Nirvana http://www.nigamanth.net/blog Anything under the sun.. Sun, 25 Apr 2010 12:16:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Atul Gawande’s Better – A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance http://www.nigamanth.net/blog/?p=3 http://www.nigamanth.net/blog/?p=3#comments Sun, 25 Apr 2010 12:07:40 +0000 nigam http://www.nigamanth.net/blog/?p=3 I chanced upon this book by luck – I have been searching for a copy of “The Checklist Manifesto” by Dr. Gawande for weeks now. None of the bookshops seem to carry it but ‘Blossoms’ on Church Street had two of his older books – “Complications” and “Better”.

Boy, am I glad I picked this one up ! Dr. Gawande walks us through the complexities, resource and performance issues that the doctors face and how they can overcome the odds to be a positive deviant.  The book is segmented into three sections, the three core requirements Dr. Gawande believes are necessary to improve performance :

  1. Diligence, giving sufficient attention to detail to avoid error and prevail against obstacles
  2. To do right, covering ethics and human failings
  3. Ingenuity, thinking anew.

The ease with which Dr. Gawande conveys his incisive thoughts is very pleasing. It makes you think about how these principles relate to your profession as well. All the chapters start with specific cases that Dr. Gawande has encountered in his career and are backed by meticulous research and statistics to prove how simple little things can alter performance drastically. The sections covering the Indian healthcare system was an eye-opener for me.

Finally, he offers five suggestions to be a positive deviant

  1. Ask an unscripted question
  2. Don’t complain
  3. Count Something
  4. Write Something
  5. Change

A highly recommended read ! Now I can’t wait to read his latest book “The Checklist Manifesto”.

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