A recent discussion prompted the question of what is and is not Safety-II – or really any other facet of the adaptive philosophies. Here you’ll find several extracts from the research covering definitions, key concepts and more. Check out my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@safe_as_pod?si=sZmhFw3gB3ubXjzK Safety-I, Safety-II, HOP, Safety Differently, New View and Safety-III** A recent discussion… Continue reading Research Compendium: Definitions: Safety-II, Resilience Engineering, HOP, New View, Safety Differently (update: 01/26)
Mini-Comp: Psychosocial Risks / Mental-Ill Health / Psychological Injury
“wHeRe iS tHe eViDeNcE fOr pSyChOsOcIaL risks?!1?!11” I can’t be bothered repeatedly linking to the dozens of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the connections between psychosocial factors and various indices of health, safety, and organizational performance on LinkedIn. So, I’m just compiling a few into a mini-collection. WAY WAY WAY too much to systematically cover… Continue reading Mini-Comp: Psychosocial Risks / Mental-Ill Health / Psychological Injury
Compendium: Rules / Procedures / Procedural Departure / Writing Procedures
This mini-compendium covers a range of papers talking generally about rules and procedures. This includes the role, benefits and risks of rules, writing better rules incorporating HF/E and human-centred design, some literature specifically on workarounds, and then papers on rule departures and more. Feel free to shout a coffee (one-off or recurring monthly) if you’d… Continue reading Compendium: Rules / Procedures / Procedural Departure / Writing Procedures
Compendium: An ode to Andrew Hopkins & Andrew Hale
Two researchers & authors who have had a big impact on my practice and thinking are Andrew Hale and Andrew Hopkins. Thankfully, I was exposed to their work right at the start of my safety career. Why two Andrews? Why not three? I don’t know. Just two people who influenced my thinking around the same… Continue reading Compendium: An ode to Andrew Hopkins & Andrew Hale
Compendium: Leadership / Safety Leadership / Leaders Behaving Badly / Followership
Here’s a mini-compendium of research surrounding leadership, safety leadership and followership. NOT systematic – there’s way too much to cover in this space. Focus is on the links between leadership attributes / interventions on indices of performance. The other focus is on studies I’ve either summarised or could locate a full-text link for. ** For… Continue reading Compendium: Leadership / Safety Leadership / Leaders Behaving Badly / Followership
Compendium: Cultural approaches to safety / Safety Culture / Safety Climate / Org Culture
It’s no secret that I’m relatively cautious of ‘Safety Culture’. (** At least, I fall more into the interpretative, than functionalist, camp). Nevertheless, I get the question of evidence often, so here it is. A compendium of studies focused on organisational culture, culture of safety, safety culture and safety climate. Because there’s so many studies… Continue reading Compendium: Cultural approaches to safety / Safety Culture / Safety Climate / Org Culture
Compendium: Evidence For Safety Interventions (meta-analyses, systematic reviews)
Does ‘safety’ work? What is the evidence supporting the stuff we do? This mini-compendium collects several meta-analyses and systematic reviews surrounding the evidence of safety interventions on performance measures. Focus is primarily on incident/injury rather than health; nor psychosocial, safety climate & culture, HF/E, or leadership (those will be covered another time). Also haven’t focused… Continue reading Compendium: Evidence For Safety Interventions (meta-analyses, systematic reviews)
Compendium: Complex systems, sociotechnical, system safety
This mini-compendium covers some areas of systems thinking and complex adaptive systems, mostly with a focus on safety and risk. There are so many threads in the systems fields: systems thinking, systems engineering, systems safety, complexity, chaos, complex adaptive systems, cybernetics, variations thereof and more. Hence, I can’t cover them all, so it’s a highly… Continue reading Compendium: Complex systems, sociotechnical, system safety
Compendium: SIFs, Major Hazards, Fatal & Traumatic hazards, risks
