Monthly Archives: October 2014
If it weren’t for the managers…
“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
Posted in Culture, Humanistic Psychology, systems thinking
Tagged local rationality, management, managers, systems thinking
Leave a comment
What are you reading for?
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 education, new ideas, reading, safety, systems thinking
3 Comments
If it weren’t for the people…
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
Posted in Safety, systems thinking
Tagged Humanistic psychology, safety, systems thinking
6 Comments
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a human error!
Human error usually gets a bad press. But not on this day in September 1944. Sometimes, just sometimes, errors save lives…
SAFETY is our Primary Goal!
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
Posted in Safety, systems thinking
Tagged accidents, safety culture, safety-I, safety-II, systems thinking
2 Comments
