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The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right Paperback – January 4, 2011

by Atul Gawande (Author)

1,116 customer reviews

in Health Care Administration

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In his latest bestseller, Atul Gawande shows what the simple idea of the checklist reveals about the complexity of our lives and how we can deal with it.

The modern world has given us stupendous know-how. Yet avoidable failures continue to plague us in health care, government, the law, the financial industry—in almost every realm of organized activity. And the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded our ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people—consistently, correctly, safely. We train longer, specialize more, use ever-advancing technologies, and still we fail. Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument that we can do better, using the simplest of methods: the checklist. In riveting stories, he reveals what checklists can do, what they can’t, and how they could bring about striking improvements in a variety of fields, from medicine and disaster recovery to professions and businesses of all kinds. And the insights are making a difference. Already, a simple surgical checklist from the World Health Organization designed by following the ideas described here has been adopted in more than twenty countries as a standard for care and has been heralded as “the biggest clinical invention in thirty years” (The Independent).

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, December 2009: With a title like The Checklist Manifesto, it would be natural to expect that Atul Gawande is bent on revolutionizing that most loved-hated activity of workers the world over: the to-do list. But it's not the list itself he wants to change; there are no programmatic steps or tables here to help you reshuffle daily tasks. What you'll find instead is a remarkably liberating and persuasive inquiry into what it takes to work successfully and with a personal sense of satisfaction. The first thing you'll realize is that it takes more than just one person to do a job well. This is a toppling revelation made all the more powerful by Gawande's skillful blend of anecdote and practical wisdom as he profiles his own experience as a surgeon and seeks out a wide range of other professions to show that a team is only as strong as its checklist--by his definition, a way of organizing that empowers people at all levels to put their best knowledge to use, communicate at crucial points, and get things done. Like no other book before it, The Checklist Manifesto is at once a restorative call to action and a welcome voice of reason. --Anne Bartholomew

Amazon Exclusive: Malcolm Gladwell Reviews The Checklist Manifesto

Malcolm Gladwell was named one of TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2005. He is most recently the author of What the Dog Saw (a collection of his writing from The New Yorker) as well as the New York Times bestsellers Outliers, The Tipping Point, and Blink. Read his exclusive Amazon guest review of The Checklist Manifesto:

Over the past decade, through his writing in The New Yorker magazine and his books Complications and Better, Atul Gawande has made a name for himself as a writer of exquisitely crafted meditations on the problems and challenges of modern medicine. His latest book, The Checklist Manifesto, begins on familiar ground, with his experiences as a surgeon. But before long it becomes clear that he is really interested in a problem that afflicts virtually every aspect of the modern world--and that is how professionals deal with the increasing complexity of their responsibilities. It has been years since I read a book so powerful and so thought-provoking.

Gawande begins by making a distinction between errors of ignorance (mistakes we make because we don't know enough), and errors of ineptitude (mistakes we made because we don’t make proper use of what we know). Failure in the modern world, he writes, is really about the second of these errors, and he walks us through a series of examples from medicine showing how the routine tasks of surgeons have now become so incredibly complicated that mistakes of one kind or another are virtually inevitable: it's just too easy for an otherwise competent doctor to miss a step, or forget to ask a key question or, in the stress and pressure of the moment, to fail to plan properly for every eventuality. Gawande then visits with pilots and the people who build skyscrapers and comes back with a solution. Experts need checklists--literally--written guides that walk them through the key steps in any complex procedure. In the last section of the book, Gawande shows how his research team has taken this idea, developed a safe surgery checklist, and applied it around the world, with staggering success.

The danger, in a review as short as this, is that it makes Gawande’s book seem narrow in focus or prosaic in its conclusions. It is neither. Gawande is a gorgeous writer and storyteller, and the aims of this book are ambitious. Gawande thinks that the modern world requires us to revisit what we mean by expertise: that experts need help, and that progress depends on experts having the humility to concede that they need help. --Malcolm Gladwell

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

That humblest of quality-control devices, the checklist, is the key to taming a high-tech economy, argues this stimulating manifesto. Harvard Medical School prof and New Yorker scribe Gawande (Complications) notes that the high-pressure complexities of modern professional occupations overwhelm even their best-trained practitioners; he argues that a disciplined adherence to essential procedures—by ticking them off a list—can prevent potentially fatal mistakes and corner cutting. He examines checklists in aviation, construction, and investing, but focuses on medicine, where checklists mandating simple measures like hand washing have dramatically reduced hospital-caused infections and other complications. Gawande gets slightly intoxicated over checklists, celebrating their most banal manifestations as promethean breakthroughs (First there was the recipe, the most basic checklist of all, he intones in a restaurant kitchen). He's at his best delivering his usual rich, insightful reportage on medical practice, where checklists have the subversive effect of puncturing the cult of physician infallibility and fostering communication and teamwork. (After writing a checklist for his specialty, surgery, he is chagrined when it catches his own disastrous lapses.) Gawande gives a vivid, punchy exposition of an intriguing idea: that by-the-book routine trumps individual prowess. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Picador; Reprint edition (January 4, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312430000
ISBN-13: 978-0312430009
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1,116 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Books > Medical Books > Administration & Medicine Economics > Health Care Administration
- #1 in Books > Medical Books > Administration & Medicine Economics > Hospital Administration
- #1 in Books > Medical Books > Medicine > Internal Medicine > Family Practice

Customer Reviews

1,116

4.5 out of 5 stars

5 star		64%
4 star		23%
3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Top Customer Reviews

Game Changing...

