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  • safety

The Curious Incident of the Runway Incursion in the Night-Time

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 18/03/202320/03/2023

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.

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  • Human Factors/Ergonomics

Work-As-Imagined Solutioneering: Ten Traps Along the Yellow Brick Road

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 03/03/202324/02/2025

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.

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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Culture

If It Weren’t for the Managers…

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 20/10/201420/03/2023

“If only it weren’t for the managers, the goddamned managers, always getting tangled up in the…

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  • Systems Thinking

Facing up to Command-and-Controlism: Twenty Warning Signs

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 17/07/201420/03/2023

In my last post, I offered a reworked version of the 12-steps of Alcoholics Anonymous…

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  • Systems Thinking

Recovery from Command-and-Control: A Twelve-Step Program

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 12/07/201420/03/2023

Most of us in democratic countries would hate to see the rise authoritarianism. When we…

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  • safety

Organisations and the Ghosts of Failures Past, Present and Yet to Come

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 02/04/201420/03/2023

How do organisations learn? It is fairly uncontroversial to say that we, as individuals and…

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  • Culture

“Are We the Baddies?!” Symbols and Organisational Cultures

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 08/11/201320/03/2023

Once your own culture becomes invisible to you, you know you have become a victim…

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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

ABCD accidents album1 album2 album3 album4 album5 album6 album7 album8 album9 album10 album11 album12 art ATC aviation blame change communication community competency context culture decision making deformation professionelle design empathy ep4 ergonomics expertise fatigue featured healthcare human error human factors Humanistic psychology human performance just culture justice language learning local rationality management mental health methods multiple perspectives normal work organisational culture organisations practice profession professionalism psychology research safety safety-I safety-II safety culture safety management systems safety Systems Thinking targets teams teamwork technology theatre training wellbeing work work-as-disclosed work-as-done work-as-imagined work-as-judged work-as-prescribed

Top Posts

  • The Varieties of Human Work
  • Reflections on the Autistic Spectrum: A Critical Response to Uta Frith's Views
  • Human Factors and Ergonomics: Looking Back to Look Forward
  • I Crash: Texts from M.E.
  • Four Kinds of 'Human Factors': 1. The Human Factor
  • Four Kinds of Human Factors: 4. Socio-Technical System Interaction
  • Proxies for Work-as-Done: 1. Work-as-Imagined
  • Mind your Mindset: Safety-I and Safety-II
  • Target Culture: Lessons in Unintended Consequences
  • The Principles of Punk Rock at Work

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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