This is an expansion to my prior compendium on Critical Controls, Barriers and Energy thinking. Suggest you read that in conjunction to this, link here: Barriers, Critical Controls, Verifications, Energy Models If you’re after indicators check this mini-compendium out: Safety & Risk Performance indicators (lead, lag, drive, process safety + more) This compendium focuses on articles… Continue reading Compendium: SIFs, Major Hazards, Fatal & Traumatic hazards, risks
Compendium of Nancy Leveson: STAMP, STPA, CAST and Systems Thinking
Although I don’t often mention or post about Leveson’s work, she’s probably been the most influential thinker on my approach after Barry Turner. So here is a mini-compendium covering some of Leveson’s work. Feel free to shout a coffee if you’d like to support the growth of my site: Check out my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@safe_as_pod?si=sZmhFw3gB3ubXjzK… Continue reading Compendium of Nancy Leveson: STAMP, STPA, CAST and Systems Thinking
Compendium: Sleep & Fatigue Risk Management
Here’s an assortment of papers on sleep and occupational fatigue. Focus is on articles I’ve summarised or full-text I could locate. A few themes are covered: Sleep & Fatigue Fatigue impairment vs BAC / accidents / error Shiftwork design & research / Fatigue Risk Management Systems Fatigue codes and guidelines Fatigue as a performance shaping… Continue reading Compendium: Sleep & Fatigue Risk Management
Mini-Compendium: Psychological Safety
Given the prominence of Psychological Safety (PS), it’s worth sharing some research. It’s likely among the most studied modern concepts in organisational theory – so I can barely scratch the surface. Focus first is articles I’ve summarised, and then on any other full-text items I can find. In my haste, I’ve probably included some psychological… Continue reading Mini-Compendium: Psychological Safety
Mini-Compendium: Power, Safety, Authority Gradients, and the Power of Elites
Here’s some articles, mostly full-text links, exploring power within organisations. Includes broader social power, power gradients, voice, and more. Feel free to shout me a coffee if you’d like to support the growth of my site: Check out my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@safe_as_pod?si=sZmhFw3gB3ubXjzK Full-Text Articles [Below link will say ‘Discursive effects of safety science’. Download it… Continue reading Mini-Compendium: Power, Safety, Authority Gradients, and the Power of Elites
Foresights before disaster: An ode to Barry Turner
So while I don’t often explicitly refer to the late Barry Turner’s work on LinkedIn or regularly post his articles, he’s been the most influential researcher on my own work and is tacitly embedded in my language and thinking. If you’ve heard of Man-Made Disasters, disaster incubation, perceptual horizon, decoy phenomena, failures of foresight (and… Continue reading Foresights before disaster: An ode to Barry Turner
Compendium: Learning and improvement without incidents
Here’s a mini-compendium of…well, probably a lot of stuff with only a tenuous link to ‘learning’. I tried to focus on learning that doesn’t require incidents, but you’ll find those here, too. There’s >100 articles, mostly full-text. I think I went overboard. Unfortunately, it’s barely sorted. It includes: Learning from success and failure Learning models… Continue reading Compendium: Learning and improvement without incidents
Mini-Compendium: Investigations & Corrective Action Limitations / Bias / Underreporting
This compendium covers a few elements of investigations, investigation limitations and biases, priming, underreporting and more. Because of the breadth of these topics, this sample is pretty limited and biased to my own interests and what I’ve either written about or could find a full-text link for. It also doesn’t cover many investigation methods (if… Continue reading Mini-Compendium: Investigations & Corrective Action Limitations / Bias / Underreporting
An ode to Drs Richard Cook, Jens Rasmussen & Bob Wears: A mini-compendium of their legacies
