This study explored current knowledge and use of weak signals in safety. Thanks to Clive Lloyd for sharing this a couple weeks back. As you’d expect, this sort of topic, based on accidents, is pretty replete with hindsight and outcome knowledge but is interesting nevertheless. Extracts: · They have been defined as an “…imprecise early indication… Continue reading The use of weak signals in occupational safety and health: An investigation
Tag: technology
Hollnagel on “Human error”: error as cause, process or outcome
Not much to say – some extracts from a 2007 chapter from Erik Hollnagel, unpacking whether we really need “human error”? I knocked the summary up last night and will probably post in the next couple of weeks. Oh man, I need to give up on chapters…what a slog. He argues: · Human error “is not… Continue reading Hollnagel on “Human error”: error as cause, process or outcome
The rule of three: Situation awareness in hazardous situations
“The rule of three provides a mechanism that converts the risk continuum into a dichotomy for the purposes of decision-making. It does not, however, ignore the expertise of operators … Put another way, the rule of three structures expert decision-making; it does not replace it”
Contextualising new safety paradigms: A study in a large Australian construction company
This study explored the presence, implementation, appetite and feasibility of 12 principles representing “new safety paradigms”. It involved focus groups with 53 participants and a cross-sectional survey of 514 employees. I’ve skipped HEAPS (actually, the entire results section – so check out the full paper). Background: · “The review by Karanikas et al. (2022) revealed… Continue reading Contextualising new safety paradigms: A study in a large Australian construction company
Learning from normal work: How to Proactively Reduce Risk When Nothing Goes Wrong
An interesting article from Marcin Nazaruk, exploring learning from everyday work. Skipping a bit, so check out the full article. First he says that while it’s important to learn from failure “it is too late”. For one, diminishing incident rates “can no longer accurately reflect safety performance … and simply focusing on behaviours and unsafe… Continue reading Learning from normal work: How to Proactively Reduce Risk When Nothing Goes Wrong
Safety audits almost never target the actual sources of operational danger
Reflecting on my first audit study – we found things many would expect (image 1), like audits largely focusing on administrative items, and superficial matters. And for my construction friends, we found ‘toolboxes’ used a lot to address an issue, even if that issue didn’t have any reasonable connection to something that you’d need to… Continue reading Safety audits almost never target the actual sources of operational danger
Leveraging Ergonomics and Human Factors (E/ HF) for community impact: what have we learned about how to make a difference
This was a banger – exploring the application of community ergonomics with a strong systems lens. If you’re interested in HF/E, systems thinking, social dynamics, power gradients and more then this will interest you. Can’t do it justice, so a few random extracts. Extracts: Finally they talk about ways to improve this practice – via… Continue reading Leveraging Ergonomics and Human Factors (E/ HF) for community impact: what have we learned about how to make a difference
How People Understand Risk Matrices, and How Matrix Design Can Improve their Use: Findings from Randomized Controlled Studies
This study explored different risk matrix designs on user comprehension and use of matrices. I’ve posted a lot of research dunking on risk matrices (RMs), so here’s another olive leaf focusing on designing something potentially more useful. [** I still stand by the critical orientation, since we have little good evidence that RMs improve risk… Continue reading How People Understand Risk Matrices, and How Matrix Design Can Improve their Use: Findings from Randomized Controlled Studies
Does sending Safety Toolbox Talks by text message to Residential Construction Supervisors increase Safety Meeting Compliance?
This US study evaluated whether distributing construction safety toolboxes, with workplace fatalities, to supervisors by mobile phone would increase their compliance delivering toolboxes each month, 56 construction supervisors in Oregon were recruited and received a link to a toolbox talk by text message every two weeks for three months. This is based on a tool… Continue reading Does sending Safety Toolbox Talks by text message to Residential Construction Supervisors increase Safety Meeting Compliance?
Foundations of Safety Science: Resilience Engineering and safety as the presence of capacities
More extracts from Foundations of Safety Science, this time from Ch.11 on Resilience Engineering and the adaptive perspective. This is 1 of probably 2 or 3 more posts. Some extracts: These logics come from a wider body of safety science, which includes some intertwined positions, like: Parts 2 & 3…some other time. Ref: Dekker, S.… Continue reading Foundations of Safety Science: Resilience Engineering and safety as the presence of capacities
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