Gawande, Atul. The Checklist Manifesto: how to get things right. Metropolitan Books. New York. 2010.

Checklists can help us work together as teams and keep from missing the easy stuff in the heat of the moment. Gawande has collected numerous cases showing us how teams that use checklists can prevent dangerous, risk-inducing errors in complex situations.

[U]nder conditions of true complexity --where the knowledge required exceeds that of any individual and unpredictability reigns-- efforts to dictate every step from the center will fail. People need room to act and adapt. Yet they cannot succeed as isolated individuals, either-- that is anarchy. Instead, [people] require a seemingly contradictory mix of freedom and expectation-- expectation to coordinate, for example, and also to measure progress toward common goals.

Messages

• using checklists makes communicating easier
• you can find checklists in several industries
  • construction: the overall schedule and the submission (communication) schedule
  • aviation: the few standard checklists and the dozens of emergency checklists
  • surgery: a three-stage checklist that helps keep unwanted easy mistakes from hurting people
  • venture capital: the most successful investors use checklists to keep from skipping key analysis
  • stage sets
  • professional football players
  • rock tours
  • chef's kitchens
• checklists have hold points when the team pauses to make sure things are all right before committing to the next phase
• checklists cover only those essential things that we might easily miss when handling the conditions in the moment
• two types: READ-DO and DO-CHECK
• using checklists help us foster culture of teamwork and discipline
• checklists don't work for teaching or showing an algorithm
• good checklists evolve from use and adapt to user experience

Just ticking boxes is not the ultimate goal here. Embracing a culture of teamwork and discipline is.

Checklists help us exercise discipline as the fourth expectation in teams:

• selflessness
• skill
• trustworthiness
• discipline

Check out his articles and interviews on checklists:

• The New Yorker article
• Harvard Business Review interview
• Freakonomics podcast
• NPR's Hidden Brain podcast
• NPR author interview for The Checklist Manifesto

The checklists Gawande helped create:

• WHO Surgical Safety Checklist
• Get copies of checklist and implementation guide
• Checklist on checklists

Remember from The Smart Swarm that a four-person team of average people working together can outperform one brilliant person.