This is long overdue – but I wanted to cover some of the work from these giants who have played a significant part in modern safety thinking. Focus is on articles I’ve written about or used extracts from, or could find a full-text link for, and higher-cited articles. It’s not systematic – and unfortunately a… Continue reading An ode to Drs Richard Cook, Jens Rasmussen & Bob Wears: A mini-compendium of their legacies
A life of Reason: A mini-compendium of James Reason’s contributions
Seems fitting to cover some work from James Reason and to reflect on his enduring impact on our professional work, thinking and models. I’ve focused more on articles I’ve summarised or posted an image extract of, or could find a full-text article for. It’s NOT systematic. I’ve also included articles not from Reason but whom… Continue reading A life of Reason: A mini-compendium of James Reason’s contributions
Compendium: Blame, Just Culture & language
Here’s another compendium of articles exploring blame and language in the construction of post-hoc causality explanations, or how blame effects learning and investigations. The other part covers some articles around Just Culture and restorative culture. Note: I’ve mostly focused on articles that I’ve either already summarised or that I could find a full text link… Continue reading Compendium: Blame, Just Culture & language
Constructions of “Human Error” (Mini-Compendium)
Here’s a bunch of linked articles (and a video) unpacking the constructs, or uses, of “human error”. (‘Keep calm’ header image source is my own, from a presentation) Welcome any additions. Shout me a coffee Check out my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@safe_as_pod?si=sZmhFw3gB3ubXjzK Link: https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2021/08/05/searching-for-the-origins-of-the-myth-80-human-error-impact-on-maritime-safety/ Link: https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2025/01/31/hollnagel-on-human-error-error-as-cause-process-or-outcome/ Link: https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2024/09/05/the-emperors-new-clothes-or-whatever-happened-to-human-error/ Link: https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2024/07/24/human-error-and-violation-of-rules-in-industrial-safety-a-systematic-literature-review/ Link: https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2024/07/01/design-rules-based-on-analyses-of-human-error/ Link: https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2024/06/21/understanding-human-error-in-naval-aviation-mishaps/ Link: https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2024/05/24/state-of-science-evolving-perspectives-on-human-error/… Continue reading Constructions of “Human Error” (Mini-Compendium)
Research Compendium: Safety & Risk Performance indicators (lead, lag, drive, process safety + more)
This compendium covers several themes relating to safety performance indicators / risk indicators / process safety indicators. The following topics are covered: Indicator definitions Leveson and Systems Engineering/Systems Safety Frameworks, logics and other Indicator Examples (probably what most people want to see) Psychosocial Indicators Caveats, limitations, advice on indicators Relationship with Performance and Other Measures… Continue reading Research Compendium: Safety & Risk Performance indicators (lead, lag, drive, process safety + more)
A Compendium of Research: Barriers, Critical Controls, Verifications, Energy Models
Here’s a collection of papers relating to critical controls, barriers, safeguards, defence-in-depth, verifications and more. Let me know if I’ve missed any bangers. I plan for this to be a live list, so check back occasionally. Check out my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@safe_as_pod?si=sZmhFw3gB3ubXjzK Shout me a coffee Critical Controls / CCM / ICMM Critical Control Management in… Continue reading A Compendium of Research: Barriers, Critical Controls, Verifications, Energy Models
A Curious Compendium of ‘Adaptive’ Research (HOP, Safety-II, RE, HRO etc.)
Due to multiple requests – I’ve compiled several papers discussing various aspects of S-II, Resilience Engineering (RE), HOP, HRO and similar. I plan for this to be a live list – so check back occasionally. Let me know if I’ve missed any bangers. Note: This isn’t a systematic list – I’ve focused more on applied/operational… Continue reading A Curious Compendium of ‘Adaptive’ Research (HOP, Safety-II, RE, HRO etc.)
