Legal Research

"Project Management (Part 14): The power of checklists"

This post was written by Jim Hassett: "In the business bestseller The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande makes a powerful case for the value of this simple project management tool. 

As the book jacket notes, "The volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded our ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people - consistently, correctly, and safely."  Checklists can solve this problem by addressing two problems that every busy expert faces: "The first is the fallibility of human memory and attention, especially when it comes to mundane routine matters that are easily overlooked under the strain of more pressing events....[The second] is that people can lull themselves into skipping steps, even when they remember them" (p. 36).

The book gives examples of the power of checklists ranging from flying the B-17 bomber (p. 34) to building skyscrapers (p. 54).  Since Gawande is an endocrine surgeon at the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, many of his examples relate to hospitals.  The most compelling story in the book describes a medical procedure commonly performed in intensive care units..."

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Source: Legal Business Development, 1 September 2010, reproduced with permission of the author.

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on September 01, 2010 (boomark / email).