Definition
A communication checklist is a list of mandatory conversations rather than mandatory steps. It specifies who has to talk to whom by when about what, but it does not specify the decision. Its archetype is the construction industry's submittal schedule — a parallel checklist to the construction schedule that handles the complex, non-routine parts of building. Gawande generalises it from skyscrapers to surgery, where the WHO checklist's pre-incision team briefing is its operational form.
Where a task checklist is a forcing function for simple problems (the steps are well-defined, missing one is the failure), a communication checklist is a forcing function for complex problems (each instance is unique, no individual has enough information, the failure mode is gaps between experts).
Why it matters
How it works
The instrument has three parts.
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A list of cross-discipline integration risks — every place where two specialties' work must combine and where a missed conversation is historically costly (elevator engineers and structural engineers on floor settling; surgeons and anaesthesiologists on patient airway risk; security and platform engineers on a release).
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For each risk, a named meeting with a deadline — by the 25th, contractor + elevator engineer; before incision, surgeon + anaesthesia + nursing brief together. The list specifies the participants, the topic, and the date, not the outcome.
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A confirmation step — a check that the conversation happened, often automatically generated by the tracking system (the construction industry's Project Center; software incident-management tools).
The communication checklist's deep premise is the construction industry's principle: man is fallible, but maybe men are less so. Integrated expert judgement, when structurally required, is more reliable than any one expert's judgement alone.