Atul Gawande is an acclaimed surgeon and a fascinating writer. This book of about 200-pages explores how a simple checklist can solve complex problems in diverse areas like medicine, investment banking, skyscraper construction and business of all kinds.

Read this eminently readable book to see if this helps you handle the multitudes of objectives ‘thrust’ upon you by your organisation daily. At the very least, this will help you to not miss out on your key objectives. Some gems that I couldn’t resist quoting for you:

“If the knowledge of the best thing to do in a given situation does not exist, we are happy to have people simply make their best effort. But if the knowledge exists and is not applied correctly, it is difficult not to be infuriated”

“..physicians each evaluated an average of 250 different primary diseases and conditions. Their patients had more than nine hundred other active medical problems that had to be taken into account. The doctors each prescribed some three hundred medical conditions, ordered more than a hundred different types of laboratory tests, and performed an average of forty different kinds of office procedures-from vaccinations to setting fractures.”

“..an average patient (in an ICU) required 178 individual actions per day..”

“…almost routinely, someone or something was missing, He tried the usual surgical approach to remedy this-yelling at everyone to get their act together. But still they had no saves. So he and a couple of colleagues decided to try something new. They made a checklist.”

“I cam back from (hurricane) Katrina and the builders with a kind of theory: under condition of complexity, not only are checklists a help, they are required for success. There must always be room for judgement, but judgement aided-and even enhanced-by procedure.”

Enjoy & let us know your feedback 🙂