The checklist manifesto By Atul Gawandeef

The Checklist Manifesto

By Atul Gawandeef

I enjoy living near a library for on a rainy weekend, or a sunny day on the beach, you can grab a book and learn something new. This weekend I picked up The Checklist Manifesto. It's a quick read but an interesting read. It has a few insights that might be worthwhile - some gleaned from reviews. The book focuses on usage of checklists in relation to a problem that afflicts virtually every aspect of the modern world – how professionals deal with the increasing complexity of their responsibilities  of daily and professional life

Gawande suggests that people tend to fail for two main reasons. The first is ignorance – having only a partial understanding of the task in front of us. The second is ineptitude – instances where we have the knowledge but we fail to apply it correctly.

But it’s not ignorance that leads to mistakes in today’s world. We have access to more and more information and our knowledge base is growing every day in every field. It’s the complexity of our world that is making it more difficult to deploy our knowledge predictably and routinely - like a weekly preprint or massive catalog. We need a strategy that builds on experience and takes advantage of the immense knowledge we all have in our brains, and in our hands, but also makes up for our inevitable human inadequacies

As the complexity of the challenges, problems, and tasks we face increases, we can’t just rely on memory or our “routine” to help us perform at the highest level. Gawande points out that, “[checklists] remind us of the minimum necessary steps and make them explicit. They not only offer the possibility of verification but also instill a kind of discipline of higher performance.”

Gawande offers some tips for building good checklists:

Make them precise.

They should be efficient, to the point, and easy to use even in the most difficult situations.

Do not try to spell out everything.

Provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps – the ones that even highly skilled professionals using them could miss.

Above all, make sure they are practical.

“…Under conditions of complexity, not only are checklists a help, they are required for success. There must always be room for judgment, but judgment aided – and even enhanced – by procedure.”  

I“We have an opportunity before us, not just in medicine, but in virtually any endeavor. Even the most expert among us can gain from searching out the patterns of mistakes and failures and putting a few checks in place. But will we do it? Are we ready to grab onto the idea?”,

Here are three suggestions on how we can implement checklists more effectively:

1. Identify areas of opportunity: What areas of your business could benefit from a checklist? How could you begin to reduce the number of mindless mistakes that lead to unhappy customers, failed execution, or even something far worse?

2. Check your ego: Throughout the entire book, ego more than anything seems to be the largest obstacle to implementing checklists. Remember, they are not intended to undermine your intelligence or ability. They are a tool to combat the increasingly complex nature of our lives.

3. Curate: Not everything requires a checklist, nor are they effective for every situation. The key is using them only in the most essential places and to be diligent about making them practical and precise.

Make a checklist!

Personally I phase in and out of check list usage . If you are going to be driven by adherence to a checklist then I am a true believer that said  check list must be curated.

A Man Called "Ove" . Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove.  Fredrik Backman

Ove (Golf Lassgård) is the quintessential angry old man next door. An isolated retiree with strict principles and a short fuse, who spends his days enforcing rules that only he cares about, and visiting his wife's grave, Ove has given up on life.

“Unless you are simply opposed on principle to feeling uplifted by a mordantly humorous melodrama, you will dab your sad old eyes at "A Man...”
You’d be impressed with me if you realized how hard it is for me to read for more than 5 minutes at a time and crank out a book like in days gone by, quickly consumed. So I fidget and stir and hop round to stick together creating continuity, of a type. But I flew thru Ove.

Even though it made me cry at the end – I enjoyed it, recommend it, and say let’s discuss when you are done.

The novel definitely has insight into relationships and finding a match – catch this quote:

“She liked talking and Ove liked keeping quiet; retrospectively Ove assumed that was what people meant when they said that people were compatible.”

Or who can’t love this kind of writing

 “Ove stares back at it with a suspicion normally reserved for a cat that has rung his doorbell with a Bible in its paws like a Jehovah Witness”

“Death is a strange thing… Some need it’s constant presence to even be aware of its antithesis. Others become so preoccupied with it but they go into the waiting room long before it has announced its arrival. We fear it yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.”

