“By their nature, accidents are not directly controllable” – James Reason, 1993

“By their nature, accidents are not directly controllable”, so says James Reason in this 1993 article. Just a single extract from the article’s conclusion: ·        “Safety has two faces: a positive one relating to an organization’s intrinsic resistance to chance conjunctions of unsafe acts and hazards, and a negative one, revealed by accident and incident data,… Continue reading “By their nature, accidents are not directly controllable” – James Reason, 1993

How complex systems (don’t) fail: YT video from late Richard Cook

A banger YT presentation from the late, great Richard Cook. He discusses ‘how complex systems fail’. Video link below. Some extracts: ·        “The surprise is not that there are so many accidents … The surprise is that there are so few” ·        “The normal world is not well-behaved … Even so, a lot of operational settings achieve… Continue reading How complex systems (don’t) fail: YT video from late Richard Cook

Foundation of Safety Science: Resilience Engineering and complex systems pt2

Post 2 from ch.11 of the Foundations of Safety Science, exploring Resilience Engineering (RE) and the adaptive perspectives. Some extracts: ·      RE sees failures not necessarily as breakdowns or malfunctioning of normal functions, but “the converse of the adaptations necessary to cope with the real world complexity” ·      Performance of individuals and organisations across all level “must… Continue reading Foundation of Safety Science: Resilience Engineering and complex systems pt2