My latest summary is for The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande. It explains how the humble checklist can increase productivity, improve coordination, and even save lives in fields as diverse as surgery, construction, and aviation.

As usual, the key takeaways are below, and you can find the full summary by clicking the link above.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Checklists are incredibly underrated tools that can make a big difference and save lives.
• Our knowledge base has grown increasingly complex.
  • In complex situations, it becomes much easier to overlook the basic but important things.
  • One way to deal with this increased complexity is through specialisation. This is what medicine has done so far.
  • Another way is the checklist. This is what aviation and construction have done.
• Advantages of checklists:
  • Ensure people take care of the simple but critical things;
  • Make it easier to roll out new best practices quickly;
  • Help identify problems and patterns of mistakes; and
  • Improve coordination in teams and systems.
• Why are checklists so underrated?
  • People think they are too bureaucratic and replace human judgement. (But a good checklist should enable, rather than replace, human judgement and skill, by freeing up the mind so it doesn’t have to worry about small, routine things.)
  • Simple arrogance — people don’t believe they need a checklist.
  • Checklists are not very exciting or sexy.
• A good checklist should be:
  • Precise — it must be clear whether a step has been completed;
  • Short — it should not be a “how to guide”; and
  • Practical and easy to use — real-world testing is essential.
• Checklists are not a panacea:
  • For a checklist to be effective, people have to use it. This may require a major cultural shift.
  • Checklists cannot substitute for human judgement in complex situations with high uncertainty.
• Different fields which have successfully deployed checklists include: medicine, aviation, construction, restaurants, and investing.

As usual, you can find the full detailed summary on the website. If you found this summary useful, consider forwarding to a friend you think might enjoy it.

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​To Summarise​