Monthly Archives: October 2014

If it weren’t for the managers…

Posted on 20/10/2014 by stevenshorrock

“If only it weren’t for the managers, the goddamned managers, always getting tangled up in the system. If it weren’t for them, the world would be a systems thinker’s paradise.” In a previous post, an article for an issue of HindSight magazine on … Continue reading →

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What are you reading for?

Posted on 12/10/2014 by stevenshorrock

The comedian Bill Hicks died just over 20 years ago. He was not ‘just a comedian’. He was  a social critic and stand-up philosopher. There were few others like him at the time, and few others have come near him since. … Continue reading →

Posted in Safety, Systems Thinking | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

If it weren’t for the people…

Posted on 04/10/2014 by stevenshorrock

In Kurt Vonnegut’s dystopian novel ‘Player Piano’, automation has replaced most human labour. Anything that can be automated, is automated. Ordinary people have been robbed of their work, and with it purpose, meaning and satisfaction, leaving the managers, scientists and … Continue reading →

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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a human error!

Posted on 03/10/2014 by stevenshorrock

Human error usually gets a bad press. But not on this day in September 1944. Sometimes, just sometimes, errors save lives…

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SAFETY is our Primary Goal!

Posted on 02/10/2014 by stevenshorrock

OVER BLACK WE HEAR THE DULL SOUNDS OF INDUSTRY; A MUFFLED MASS OF MACHINES, GEARS, STEAM. FADE IN ON: A SIGN. Twelve feet across. Painted decades earlier, grime-covered black, white and red. It reads in large 40’s era, hand-painted type, “SAFETY IS … Continue reading →

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