Engaging and enlightening - I've already begin constructing and editing checklists within my company and personal life - I highly, highly recommend this book. Best business book recently read.
I really enjoyed Dr. Gawande's book and thought it was an eye opener for the reasons why we need checklists in this modern time. He explores the use of checklists in surgery, construction, and aeronautics and lauds the value of lists in all these areas. I am a checklist fanatic myself and felt that he emphasized all the right angles as to why such tools are necessary. This book was easy to read, but sometimes, the dialogue gets very technical around surgery and anatomy terms. Not a problem if you are familiar with such things, but may be a bit heavy for those who are not.Overall, I rated this book high and felt it delivered on its promises. My only reservation in not giving it 5 stars was that I thought more energy would be spent on the checklist making process itself and this book is more of a philosophical endeavor into the benefits of making lists.
I have great appreciation for the insight shared here and hope to put it to some use.
Gawande makes a convincing case for a well-designed checklist lowering or eliminating the dependency on individual expertise and varied circumstance. The part that impressed me most was his argument that checklists designed the right way can dynamically change team performance by dispersing power away from the central authority figure (such as a surgeon). But Gawande also has a bit of Malcolm Gladwell Disease(tm), in which he tries to make too much out of his own cleverness in everyday things. For example, he acts surprised to learn about project management methodologies such as those used in skyscraper construction, which depend heavily on checklists. I can believe those ideas have never seen the inside of an operating room, but given the bureaucracies Gawande has worked with, is project management really new to him? He sometimes has that same annoying Gladwell-esque gobsmacked narrative of "I can't believe I (and, by 'I', I mean you, Dear Reader) was too stupid to see the truth and wisdom smacking me in the head". Needless to say, Gladwell fans will love it, and for good reason: like Gladwell's writing, Gawande's is a smooth, accessible style, just enough to provoke reflection while staying attentive to the flowing text. Unlike Gladwell, his writing is never smug, and Gawande is clearly motivated by a profoundly human issue (safe surgery). I imagine there will be a host of David Allen fans (such as myself) implementing Gawande-inspired checklists among their teams.
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).