The Checklist Manifesto

How to Get Things Right

By: Atul Gawande

Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd

Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times best-selling author of Being Mortal and Complications reveals the surprising power of the ordinary checklist.

We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies - neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. First introduced decades ago by the US Air Force, checklists have enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors and nurses respond to everything from flu epidemics to avalanches. Even in the immensely complex world of surgery, a simple 90-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third.

In riveting stories, Gawande takes us from Austria, where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim who had spent half an hour underwater, to Michigan, where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. He explains how checklists actually work to prompt striking and immediate improvements. And he follows the checklist revolution into fields well beyond medicine, from homeland security to investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds.

An intellectual adventure in which lives are lost and saved and one simple idea makes a tremendous difference, The Checklist Manifesto is essential listening for anyone working to get things right.

©2009 Atul Gawande (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

Great insight well told

I really loved the passion that goes into advocating a very simple concept: Check lists.

Great examples.

Good information, sub-par reader

Terrible accents make this audible difficult to concentrate on the content. Reading this book would have been more enjoyable. Good content for short 45 minute reads, interesting different concepts with each section.

Discipline

When failure isn't an option, you must follow a plan! Great read with many examples that should convince you to adopt a checklist strategy!

Simply awesome

This was one of the best books I've read in quite some time! Everyone should read this... I actually cried at a few points of how this can impact human lives... Simply awesome!

A simple truth, elegantly documented

Here is your super-abridged version of this book: "Checklists are awesome. Use them". But even though you now know the point of the material, you will still find reading this book extremely enlightening. Careful documentation of human fallibility, and examples from numerous disciplines as to how checklists can improve life and save lives make for a great read that will have you looking for ways to incorporate them into your own life.

Superb narration by Mr. Lloyd as well.

wow this is one of my top finds on audible

This was an easy listen with some intense stories and key lessons teaching how checklists can improve adjust any walk of life. It also gives practical examples of how to apply checklists effectively. My only complaint is the key lessons could have been condensed into a much shorter book.

loved the tactics and analysis

This is in the canon. Amazing concepts read by a truly professional narrator. Short one star on story for heavy anecdotes or “fluff” in between the more actionable stuff.

Highly recommend

I’ll be giving this to each of my employees from here on out. Excellent book.

Very motivating to be disciplined

This book highlights how check lists can save lives and disasters from happening. I am so motivated to implement check lists in my business after hearing all the impacting stories in this book.

Great concepts! great ideas!

I really enjoyed this book. The concept of simplicity in work keeps coming up in every book I read and this one just hammered that idea home.