The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

"Yes, that’s been out there for quite a while, as you know. But it’s just such a classic. Atul—who is a great guy, a super smart, major well-known surgeon in the US—quite simply said, ‘Pilots have checklists, but surgeons don’t.’ The reason is that the pilots are in the plane, right. So I guess if you were operating on yourself, you’d be pretty damn well sure you had a checklist because you’re experiencing the effects of that. Just the simplest kinds of things—surgeons neglecting to wash their hands, for example. Atul is really talking about how absolutely powerful checklists are, and I think he makes a very creative point: that checklists are not just some static, boring thing. They actually allow you to do excellent work and free up your brain by not having to keep remembering what you need to do when. That then allows your brain to be a lot more creative about whatever it is you’re doing. As an example—well, for instance, do you like to cook? Yeah, ever read recipes? Yeah, so that’s a checklist, you read the recipe. But I’ll bet you don’t stick to it. Right, but it gives you the freedom to be creative and spontaneous and do really cool stuff. Right, right. You need some sort of a checklist. I mean, I’ve got tons of checklists. You could call anything a checklist. Your calendar is a checklist. What do you need to check to know where you need to be when, and to locate yourself in space and time? So everything, every kind of a list that’s a reminder list, is some sort of a checklist. Even your someday-maybe stuff. Even the food I might want to cook at some point, books I might want to read at some point, movies I might want to see, cities I might want to visit, et cetera. Those are all checklists. Anybody who thinks checklists are boring and unnecessary—oh, come on, do you even have a calendar? You’re already admitting that your brain can’t do it, and that you need some external reminder to allow you to feel comfortable about where you are and what you’re doing."