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Invisible Worlds: Celtic Folklore for Living with Chronic Conditions and Dynamic Disability

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 30/05/202601/06/2026

They live among you. They appear in the ordinary, everyday world, then disappear, and move through…

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  • Human Factors/Ergonomics

Set Taxonomies to Neutral

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 11/11/202324/05/2024

Twenty years ago, I completed my PhD on human factors in air traffic control. Part…

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  • safety

Why Is It Just So Difficult? Barriers to ‘Just Culture’ in the Real World

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 18/10/202330/10/2025

This article is a reproduction of an article published in HindSight magazine issue 35 in September 2023 (all issues available…

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  • safety

Who Are We to Judge? From Work-as-Done to Work-as-Judged

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 15/10/202330/10/2025

This article is a reproduction of the Editorial published in HindSight magazine issue 35 in September 2023 (all issues…

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  • 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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  • Human Factors/Ergonomics

‘Human error’ in the Headlines: Press Reporting on Virgin Galactic

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 30/07/201510/03/2023

Again, a familiar smoke pattern has emerged from the ashes of a high-profile accident. The…

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  • safety

The Safety-fication of Everything

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 05/11/201417/03/2023

Some time ago, I noticed the safety-fication of everything. I noticed that otherwise fairly ordinary words…

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  • Humanistic Psychology

Déformation Professionnelle: How Profession Distorts Perspective

  • by Steven Shorrock
  • Posted on 12/12/201317/03/2023

So, what do you do? If you work in a health and safety role, there…

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About the Author

This blog is written by Dr Steven Shorrock. I work as an transdisciplinary 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.

Fellow of the British Psychological Society (FBPsS) | Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) | Chartered Ergonomist and Human Factors Specialist (CErgHF) | BSc (Hons) MSc (Eng) PhD

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/steveshorrock/ | Email: contact[at]humanisticsystems[dot]com

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Categories

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

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

Year

  • 2026 (151)
  • 2025 (31)
  • 2024 (40)
  • 2023 (174)
  • 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 normal work organisational culture organisations practice profession professionalism psychology ptsd 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 Reality of Fluctuation and Unpredictability: Aos Sí and Awen
  • Invisible Worlds: Celtic Folklore for Living with Chronic Conditions and Dynamic Disability
  • Reflections on the Autistic Spectrum: A Critical Response to Uta Frith's Views
  • A Desk Is a Dangerous Place From Which to Watch the World
  • The Varieties of Human Work
  • On Living and Dying: 2. The Simple Thing Wrong With Us
  • Proxies for Work-as-Done: 1. Work-as-Imagined
  • I Crash: Texts from M.E.
  • Four Kinds of ‘Human Factors’: 2. Factors of Humans
  • Four Kinds Of Thinking: 1. Humanistic Thinking

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.

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