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Understanding and Improving Work & Life

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Author: Steven Shorrock

This blog is written by Dr Steven Shorrock, FBPsS, a Chartered Psychologist and Chartered Ergonomist and Human Factors Specialist. I work as an interdisciplinary humanistic-systems practitioner in safety critical industries. I blog in a personal capacity. Views expressed here are mine and not those of any affiliated organisation. LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/steveshorrock/ Email: contact[at]humanisticsystems[dot]com
  • Human Factors/Ergonomics

Twenty Five Years: Reflections on the Practice of Improving Work

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 06/11/202217/03/2023

In this post, I reflect on what I learned since graduating and have found to be most important to practice in the design and improvement of work.

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  • Culture

Staying In Control: Five Suggestions From a Long-Distance Psychologist on the Centenary of Air Traffic Control

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 20/10/202220/03/2023

On the centenary of air traffic control, and the International day of the air traffic controller, I offer five suggestions that have emerged from my experience of working with air traffic controllers over 25 years of practice as a psychologist. 

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  • Health and Wellbeing

On Living and Dying: 2. The Simple Thing Wrong With Us

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 03/10/202210/12/2024

Are there people in your life to whom you feel, at some level, a need…

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  • Health and Wellbeing

On Living and Dying: 1. Eulogy Virtues

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 28/09/202210/12/2024

One of my favourite places is a cemetery. It is not the kind of cemetery…

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  • Health and Wellbeing

“Above All Else…” Reflecting on the Gifts of Richard I. Cook

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 16/09/202210/12/2024

Sometimes, people come into your life and – through a rare blend of qualities – support you through the challenges and struggles in a way that few can. Richard Cook has been such a presence in my life.

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  • safety

On the Spread of Ideas: Four Roles and Four Traps 

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 22/06/202230/10/2025

In this post, I describe four roles for the spread of new ideas, and reflect on corresponding ego traps or shadow roles.

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  • Humanistic Psychology

Adjusting to Major Life Changes

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 16/05/202210/12/2024

When stressful or traumatic life events come along, we all respond in different ways. One of these may seem counter-intuitive, that we can thrive and flourish following adversity. In this article, Stephen Joseph introduces the psychology of post-traumatic growth, with Steven Shorrock.

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  • Health and Wellbeing

Navigating the New Reality

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 07/05/202204/10/2023

While we sometimes talk about the ‘new normal’, the only thing that is normal is change. So how might we navigate the new reality? The following five practices are important in adjusting and adapting and are supported by research on resilience and growth.

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  • safety

We Need to Talk About Engineering

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 09/02/202230/10/2025

When it comes to human performance, most efforts to understand work are dedicated to operational roles such as air traffic controllers and professional pilots. In this article, I outline five challenges for engineers in the drive for digitalisation.

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  • Systems Thinking

Digitalisation at Sea: All Hands on Deck

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 03/02/202220/03/2023

This article is a reproduction of the Editorial published in HindSight magazine issue 33 in…

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About the Author

Steven Shorrock is an interdisciplinary humanistic, systems and design practitioner interested in understanding and improving work and life.

Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) | Chartered Ergonomist and Human Factors Specialist (CErgHF) | BSc (Hons) MSc (Eng) PhD

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Categories

  • safety (122)
  • Human Factors/Ergonomics (95)
  • Systems Thinking (84)
  • Culture (30)
  • Humanistic Psychology (21)

Tags

  • safety (75)
  • human factors (64)
  • Systems Thinking (59)
  • safety-II (51)
  • work-as-done (51)

Year

  • 2026 (140)
  • 2025 (30)
  • 2024 (36)
  • 2023 (107)
  • 2022 (52)

Human Factors & Ergonomics in Practice

'Human Factors & Ergonomics in Practice' concerns the real practice of human factors and ergonomics (HF/E), conveying the perspectives and experiences of practitioners and other stakeholders in a variety of industrial sectors, organisational settings and working contexts. Buy direct from Routledge.

Tags

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Top Posts

  • I Crash: Texts from M.E.
  • The Varieties of Human Work
  • Reflections on the Autistic Spectrum: A Critical Response to Uta Frith's Views
  • Systems Thinking for Safety: Ten Principles (A White Paper)
  • The HAL 9000 Explanation: “It Can Only Be Attributable to Human Error”
  • “So You Have an Under-Reporting Problem?” System Barriers to Incident Reporting
  • Four Kinds of ‘Human Factors’: 2. Factors of Humans
  • ‘Human error’: The Handicap of Human Factors, Safety and Justice
  • Proxies for Work-as-Done: 1. Work-as-Imagined
  • Human Factors and Ergonomics: Looking Back to Look Forward

Archives

    Work-as-done is the work that people actually do, cognitive, verbal and manually. Work-as-judged is the judgement, evaluation or appraisal of work, via other proxies for work-as-done. Work-as-simulated is the work that is imitated or recreated in some way for the purposes of learning, testing, design, research, assessment, or exploration. Work-as-instructed is the explanation and demonstration describing how work is to be conducted or performed; the work that people are taught to do. Work-as-analysed is the process and product of examination, decomposition, categorisation, modelling and representation of work. Work-as-measured is the quantification of aspects of work: the work that is represented through numbers, metrics, indicators, scores, targets, dashboards, and other forms of quantification. Work-as-observed is the observation of the work of others, formally or informally - directly, remotely, live, or recorded - and the interpretation of what is observed by the observer. Work-as-disclosed is the work that people say that they (or others) do or did, either in formal or informal accounts. Work-as-prescribed is the formalisation, specification and design of work. It is the work that people ‘should do’, especially according to policies, procedures, rules, and so on.

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