By D. Kanigan VINE VOICE on December 23, 2009

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

Amazon's December Book of the Month summary describes the author's mission of revolutionizing the "to-do list...without programmatic steps or tables to help reshuffle daily tasks." One may infer from this recap that this is a how-to-self-improvement book for making one more productive, more efficient and less stressed - this couldn't be farther from the core message of this book.

The author's key message is that the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded any single individual's ability to manage it consistently without error despite material advances in technology, boatloads of more training and super-specialization of functions and responsibilities. Yet, despite demonstrating that checklists produce results, there is resistance to their use because of the (1) Master of Universe mentality (Rock Star; Fighter Pilot; Hero), (2) our jobs are too complex to reduce to a checklist, (3) checklists are too rigid and don't force us to look up and see and think ahead of what's in front of us. Yet, in a complex environment, he states that experts are up against 2 difficulties - the fallibility of human memory when it comes to mundane, routine matters that are easily overlooked under the strain of more pressing events and secondly, people can lull themselves into skipping steps even when they remember them - after all certain steps don't always matter...until one day they do. Gawande makes a persuasive case in his book as to why you should develop and implement a process checklist for critical processes/decisions.

* Whether you are from the medical field or not, you will benefit from the inspiring thinking and insights.

* This book is game changing - a call-to-action for generating better results despite the pull to run with intuition or gut instinct.Read more ›

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10 Highlights of This Book

By AdamSmythe on January 24, 2010

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

I looked over the other reviews of this interesting book, and there are many of them that you will find very useful--so I'll just try to list some highlights. As Dr. Gawande points out, a checklist can't be too long (people won't use it), yet it must succinctly cover the most essential considerations of the situation at hand. Although what follows isn't a checklist, I'll try to focus on the most essential characteristics of Dr. Gawande's book:

First, this is an easy-to-read, engaging book. I'll bet that you will find it hard to put down. It is interesting enough to make you want to read the book and serious enough to deliver important messages.

Second, the value of using checklists springs directly from the complexity of modern life, whether we're talking about surgery (the author is a surgeon), flying an airplane or building a skyscraper. By the way, in reading this book I have developed a newfound appreciation of how complex the construction business can be.

Third, checklists are not just for simple, straightforward tasks. Checklists help people communicate and work together better, especially when the unexpected occurs.

Fourth, checklists are important regardless of the time available. Indeed, when the cockpit crew of US Airways flight 1549 lost both engines over New York City, they had only three minutes of airtime remaining. The first thing they did was to get out their checklists. (You can read Captain Sully Sullenberger's excellent book for more details.)

Fifth, checklist usage has saved numerous lives, including one of Dr. Gawande's patients. His candor in discussing that episode is laudable.

Sixth, humans being human, mistakes will inevitably occur.Read more ›

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Why read the book when the article will do?!

By avdrdr on February 6, 2010

Format: Hardcover

Dr. Gawande acknowledges that this book grew out of his December 10, 2007 New Yorker article, "The Checklist". I suspect that, for many readers, it would be a better use of their time and money to read the article (which is available online) rather than the book. Although the book, like Dr. Gawande's previous books, is well-written, the author's essential conclusions could easily be summarized in one page (and have been in several reviews).

13 Comments 492 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

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OK, but no methods

By E. Mills on January 18, 2010

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

The Checklist Manifesto is a good book if you require convincing that checklists are a good thing. Or if you like to read a quasi-novel on how checklists can be useful. If you already believe in checklists then you may be bored with 193 pages espousing their virtue. You will not find anything at all on how to construct a checklist, or methods to keep them current amid ever-changing procedures and technological advances. Well written, but not particularly practical.

28 Comments 240 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

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The simple checklist

By Laura Sequeira on December 23, 2009

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

I work in a hospital as an intensive care nurse. We have been working on a multitude of projects to improve patient safety and outcomes. And in the midst of all the technology and knowledge and training, it is the simple thing--a checklist. Having a husband who is a private pilot and works for the FAA, I have heard about checklists for years. This book shows how pilots use checklists to avert disaster and save lives. It explains how the people who build complex buildings use checklists to plan the construction but also communicate and correct the changes and errors. And it gives a multitude of examples in medicine to show how checklists work and what happens when they aren't used. It is a fascinating, quick and easy read. And it will have you thinking very differently about checklists and safety, whether in the air, a building or a hospital.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Five Stars

great read, working on projects this should be required read

Published 3 hours ago by mysticman76

This was an excellent book with a very simple premise, the importance...

Not long, exhausting checklists, but checklists distilled down to the essential, what absolutely has to happen or what will cause an issue with a process that needs to be checked. Read more

Published 4 days ago by IT Outsider

5 Ws of checklist

The book remained centered on the use of checklist. who should use a checklist ( all professionals), what constitutes a good checklist, when to use a checklist ( during any... Read more

Published 4 days ago by DATE D.

Fantastic Read

Great book! Love Gawande's style.

Published 6 days ago by emily

Not a checklist book!

While I certainly enjoyed the style of writing the author failed to match the content to the title. Over 90% of the content are operating room stories. Read more

Published 16 days ago by michael johnson

Five Stars

Well written n very timely!!!

Published 18 days ago by Karen Cooper

Five Stars

Loved this book!

Published 19 days ago by BRUITUP

Checklists are the way to go!

Loved how he traversed through the journey of not having checklists to making extremely concise and usable checklists (which includes only the killer non missable items).... Read more

Published 19 days ago by Rahul parameswaran

Will definitely try checklists now

At the beginning of the book I wasn't sure how checklists could work in medicine, software development, etc. Read more

Published 21 days ago by Eric Binnion

Humbling and inspiring

We as humans are prone to making mistakes, no matter what field of work we engage in, and the simplest checklist could help any of us avoid the most common ones. Read more

Published 22 days ago by Samuel

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