Sometimes after an incident, a system-wide change is implemented that makes work more difficult and creates new problems. This story is one such example, which contains useful lessons for responding to rare events. Steven Shorrock recounts the tale.
Author: stevenshorrock
This blog is written by Dr Steven Shorrock. I am interdisciplinary humanistic, systems and design practitioner interested in human work from multiple perspectives. My main interest is human and system behaviour, mostly in the context of safety-related organisations. I am a Chartered Ergonomist and Human Factors Specialist with the CIEHF and a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society. I currently work as a human factors and safety specialist in air traffic control in Europe. I am also Adjunct Associate Professor at University of the Sunshine Coast, Centre for Human Factors & Sociotechnical Systems. I blog in a personal capacity. Views expressed here are mine and not those of any affiliated organisation, unless stated otherwise. You can find me on twitter at @stevenshorrock or email contact[at]humanisticsystems[dot]com.
Healthcare is perhaps the most complex safety-critical sector, and the challenges have only increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasingly, human and organisational factors have come under the spotlight. Manoj Kumar is a consultant general surgeon with a background also in safety, human factors, and training. In this conversation with Steven Shorrock, Manoj provides insights and perspectives on the realities of work in healthcare, and the team’s role in improvement.
This article is a reproduction of an article published in HindSight magazine issue 28 in February 2019 on the…
On major projects, some surprises unfold slowly via ‘work-as-imagined solutioneering’. Based on observations in several industries, Steven Shorrock presents ten traps that we can all fall into.
This article is a reproduction of the Editorial published in HindSight magazine issue 31 in December 2020…
Surprises in healthcare are common and can have lasting effects on clinicians. Steven Shorrock asked clinicians to reveal aspects of their experience with implications for learning.
Some people can identify a day where everything changed in a way that was previously unimaginable. For Dennie Coumans, this day came at the end of December 2017. What happened totally reshaped his life.
This article is a reproduction of the Editorial published in HindSight magazine issue 34 in…
HindSight is a magazine on human and organisational factors in operations. HindSight magazine is free…
Reflections on what distinguishes the three zones of performance in the well-known graph associated with Safety-II.
Humanistic Systems 