Acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy to tackle immensely complex problems with the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. In riveting stories, Gawande takes us from Austria, where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim who had spent half an hour underwater, to Michigan, where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. And he follows the checklist revolution into fields well beyond medicine, from disaster response to investment banking, skyscraper construction and business of all kinds.