Atul Gawande

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

EPISODE 183

Atul Gawande is a renowned American surgeon, writer, and public health leader. He was a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker magazine and has written four New York Times best-selling books: The Checklist Manifesto, was Gawande's third book, The released in 2009. It discusses the importance of organization and preplanning (such as thorough checklists) in both medicine and the larger world. The Checklist Manifesto reached the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list in 2010.

He is also a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He has won the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science, a MacArthur Fellowship, and two National Magazine Awards.

INTRO

Atul Gawande introduces us to the idea of checklists making experts better, and teams closer

  • The value of checklists (3m26)

IMPORTANCE AND DIFFICULTY OF CHECKLISTS

Atul discusses why checklists and systems seem to be a different path to what we are used to, as it forces different values to what we’re used to

  • Resistance to checklists (1m55)

Atul tells the story of medical teams working together, step-by-step like a pit crew, in order to save a life

The Frozen Girl (4m02)

SET GOALS

Brain from Optimize tells Atul’s story of Van Halen, and how daily checklists help us deliver a higher level of excellence

  • Brown M&Ms (2m55)

OUTRO

Atul closes the show by revealing we need a different way of thinking to make ourselves better

  • Accept your fallibility (2m54)

READING LIST

  1. The Checklist Manifesto