“One of the most painful moments in a persons life probably comes with the insight that an age has been reached when there is more to look back on than ahead."

“Acknowledgment – my father. Because I hope I am unlike you in the smallest possible number of ways. “(that’s also me speaking of my dad)

It is a bizarre odd book – very Scandinavian, very adapting to the changes that come with aging and death, very learning to embrace a wide array of “who is my neighbor” - Just what I like to read.

Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobe.

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobe.

I picked up the book for two reasons. 1) Sobe wrote Longitude , several years ago which I enjoyed. 2) point of view of the gifted, scientific daughter was a different approach.

It turned out to be less about the daughter and more about Galileo. It spoke of his trial,  and  the supporting evidence of his genuine  interest in keeping his faith in God through his discoveries . Personally, I did not need another book about Galileo, so I skipped and jumped. Ok read,  but not great; I was looking for something different.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. by Anne Fadiman

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. The first segment of the title describes epilepsy described in Hmong; the subordinate clause overviews the storyline – the conflict between the immigrant culture and the dominant institutions.

Brigham introduced me and I chose to read given 3 yrs intensive + 6 yrs active involvement with the Minnesota Laotian community; added upon with 4 years intense Haitians in Florida. Sherwin Nuland said of the account, "There are no villains in Fadiman's tale, just as there are no heroes. People are presented as she saw them, in their humility and their frailty--and their nobility." Its a tragedy of epic proportion. People who have life and death needs to successfully communicate never effectively succeed; instead they build fences where bridges are needed.

All who interact with differing cultures benefit from learning to listen with perspective of understanding the foundation of differences and the possibilities of commonalities.

Page 261

“If you can’t see that your own culture has its own set of interest emotions and biases how can you expect to be a successful with someone else’s culture”

If the first encounter between Lees and the doctors had asked a different set of questions and trust each other; results might’ve been different.

The following are examples of questions that might be extrapolated to other situations – not the exact same questions for yours.

1 – What do you call the problem

2 – What do you think has caused the problem

3 – Why do you think it started when it did

4 – What do you think this sickness does; how does it work

5 – How severe is the sickness will it have a short term and long term effect

6 – What kind of treatment do you think the patient should receive what are the most important result you hope she receives from the treatment

7- What are the chief problem is the sickness has caused

8 – What do you fear most about the sickness

Upon reflection I realized my first relevant experience went back to when I was 18-21. My first college roommate was a great guy from Calgary Alberta Canada. His family very much like mine - demographics, education, religion, financial and social orientation. He was definitely more like me than the other dorm freshmen from Idaho and Utah. With the latter there was a cultural gap but my perception of Canadians they were very much like me. So I assumed that most people in Quebec Canada will be like my roommate from Alberta Canada. Perception and my understanding of Canadians remembered experience in college burst when I had a Quebecois companion - we couldn’t be more different : raised in an orphanage, private Catholic school, very poor, uneducated and illiterate. Those externals were the tip of the iceberg of differences in culture and lifestyle. In my case uncovering my assumptions led to an entire fresh view of Quebecois and Canadians.

The book is from 1997, the lessons are too late for Lia and those Hmong among us then, but now? For you, and me, perhaps we can learn and improve how we interact, perceive, (judge?) but definitely accept and understand. Read the book if you need clear illustration of the issues, gaffes and gaps that can be created in cultures coming together.

Creative Quest. Questlove

Creative Quest. Questlove

I spent significant parts of my career leading, guiding, and directing creative resources and processes. It is where I found the “jazz” in a career of marketing as opposed to pursuing a legal career. As in most things I have done, once setting myself to the plow I have studied and prepared myself to be good at it; to have a comprehension enough to make a difference. This has led me to a variety of authors and books / essays on creative and the creative process. I believe creative process is like day planners – there are many approaches and plans but there is not a ONE and ONLY; what works for you is what works. There is no shortage of books and theories on creativity. You need to discover, create, curate the process that best works for you and leverage or ignore the others. That being said, its a book full of ideas and ‘tips”. (I hate the word ‘tips’. It diminishes the importance of an idea.) For me the book was meaningful if only to get me to the last chapter No End – Lifelongering / Persisting. Questlove’s take on enduring to the end.

