--- title: Atul Gawande: The Building Industry’s Strategy for Getting Things Right in Complexity description: Checklists establish a higher level of baseline performance canonical: https://time.com/3773815/getting-things-right-checklist/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-27T11:00:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:19:59.077Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Atul Gawande: The Building Industry’s Strategy for Getting Things Right in Complexity og:description: Checklists establish a higher level of baseline performance og:url: https://time.com/3773815/getting-things-right-checklist/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13bfcaf2e3ff092a/698786f6a988ca6fd66ad427/170410703-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: construction-site-checklist og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Atul Gawande: The Building Industry’s Strategy for Getting Things Right in Complexity twitter:description: Checklists establish a higher level of baseline performance twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13bfcaf2e3ff092a/698786f6a988ca6fd66ad427/170410703-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Atul Gawande: The Building Industry’s Strategy for Getting Things Right in Complexity by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Apr 27, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  High angle view of tradesman and architect discussing work order at construction site High angle view of tradesman and architect discussing work order at construction siteGetty Images by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Apr 27, 2015 11:00 AM UTC A useful reminder from Atul Gawande, in [The Checklist Manifesto](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312430000/farnamstreet-20): --- > “” --- \*\*\* How you employ the checklist is also important. In the face of complexity most organizations tend to centralize decisions, which reduces the risk for egregious error. The costs to this approach are high too. Most employees loathe feeling like they need a hall pass to use the washroom. That’s why these next comments were so inspiring. --- > “” --- **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/)**_._** **Join over 50,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3773815/getting-things-right-checklist/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3773815/getting-things-right-checklist/"},"headline":"Atul Gawande: The Building Industry’s Strategy for Getting Things Right in Complexity","datePublished":"2015-04-27T11:00:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:19:59.077Z","description":"Checklists establish a higher level of baseline performance","url":"https://time.com/3773815/getting-things-right-checklist/","keywords":["Psychology","Innovation"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13bfcaf2e3ff092a/698786f6a988ca6fd66ad427/170410703-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shane Parrish","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13bfcaf2e3ff092a/698786f6a988ca6fd66ad427/170410703-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"construction-site-checklist","caption":"construction-site-checklist","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/psychology/","name":"Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3773815/getting-things-right-checklist/","name":"Atul Gawande: The Building Industry’s Strategy for Getting Things Right in Complexity"}}]}] ```