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The Checklist manifest - Atul Gawande - Coggle Diagram
The Checklist manifest - Atul Gawande
1: The Problem of extreme complexity
Many of the jobs and tasks that humanity has come to are too complex to be reliably held on a persons head no matter how much training
many deaths are caused by extremely complex systems that require a large no. of steps or tasks
even if each task is simple they may all be important and missing any one can be disastrous
2. The checklist
studies in hospitals have found that using checklists for even a simple set of tasks can save lives as steps are often missed
the results were nothing short of miraculous
3: The end of the master builder
Checklists seem to be able to defend anyone against failure
Perhaps checklists have limits - it's necessary to determine what kinds of situations checklists can help with
3 types of different kinds of problems
1:Simple - Simple problems, they note, are ones like baking a cake from a mix. There is a recipe. Sometimes there are a few basic techniques to learn. But once these are mastered, following the recipe brings a high likelihood of success.
2: Complicated - Complicated problems are ones like sending a rocket to the moon. They can sometimes be broken down into a series of simple problems. But there is no straightforward recipe. Success frequently requires multiple people, often multiple teams, and specialized expertise. Unanticipated difficulties are frequent. Timing and coordination become serious concerns.
3: Complex - Complex problems are ones like raising a child. Once you learn how to send a rocket to the moon, you can repeat the process with other rockets and perfect it. One rocket is like another rocket. But not so with raising a child, the professors point out. Every child is unique. Although raising one child may provide experience, it does not guarantee success with the next child. Expertise is valuable but most certainly not sufficient. Indeed, the next child may require an entirely different approach from the previous one. And this brings up another feature of complex problems: their outcomes remain highly uncertain. Yet we all know that it is possible to raise a child well. It’s complex, that’s all.
Checklists definitely work well as FORCING FUNCTIONS in relatively straightforward situations
2 problems for complex actions -
First, how could they be sure that they had the right knowledge in hand?
Second, how could they be sure that they were applying this knowledge correctly?
4: The Idea
extremely complex situations require non centralized solutions with basic edicts but excellent communication between people on the ground
under conditions of complexity, not only are checklists a help, they are required for success. There must always be room for judgment, but judgment aided—and even enhanced—by procedure.
Goals From this book
learn a better method of completing complex projects
simplify my life
learn how to ensure success
5: The first try
Efforts should be - simple, measurable, transmissible
Checklist have to be clear simple unambiguous
Actions to take
Think of all places in my life that could be improved with checklists
create checklists
6: The checklist factory
Bad Checklists are - checklists are vague and imprecise. They are too long; they are hard to use; they are impractical. They are made by desk jockeys with no awareness of the situations in which they are to be deployed. They treat the people using the tools as dumb and try to spell out every single step. They turn people’s brains off rather than turn them on.
Good checklists are - are precise. They are efficient, to the point, and easy to use even in the most difficult situations. They do not try to spell out everything—a checklist cannot fly a plane. Instead, they provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps—the ones that even the highly skilled professionals using them could miss. Good checklists are, above all, practical.
When you’re making a checklist, Boorman explained, you have a number of key decisions.
You must define a clear pause point at which the checklist is supposed to be used (unless the moment is obvious, like when a warning light goes on or an engine fails).
You must decide whether you want a DO-CONFIRM checklist or a READ-DO checklist.
With a DO-CONFIRM checklist, he said, team members perform their jobs from memory and experience, often separately. But then they stop. They pause to run the checklist and confirm that everything that was supposed to be done was done.
With a READ-DO checklist, on the other hand, people carry out the tasks as they check them off—it’s more like a recipe. So for any new checklist created from scratch, you have to pick the type that makes the most sense for the situation.
The checklist cannot be lengthy. A rule of thumb some use is to keep it to between five and nine items, which is the limit of working memory. Boorman didn’t think one had to be religious on this point.
The wording should be simple and exact, Boorman went on, and use the familiar profession.
Even the look of the checklist matters. Ideally, it should fit on one page. It should be free of clutter and unnecessary colors. It should use both uppercase and lowercase text for ease of reading.
no matter how careful we might be, no matter how much thought we might put in, a checklist has to be tested in the real world, which is inevitably more complicated than expected.
Checklists are not comprehensive how-to guides, whether for building a skyscraper or getting a plane out of trouble. They are quick and simple tools aimed to buttress the skills of expert professionals. And by remaining swift and usable and resolutely modest, they are saving thousands upon thousands of lives.
7: The Test
checklists have to be adopted and tested
measures have to be kept and then improvements made incrementally based on the results and the feedback from the users
8: The hero in the age of the checklists
Using checklist you can improve your outcomes with no increase in skill
checklists can improve efficiency by formalizing a process
Checklists improve outcomes in all industries
they help people to not miss or skip important steps
a well designed checklist gets the dumb stuff out of the way so people can concentrate on the complex things
Even the simplest checklist requires frequent revisitation and ongoing refinement
9: The Save
correct use of checklists are able to catch things that would otherwise be missed