The Checklist Manifesto

How to Get Things Right

By: Atul Gawande

Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd

The New York Times best-selling 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 US 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 90-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 listening for anyone working to get things right.

©2009 Atul Gawande (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

Good story

I was hoping for more "how-to's" and ways to make a checklist most effective. However, there were some great stories in the book that underscored the importance of a checklist.

Loved it

Really enjoyed the practicality of the advice given in this book. Easier to listen to than try to read the hard copy IMO.

Great things accomplish following a process

great examples in Healthcare on improving quality of care. bonus is how other industries use and perfect outcomes like flight.

Excellent points!

Read this book. We all need this whether or not we might like to say we do. It will surprise you. And may even save your life some day. Lots of situations are visited and explained. All have benefitted immensely from their checklists. Experience is good, but add in a checklist and you have the best you can have. I thoroughly enjoyed the lessons and the style of the author. Great job!

Good

All premed students should listen.
Good story, strong message, and a solid notation of how to be better at complex tasks.

great read for any teams doing critical work

great read for any teams doing critical work. a must read for those in the medical, aviation, or construction business. IT operations benefits as well as devops too

practical for living

in a world that is designed to distract, this book reminds us that we can control our distractions and unplanned events w a simple & flexible check list. thank you!

Surprisingly relevant

It's a little slow in the first 2 chapters but I urge you to push through. When the author begins weaving in his research in other industries and relating it back to his own is when I became more engaged. This book made a big impact on the way I came back to my Sales department in the Entertainment industry and I began applying this simple yet effective approach immediately (but with much resistance as expected).

great tool hugely underused, take advantage of it!

highly recommended, just missed actual attached examples. theory, proofs and story are great! this should be thought in highschool!

Should be required reading for all professionals who deal with complexity

Just finished my third listen of this book, and still found a few gems of wisdom that I had missed before.

I routinely see opportunities to apply these lessons in my professional life, and hope that all professionals will - in time - come to hold themselves and their professions to the level of excellence that this book promises is achievable... with only a little more humility and discipline, but no real need for increased technical skill.

The only minor criticism I had was of the production, rather than the book. There were several places in the book where a line or two had been obviously recorded at a different time and spliced in afterwards, and it had a different sound quality and tone to the speaker’s voice.

Over-all, I highly recommend this book!