just finished reading the book "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande.
Over the years, I have seen it in so many checklists of "must read" books that I finally succumbed.
The book, as the title says, is all about the importance of checklists.
In whatever you do, especially in work that involves collaboration with others, and in work that is of a complex nature, do you have a checklist?
Gawande is a surgeon by training, and because of his interest in checklists, landed a WHO sponsored project to introduce surgery checklists in hospitals.
He learnt primarily from two other industries that use detailed checklists, the construction industry and the airline industry. The reason why buildings rarely collapse even though millions are built every year, and why we don't have too many air accidents even though there are thousands of flights daily, is, as he conclusively points out, due to checklists.
He describes how he learnt from both the industries about how to manage complexity and urgency and about how to ensure coordination and teamwork with the use of checklists. And above all, how to avoid stupid mistakes due to oversight.
He talks about how checklists need to be brief, and unambiguous.
He proves conclusively that they work.
The book is a very easy read, it reads like a novel. I finished it in well under two hours.
His style is not didactic or prescriptive, it is more a recounting of his experiences and his learnings along the way, and it almost presents his main conclusions in passing - a very understated but a very effective approach.
It is a good read, and in my view, essential for every manager in whatever field to read.
Don't expect too many earth shaking revelations though, it is basically distilled common sense, but isn't that what is missing in our lives most of the time?
I have got back to reading a full book after a long time, and I am glad that I picked up this one.
