I have been listening to the Checklist Manefesto book by Dr.Atul Gawande. I have to say I am really digging it. Written by a surgeon about how we as humans overcome our ineptitudes by becoming disciplined and by creating checklists and by relying on team wisdom to make complex decisions. I can relate to this, I believe very strongly that once a good team gels together any complexity can be overcome, it is not blind faith but a measured observation of how great teams work. They communicate, create checklists, supplement one another and collectively work to achieve insurmountable odds. Putting a man on moon, constructing skyscrapers, brain and heart surgery, building complex machinery etc we should take time to look back and see how we as a human race have overcome incredible odds to survive as a species…despite our incompetence, wars, prejudice, fallibilities and epistemic arrogance and black swan events.
If you are building a startup or if you are an entrepreneur, I would highly encourage you to read the book. Building a company is a complex task and without yourself being disciplined and following disciplined process, you cannot build a disciplined team that is empowered to execute, make decisions and create value.
Related articles
- Atul Gawande in The New Yorker (psphlibrary.wordpress.com)
- Making A List, Checking It Off (artoftroubleshooting.com)
- Checklists, eptitude, how to get things right – Atul Gawande (vielmetti.typepad.com)
- Is there proof that “people talking to people” yields tangible results? (cdalisteningproject.wordpress.com)
- Atul Gawande (englishablog.wordpress.com)
- How do we fix medicine? Atul Gawande at TED2012 (ted.com)
