“Punishing is about keeping our beliefs in a basically safe system intact. Learning is about changing these beliefs, and changing the system”
An interesting extract from Sid Dekker’s 2001 article ‘Disinheriting Fitts and Jones `47’.
Summary in a week or two – but if you’ve read his later SafetyDifferently article ‘Is it 1947 yet?’, then you’ll know the gist of this.
In this extract he argues:
· Blame and fear limits the spread of bad news “if the fear of punishment is hanging over their heads”
· It’s an illusion to believe that we can punish and learn at the same time
· “Punishing is about keeping our beliefs in a basically safe system intact. Learning is about changing these beliefs, and changing the system”
· “Punishing is about seeing the culprits as unique parts of the failure. Learning is about seeing the failure as a part of the system”
Ref: Dekker, S. (2001). Disinheriting Fitts and Jones’ 47. International Journal of Aviation Research and Development, 1(1), p7-18.
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