Comments on: Checklist Manifesto

By: Dan Roddy

Dan Roddy — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 15:42:02 +0000

Great Post. It’s worth drawing direct attention to this checklist site that is linked from the bottom of the page you linked to – a great resource: http://www.projectcheck.org/

By: Miriam Phillips

Miriam Phillips — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:28:41 +0000

My team at work read this as our book club selection and when done created a checklist that has had significant impact to what we do! it’s been hard to find a book to follow this one!

By: Kay Wood

Kay Wood — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:13:29 +0000

Hear, hear. Atul Gawande wrote what in my mind is a manifesto. Checklists work in any field of endeavor and should be a part of every project plan. Breaking down a learning project into a series of checklists can actually work much better than using project planning software.

If you get a chance to read another of his books, Better, do. Gawande instructs on almost every page.

By: Hal Christensen

Hal Christensen — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:09:42 +0000

Clark, yes this is an outstanding book. Just the story about how checklists reduced, by 66%, the instances of hospital-induced infections in a group of Michigan hospitals, saving $175 million in costs and 1500 lives in only 18 months, is enough to make Gawande’s case. The book details even more work environments in which checklists have played a vital role–including Captain Sullenberger’s landing of his plane on the Hudson River.

What is surprising is that the book, which started out as a New Yorker article three years ago and became a NYTimes best seller a year and a half ago, has received almost no attention from the learning profession. Can anyone point to a training instance–formal, informal, virtual, social, eLearning, classroom, you name it–that has ever produced anywhere near the benefits that those elegant little Performance Support checklists have brought to hospital ICUs? I suggest that everyone read Gawande’s book and then imagine the impact your L&D department could have on your organization if it stopped defining its roles as feeders-of-the-LMS and instead aimed its talents at providing the knowledge and tools people need precisely when and where they need them in the workplace. Mind-changing indeed.

By: Kelly Smith

Kelly Smith — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:57:05 +0000

I loved this book. Atul Gawande is an eloquent writer and he respects his readers by citing a great deal of research (like the author of this blog). I spent time reading the research he mentions. Gawande looks beyond his experience and provides examples from other industries. In addition, he says something about teams with the details he provides on implementing the checklists.

By: Trina Rimmer

Trina Rimmer — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:30:55 +0000

Clark, I share in your enthusiasm for this book. Not only is it an engaging read, it really has refined and reshaped my approach to working with my clients. I’ve found the biggest obstacles to implementing checklists as performance support are 1) breaking through the assumption that the risk or cost associated with a performance problem must have an equally costly solution, 2) gaining buy-in for refinement. Checklists are so simple and yet, like any tool, they require some tweaking to make them truly useful.

Thanks for spreading the word!