“Errors have very little in common” – Pt1 interview with Dr Steven Shorrock
“Errors have very little in common” Did you check Part 1 of my interview with Steven Shorrock? Steven doesn’t mean people don’t make mistakes – people, of course, forget things, misperceive, misjudge, or press wrong buttons. One problem is treating ‘error’ as some monolithic cause, where it often becomes a convenient stop rule in investigations.… Continue reading “Errors have very little in common” – Pt1 interview with Dr Steven Shorrock
Audits & Hierarchy of Control & the folly of paperwork
When audits identify gaps, how often are fixes just more paperwork? My recently published solo study mapped 448 corrective actions from 65 HSE audits (>16 independent auditing firms) against the hierarchy of control. ~86% of actions targeted ‘soft’ fixes (admin, paperwork and PPE). About 81% were admin alone, mostly incomplete documents: missing signatures on documents,… Continue reading Audits & Hierarchy of Control & the folly of paperwork
Asymmetries in safety outcomes and learning from failure in subcontracting hierarchies
Who learns the most from accidents: prime contractors or the subcontractor? This Korean study evaluated learning from failure in manufacturing between prime contractors, prime subcontractors, subcontractors and non-contractors. Shared under an open access licence. PS. Check out my YouTube: https://youtube.com/@safe_as_pod?si=V2dbdmW–WbnhzA9 Shout a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinson Extracts: · “subcontracting may distribute not only production activities but also the… Continue reading Asymmetries in safety outcomes and learning from failure in subcontracting hierarchies
A comprehensive systematic review of safety leading indicators in construction
Are your indicators measuring ‘safety’, or more often activity? This systematic review evaluated 51 studies, unpacking indicator themes, trends & their effectiveness in construction. Shared under an open access licence. PS. Did you check out my video on better indicators? Link in comments – it unpacks how to identify & set measures around your risk… Continue reading A comprehensive systematic review of safety leading indicators in construction
Safety concepts through a memetic lens
Why do some safety concepts spread while others become lost in time, like tears in rain? [** Cue wicked synthwave bladerunner tune] Anyway, this article from @carsten busch and colleagues explores the history of the accident triangle “over nearly a century through successive cycles of replication, variation, and selection”. It’s explored via memetics. Shared under… Continue reading Safety concepts through a memetic lens
Dr Steven Shorrock Part 1: Is HOP actually ‘new’ or built on Human Factors?
“There’s nothing new [in the HOP principles] since the 1980s there” Part 1 interview with Dr Steven Shorrock 🌻. He’s worked for about 30 years as a psychologist and human factors engineer in aviation, air traffic management, rail, healthcare and chemical manufacturing. Steven questions how much of HOP and the ‘new view’ really comes from… Continue reading Dr Steven Shorrock Part 1: Is HOP actually ‘new’ or built on Human Factors?
Safety alchemy: mistaking the document for the risk
Are your safety documents making your organisation less safe? And, the better they look, the worse it gets? As we argued in our Safety Alchemy article: “For many organisations, managing safety also encompasses managing a system of safety documents” These documents are “enabling devices: they function as institutional passports that allow work to commence or… Continue reading Safety alchemy: mistaking the document for the risk
Passing an audit, and zero harm days – yet we still blow things up. This week on Safe As
We pass audits, and our site safety boards record a string of zero-harm days. And management is reassured. And something blows up anyway. Did you check out this week’s episode on Safe As? Drawing on Emeritus Professor Andrew Hopkin’s work, it unpacks why organisations are blindsided by calamity even while their systems look flawless on… Continue reading Passing an audit, and zero harm days – yet we still blow things up. This week on Safe As
![“[Leaders create cultures by] what they systematically pay attention to” and ignore… – Schein & others](https://safetyinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/schein1.png?w=900)
“[Leaders create cultures by] what they systematically pay attention to” and ignore… – Schein & others
“[Leaders create cultures by] what they systematically pay attention to”. So says Ed Schein (* well actually, that was Andrew Hopkins’ reframing of Schein). Nevertheless, Schein noted how leaders, whether intentional or not, known or invisible to them, shape what is prioritised, discussed, measured, monitored etc. by what they focus on. However, what they **… Continue reading “[Leaders create cultures by] what they systematically pay attention to” and ignore… – Schein & others
Hidden Hazards: Factors Influencing Near-Miss Reporting in Helicopter Emergency Medical Services
Are fewer near-miss reports good news or a trust / silence problem? This surveyed and interviewed a total of 116 US air medical crewmembers on their near miss reporting behaviours and pressure to fly. PS. Check out my YouTube: https://youtube.com/@safe_as_pod?si=V2dbdmW–WbnhzA9 Shout a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinson Extracts: · “major accidents routinely reflect the accumulation of deeper organizational… Continue reading Hidden Hazards: Factors Influencing Near-Miss Reporting in Helicopter Emergency Medical Services
