 4. I mean its a good book but it is still only about checklists. At least it was short. But really, isn't 200 pages like a graduate degree in checklists?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great examples across multiple industries about how using checklists can avert failure.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting read. The author gives good examples of how checklists have helped humans manage complex problems. Examples are given in a number of professions - construction, medical, aviation, and finance. He also explores why it is so difficult to have professionals adopt a clearly effective strategy in their work.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Yet another fascinating book by Atul Gawande. This one is more than just a series of stories about medicine. Gawande explores the idea of using checklists in medicine and whether that would cut down on the kinds of mistakes that kill and injure thousands of patients every year. He suggests that it is not ignorance of doctors or nurses, but that medicine has become so complicated that it is impossible for anyone to remember everything, especially the mundane details that end up being so important. He goes into detail on the constructionn/architecture field and how they have used checklists. He also looks at aviation and used their checklists to guide his formulation of surgery checklists since their time constraints are similar. There is a very interesting chapter on the landing on the Hudson at the end of the book. I would recommend this book to just about anyone who likes to read and has ever used a medical facility.I grabbed this book for free from the publishers booth at ALA Midwinter mostly because I've read his other books and loved them.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is an engaging and inspiring book. In essence, Gawande argues that the medical profession, and certain other professions, adopt the use of checklists, as is the norm in aviation and construction. But Gawande, who writes regularly for The New Yorker, is a great story-teller, and it's hard to put this book down.The term "checklist" is just slightly misleading - or oversimplifying. The checklist is merely the instrument that ensures that critical procedures are identified and are properly followed. So this book is as much about procedures as it is about checklists, and in that way it is powerful in a great many contexts.I'm a big fan of David Allen's Getting Things Done (or "GTD") approach to task management. Gawande's ideas do not cover quite the same ground, but it's a similar kind of strategy: why try to keep a ton of things in your head when the right system allows you simply to focus on the task at hand, knowing that everything else is taken care of? Gawande declares that the age of the "Master Builder" -- the solitary genius, the inspired artiste -- is over, and that the complexity of almost any task today requires a different approach -- usually a team of experts working together. He makes a strong case for checklists -- and the whole systematic approach to managing complexity that they represent -- as the tool that's needed in today's world.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Although Gawande uses his experiences as a surgeon to highlight the importance of checklists, his findings can be translated into any type of work. One of my favorite quotes:"The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably. Knowledge has both saved us and burdened us."He suggests that checklists encourage both teamwork and discipline.Another interesting takeaway: "We don't look for the patterns of our recurrent mistakes or devise and refine potential solutions for them." He suggests that if we do so and incorporate our solutions into our checklists, we will reduce errors and increase efficiency, no matter what our profession.Gawande's final example of how the checklist possibly changed an outcome is the safe landing of the flight in the Hudson in January 2009. The details are fascinating.I enjoyed this short, readable book. By developing my own checklists, I am sure that it will have impact.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What do airline pilots, good operating hospitals, builders of skyscrapers, and rocker David Lee Roth have in common? It's a checklist.When surgeon Atul Gawande presented the idea of this checklist tohospitals his ideas, at first, were brushed aside as more work, butas time went on and with astonishing results, he was vindicated andmore and more hospitals have added this to their surgery theaters.In this excellent book, he ties all this together in an interestingway. I'm not a fan of books on hospitals, but there is so much moreof interest that most everyone will learn and be entertained byThe Checklist Manifesto.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was a quick-and-easy read. It focused on the use and potential of simple checklists in a variety of fields. These fields ranged from medicine (primarily surgery), aviation, finance, and construction. The stories were good and inspiring, but the book comes up short on the "how-to". Despite the simplicity of the end product, it was clear that developing a *good* checklist requires much more than writing down a set of steps. Maybe a checklist for creating a good checklist is in order.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is an interesting collection of anecdotes about how the humble checklist is essential for maintaining professionalism in a world where the sheer wealth of information and knowledge far exceeds what any one person can learn and implement on their own. As the division of labour has lead to ever more specialists, the success of any given project, from building a skyscraper to performing a surgical operation, relies on the consistant implementation of one's own specialist knowledge but also on good teamwork and effective communication. When I started reading this book I was expecting more practical advice. I found the chapter about how a skyscaper is built, and built so that they never fall down, fascinating. It also showed that devising an effective checklist itself requires expertise, teamwork and trial and error. Atul Gawande effectively demonstrates the importance of communication and discipline in getting things right. One of the most interesting parts of the book was when Atul Gawande discussed the emergency landing of the US Airways flight 1549 into the Hudson river. It was a good example of humanity's need for hero worship and I had accepted without question the news reports that the passengers were simply lucky to have a pilot who used to fly for the Air Force. The fact that no-one died is still incredible, it's just that the reason for this had little to do with Sullenberger's military history (as he himself kept saying) and much to do with the discipline of all the staff who followed procedures correctly (with help from checklists), computer assisted landing, training and experience from both pilots who communicated with each other and the cabin crew; and of course a little luck.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Atul Gawande has knack of writing good medical narraitves and those are only parts which carry this book. Premise - that checklists are useful in all kind of complex tasks - isn't bad but there only so much one can write on such a simple subject. Author does a good job of it and it's a light easy read. However from the idea point of view, well, a paragraph would have sufficed. Rest is mere evidence. Further, examples of real checklists, the meat of the book, was obvious miss.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The author takes an interesting journey through the development of checklists in medicine, commercial aircraft flight, and building construction. My thoughts about checklists before reading the book was that they needed to be comprehensive lists of tasks that are used to turn off your brain and make outcomes more consistent. Dr. Gawande, though, leads us through the development of a World Health Organization checklist for reducing surgery complications. At first, the developers try to make a comprehensive list of tasks, but in practice it is viewed as unwieldy and unusable. We then learn that checklists are best used as points to synchronize communication and prompt for the most important and most often overlooked tasks.Read this book through to the end. If you get half way and you think it is slowing and starting to repeat itself, keep going...there are more insights to be gained by reading through the whole book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great book, In showing how using a checklist can make the difference between success and failure. Must be on every entrpreneur reading list
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    At first glance the story of the creation of pre-surgical checklists to avoid frequent complications, surgeon and writer Gawande persuades us that one way to cope with complexity and specialization is to create the expert checklist. This idea of the checklist is not the exhaustive list of someone who is just learning or who has a poor memory. No, this idea is that we need more spare, whittled down lists, and that they should be weighted towards the few simple but high-impact things that we might be liable to forget among all our specialized tasks, plus items to get us to work better together: to meet our teammates and to share our specialized and context-specific knowledge. As always, Gawande gives a quick and pleasurable read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very simple idea illustrated with some decent anecdotes. Gawande presents a convincing case for the checklist as an answer to the increasing complexity of fields such as medicine, engineering and finance.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The author who a surgeon in the Boston area and a professor at Harvard, proposes that professionals in critical situations use the simple checklist to verify that all important items easily overlooked are actually completed. Using the checklist allows teams to work together most effectively and not miss anything. Checklists have for some time been an important tool in aviation and building; the author proposes using checklists in surgery to ensure that no mistakes are made and infections are avoided. Impressive results are found with lives saved and complications avoided. This leads to the proposal that checklists can be an important tool in many other arenas of expertise. This is a great book and recommended for anyone who strives for excellence.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Intriguing research and well-written. I learned a lot. It does feel a little long by the end, however.