Checklist Manifesto Review

Hello All,

Just finished Atul Gawande’s Checklist Manifesto, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I know from the title it sounds like a geek book, but it’s a very fascinating look into how a simple device – the checklist – can greatly improve the quality of ones work. And yes, checklist as in Step 1, Step 2 etc. nothing more complex than that. As a surgeon most of the examples center around medical use, buy Gawande does an excellent job of bringing in business examples as well as examples from aviation where checklists are most notably used.

In the end checklists take time to develop and are always meant to be works in progress, but the gains from using them far outweigh the costs in time to develop and implement.  Again, a great read, not too heavy – if you’re looking for something light, informative and interesting go ahead and check this one out.

Available at Amazon.com

–Derek

Gamepads for Business?

Good Day Readers,

I came across this article on LifeHacker Using A Gamepad for Serious Business. In the post it describes a photographer who uses a gamepad for culling which adds a measure of fun to an otherwise boring process. As we all know making tasks fun leads to gains in productivity. This got me thinking – How could I use a gamepad to control some aspects of my day job. Sounds like a future software project to work on!

–Derek