"creativity is a lifelong endeavor. Practice may or may not be perfect, which is why you should never stop practicing."

And I had to read this because I love his name. It reminds me of CrossLove, one of the YM in Delray Beach. I have long been aware of Questlove, though it has only been of recent years that I have become aware of the breadth of his brilliance. I knew of his Hip Hop career, didn't know he was leading edge; knew of his cooking expertise and had even shared his book on cooking with Parker. His writing style isn't great litterateur but it is accessible, readable and effectively communicates. He speaks of old favorite creative starter processes like OppoScales and Start with the end in mind - Beginning with the newspaper article acknowledging the successful launch of XXX and Sticking to your guns. He brings new light to Making your environment reflective of your taste, Widen your circle, Seek out boredom and embrace it; Embrace the things that scare you and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Its worthy of a quick read, And if you have never read a book on the creative process – go find another flame and spark additional fires. Try The Six Thinking Hats of Creative Communication by Edward De Bono

“ With the help (or hindrance of) the online world, the brain is more a hunter- gatherer and less a farmer”.

‘Sometimes you hear from a company that a certain work doesn’t have an audience. That's not true. It has an audience ,,, its a matter of finding them.’

“ creativity is one of the few human endeavors where you can crash your plane and walk away from it”David Bowie.

“Always stay within sight of healthy competition.”

when you lower your cognitive inhibitions, “more information enters into your conscious mind, which you can then tinker with and recombine. The result: creative ideas.” Harvard psychologist Shelley Carson

"copying, over covering, is always a valuable exercise.”

“Healthy habits keep you connected to the source of your ideas but you should also keep at it when you are older well after you retired from whatever profession. “

“How to maintain a youthful perspective

- Trying to eat well.

- Keeping the company younger people

- laugh

- Don’t stop going down a flight of stairs just because it hurts a little when to start stopping - you’re on your way to shutting down entirely

“You have to keep going, you have to take the stairs even if they hurt you realizing it’s a long game rather than a short ...to understand the passage of time and give you perspective not only on your own work but on your own identity”

“...Not acknowledge the ways in which age limits your move into the world”

It is about finding your own unique way of fitting into the continually repeating human experience nothing you do is new but you can still be new within that realization

The Eight Mountains. by Paolo Cognetti

The Eight Mountains. by Paolo Cognetti

Uniquely describes the relationship between people of the mountains, people drawn to mountains like a moth to a flame, mountains physical the space, and Mountain communities. Or it’s a book on relationships And the different manifestations of love and relationship between

father/son , husband /wife, friend/ friend, mother/son and man/man as it ebbs and flows over time.

I always have said Minnesota could use a mountain. Just plunk it past Burnsville. Here in Florida you could throw one down in the Keys. In either case mountains anchor the landscape and provide you with the sense of direction, or perhaps orientation, or purhaps a breeze, or perhaps serenity.

I enjoyed it on several levels:

-the necessity of having an expertise in a craft,

- the necessity of having a singular focused passion

-How effective am I in communicating in my relationships

- a well told story in evocative language

“Each of us has a favorite altitude in the mountains, a Landscape that resembles us, where we feel best"

“Was a man who seem to be Marked by his own worst inner thoughts as if they were carved there in his features”

“... The sense of guilt ruined any pleasure there might have been in doing “

“it was impossible to convey what it feels like up there to those who stayed below”

The Seabirds Cry: the lives and loves of the planets great ocean voyagers. Adam Nicholson

The Seabirds Cry: the lives and loves of the planets great ocean voyagers. Adam Nicholson

A beautiful exploration of 10 species of seabirds – and the threats they face. “a poetic, soaring exploration of 10 species of seabirds”: Fulmar, Puffin, Kittiwake, Gull, Guillemot, Gannet , Commorant, Shearwater, Great Auk, Albatross – which revels in the way they “float like beings from the otherworld”; "They are bringers of fertility, the deliverers of life from ocean to land."

