Zigging when you should have zagged: the clarity of hindsight

A month ago Abhijith Balakrishnan posted an apt quote (link below) about the tensions workers face between being thorough versus efficient in the moment (which Hollnagel coined as ETTO); often known only in hindsight which was more appropriate.

This reminded me of a few references in Perrow’s seminal Normal Accidents book, where he nicely referred to this tension with the idiom of zigging when you should have zagged.

Whether you subscribe or not to Normal Accident Theory, the book (and his follow-up work) have so much more to offer – in my view quite insightful and prescient in areas.

Source: Normal Accidents. (1999). Basic Books, NY. (PP 9, 174, 214)

Link to the LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_a-month-ago-abhijith-balakrishnan-posted-activity-7056387560591282177-ERzj?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Abhijith’s post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/abhijithbalakrishnan_maritime-etto-humanfactors-activity-7042662373295366144-6iQm?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

One thought on “Zigging when you should have zagged: the clarity of hindsight

Leave a comment