Atul Gawande argues that adopting checklists requires embracing values like humility, discipline, and teamwork. He uses an anecdote about modern cowboys who rely on protocols, electronic communication, and checklists to manage large cattle drives, and broadens the point: making systems work (in healthcare, education, climate, poverty) is a central task for current generations of professionals and society.
Just using a checklist requires you to embrace different values from ones we've had, like humility, discipline, teamwork. I met an actual cowboy, by the way. I asked him, what was it like to actually herd a thousand cattle across hundreds of miles? How did you do that? And he said, we have the cowboys stationed at distinct places all around. They communicate electronically constantly, and they have protocols and checklists for how. How they handle everything from bad weather to emergencies or inoculations for the cattle. Even the cowboys are pit crews now, and it seemed like time that we become that way ourselves. Making systems work is the great task of my generation of physicians and scientists. But I would go further and say that making systems work, whether in healthcare, education, climate change, making a pathway out of poverty, is the great task of our generation as a whole.
Remember me? Subscribe To My Channel For More Free Business Systems Content 📈
