A few weeks ago, I read The Success Equation by Michael J. Mauboussin. He said that checklists are an important part of improving your decision-making process for activities influenced by luck. He mentioned the different types of checklists and a book that dives deeper into them.

The references to checklists stuck with me and reminded me of what Charlie Munger said about checklists. (See the post I wrote about that here.) It also made me want to learn more about the reasons checklists are so powerful.

So I read Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, the book Mauboussin referenced. It delves into why checklists are used in industries such as aviation and construction. And why they’re effective at improving outcomes (and preventing disaster). A central point of the book is that the world is becoming more complex. It’s hard to remember everything, especially in high-pressure situations. Simple checklists help improve outcomes in complex situations by reducing errors of omission—missing important steps—and errors of ineptitude—failing to apply knowledge we already know. Going through a checklist forces consistency in how you think and what you do, preventing critical items from being overlooked or forgotten and thereby improving outcomes.

The book also describes the two main types of checklists and when it’s appropriate to use each: do-confirm—you perform tasks from memory and then verify them—and read-do— you follow steps, line by line, in high-stakes or unfamiliar situations.

An interesting note: the author is also a surgeon, so the book details his experience in trying to get hospitals around the globe to adopt surgical checklists (spoiler . . . checklists significantly reduce patient complications and death rates!).

I also found his research on the aviation industry, specifically the origins of why the industry instituted and relies heavily on checklists before takeoff and during emergencies, to be eye-opening.