In this sporadic series of posts, Icshare a few insights, as they might apply to work and organisations, from ‘Life and How To Survive It’ and ‘Families and How to Survive Them’, by psychotherapist (late) Robin Skynner and comedian John Cleese.
Category: Human Factors/Ergonomics
HindSight Issue 27 is now available in print and online at SKYbrary and on the EUROCONTROL website. You can download the full issue, including an online supplement, and individual articles. HindSight magazine is free and published twice a year, reaching tens of thousands of readers in aviation and other sectors worldwide. You will find an introduction to this Issue below, along with links to the magazine and the individual articles.
Most organisations seem to use a classification system (or taxonomy) of some sort, for instance for safety classification, and much time is spent developing and using such taxonomies. Importantly, decisions may be made on the basis of the taxonomy and associated database outputs (or it may be that much time is spent on development and use, but little happens as a result). There is therefore a risk of time and money spent unnecessarily, with associated opportunity costs. Still, taxonomies are a requirement in all sorts of areas, and several things should be kept in mind when designing and evaluating a taxonomy. This posts introduces twelve properties of effective classification systems.
This summer, we have been entertained by the world’s best footballers – experts in the game. And it just so happens that Competency and Expertise is theme of this Issue of HindSight. What might we learn from World Cup 2018? Here are five observations.
A legendary rivalry: one mountain and two climbers seeking to be the best. We join…
A few weeks ago, I had a chat with Jamey Hampton, Jessica Kerr, John K. Sawers of Greater…
Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among…
In this post, I outline a typical process of 10 Steps by which problematic solutions come into being. Some of the steps may be skipped, but with the same outcome: a problematic solution.
You’d expect that Human Factors/Ergonomics would be very relevant to the NHS. But is it actually integrated?
On 26 April 2018, I presented at the ‘Philosophical Breakfast Club’ (@philosophicalBC) conference on High Performing Teams (#PBCHPT2018). It was a remarkable conference bringing together healthcare professionals, psychologists, sports scientists, athletes, managers, human factors/ergonomics specialists, military officers and specialists, and others, My first conversation while having tea before the conference was with a spinal surgeon and bomb disposal expert. Throughout the conference I had many other fascinating conversations with people from a diverse range of backgrounds.
This leads me to the focus of my talk: collaboration at the interfaces, and what happens between teams, groups, professions, layers of management, organisations… In this post, I summarise the talk, slide by slide, with tweet-sized explanations.
Humanistic Systems 