How do risk control / barrier systems fail and succeed? How do you properly clarify control performance specifications, allow for the strengths of human performance and variability, and properly identify and strength Critical Controls? My 4-part YouTube series unpacks these questions: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKM0cz24nufg But here’s a lazy powerpoint capturing some of the key insights from each… Continue reading How to Risk Control / Barrier systems succeed & fail? 4 part YouTube series

When your injury rates improve, are people safer or risks better managed, or are people simply better at managing the number? An interesting interview study from James Pomeroy & colleague exploring the uses and meanings of injury metrics from 20 OHS professionals. Shared under an open access licence. PS. Check out my YouTube and recent… Continue reading Signs of safety: An investigation of how OHS professionals interpret injury metrics

Do your investigations often conclude when you’ve identified ‘human error’, or a pesky person not following rules? Do you want to improve the quality and depth of your learning opportunities? One way is via local rationality: understanding why decisions & actions made sense to people at the time. It’s a core feature in human factors… Continue reading 25 questions for better incident investigations // HOP / Safety-II (YT Quickisode)

“Carefully adjust the appropriate valve until the pressure is normal” On the surface this may seem like a standard instruction, but so many important details are missing. Like: ·       Which valve? ·       Adjust it how? ·       What pressure is ‘normal’? ·       How would the operator confirm success? Will it be obvious? Some procedures and SOPs… Continue reading How can you create better procedures? Part 1

Can the same injury rate tell two different safety ‘stories’? What’s hiding in your story? An interesting read from Kevin Geddert, Sidney Dekker and Drew Rae who explore how injury measures generate different meanings and their consequences. They also discuss the use of SAIF – which is Severity Adjusted Injury Frequency (a weighted combination of… Continue reading Injury rates tell an incomplete story, but a more complete measurement narrative may be possible

Why are so many procedures technically accurate, but barely workable in practice? In part 1 of this two-part YouTube series on procedural systems, we unpack the technical side of writing better, more useable procedures: exploring how to reduce safety clutter, choosing the right type of rule, and structure instructions so they support work. We unpack:… Continue reading Writing better rules: YouTube part 1

Did you check out yesterday’s YouTube vid on ‘investigating’ when nothing failed? I quickly discussed a Safety-II / HOP -inspired debrief tool which helps facilitate insights about real work – challenges, adaptations, sources of success (and failure), variability, and more. Check it out and let me know what you think – vid link in comments.… Continue reading A Safety-II / HOP debrief tool

We focus a lot on learning from incidents, but are some of the best opportunities hidden inside work that went, apparently, successfully? In this Safe As Quickisode on YouTube, just 7 mins of your life, we rapidly unpack a healthcare study that used a Safety-II / HOP inspired debrief to learn from daily work, not… Continue reading Learning When ‘Nothing’ Goes Wrong: a Safety-II/HOP debrief tool (Quickisode)