The Checklist Manifesto

Notes from the book

• Chapter 1
• • Humans have to deal with information overload
• • Ignorance – not knowing something
• • Ineptitude – inability to apply something correctly. Incompetence hurts more

Chapter 2

• Checklists help
• When a new type of plane was introduced (B17) even the most experienced pilot made errors. Can be remedied with checklists
• Gaining experience and mastery is one dimension. Retaining knowledge/being diligent is not same as becoming good.
• Checklists fill the gap

Chapter 3

• Single master expert who tracks and makes decisions on several specialized verticals no longer works
• Communication and tracking between specialists helps in making decisions as a group.
• Checklists help in scheduling communication between specialists and also tracking ground up

Chapter 4

• Use checklists as a means to validate something has been done right. An example – Van Halen had a lengthy checklist for venues where they would go to perform. Sneak in a trivial but easy to verify item on the checklist (A bowl of M&Ms with no brown candies). If it has been carried out, you gain some confidence. Use it as a measure to determine thoroughness of verification necessary

Chapter 5

• Bad checklists don’t work
• Precise and concise checklists work
• Short checklists are useless
• Long checklists result in people taking shortcuts
• Checklists are not detailed how to guides

Chapter 6

• Make checklists for rare situations
• • READ-DO checklists that are recipes to follow

Make checklists for regular situations

• DO-CONFIRM checklists for checkpointing

Chapter 7

• Make following checklists non optional (in a non authoritarian way)
• Checklists need tweaking depending on environment or other factors even if accomplishing the same goal
• • Tailor checklists to target users

Chapter 8

• Checklists work across domains
• Even experts are not spared from mistakes
• Checklists are additional safety nets to ensure the obvious has not been overlooked
• Develop the discipline to adhere to good checklists

Chapter 9

• Checklists help