Their population dropping by nearly 70% in the last sixty years, a billion fewer now than there were in 1950.

What is to be done:

1— better understanding in the state of the world seabirds

2—their breeding places need to be protected from people and predatory animals

3—tighter controls involved in all kinds of fishing vessels

4—for control the rate at which we are changing in the atmosphere in the ocean (global warming)

I like birds. I like observing them in the morning at the Wakodahatchee wetlands here in Florida. I’m concerned about our world and the depletion of BIRDS of all types. It’s a well written, interesting book particularly if you want to know more about these specific species, and if you need the slightest increased motivation to act in BIRDS and the EARTH’S defense.

I find it interesting my circle of books has been fairly narrow of late:
Institutional Racism - what we need to do
Global Warming  & Nature - what we need to do
Receiving, Identifying  & Acting Upon Promptings  - what we need to do  

Breaking out of the mold this week and reading a couple of books that my eldest granddaughter is reading so that she and I can chat about them. It will be fun  next up -The Adventures of Max Crumbly. 

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The Book of Phoenix. Nnedi Okorafor

The Book of Phoenix Nnedi Okorafor

I heard of Okorafor upon listening to one of her short stories being reason Levar Burton Reads podcast. It was part fantasy, part "powerful, memorable, superhuman women", it was all enjoyable. I approached this book with high expectations and was not disappointed.

The Book of Phoenix is a unique work of magical futurism- combining mythology, science and fantasy. It features the rise of, what I guess is to be expected from Nnedi Okorafor, a powerful, memorable, superhuman woman. Phoenix was grown and raised among other genetic experiments in New York’s Tower 7. She is an “accelerated woman”—she comes to a realization of who she is and what she can accomplish and in so doing becomes 'the Phoenix "that rises from the ash and changes ( redesigns) the world.

I think it foreshadows, part of what may be our future if we do not address institutional racism, other legacy issues that can arise in fighting the historic and ongoing exploitation of those deemed "less".

An insightful, engaging and a contributing read in my efforts to expand my understanding and treatment of others and wrestling with institutional racism.

Redskins: Insult and Brand . C. Richard King

Redskins: Insult and Brand .   C. Richard King

examines how the ongoing struggle over the team name raises important questions about how white Americans perceive American Indians, and the market and cultural power of consumer marketing. 

The Washington Redskins franchise is still one of the  most valuable in professional sports partially  because of its recognizable, popular, and profitable brand. Despite the indisputable fact that "redskins” is a derogatory, institutional racist, historically offensive name for American Indians. It has been the foundation of their branding efforts. As a brand marketer the correlation seems readily apparent. And I can understand their desire to hold it close.

The number of campaigns to change the name has risen in recent years despite the current team owner’s assertion that the team will never do change. Franchise owners counter criticism by arguing that the team name is positive and a term of respect and honor that many American Indians embrace. The NFL, for its part, actively defends the name and supports it in court. It is difficult for me to read this, other books, and articles and not come to the conclusion that the name and logo should, must be, changed. The marketers logic does not over power the necessity to be civil.

Not a particularly well written book. Full of redundancies and weak language , yet a compulsive accumulation of data. Worth reading. Worthy more to act upon.

Binti. Nnedi Okorafor

Binti. Nnedi Okorafor

It has fantasy and math, aliens and space ships, war and love, women taking lead society defining roles, and the good guys being African centric and people. It isn't often that I read to books from the same author in such close proximity to each other but part of the variable is when the library makes them available to me through the reservation process.

This was the third book in a trilogy sequence.

I didn't feel bad about skipping the first two; I pretty sure I should not invest the time for all three. But to read One how Fun!

Go read it, enjoy the story, enjoy the power of this author to convey the power of Binti - a woman , hero, a force to be dealt with.