Seven Threats to New Safety Movements: 4) Dogmatism

Dogmatism is characterised by the expression of opinion as fact, or the tendency to assert…

Seven Threats to New Safety Movements: 1) Over-commercialism

Over-commercialism has been a hallmark of many previous movements. Some started out with a distinct…

Are We Learning From Accidents?

This is a Foreword to Are We Learning From Accidents, by Dr Nippin Anand, published…

Humanistic Systems Collections: The Albums & EPs

Since I starting blogging, I have written posts on a range of topics concerning work…

Twenty Five Years: Reflections on the Practice of Improving Work

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.

Learning About Healthcare Work in a Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had one of the biggest effects on work-as-done in healthcare in living memory. So what might we learn about work from the perspectives of frontline workers? I asked a variety of practitioners to give a short answer.

‘Human Factors’ and ‘Human Performance’: What’s the Difference?

The term ‘Human Performance’ (and ‘Human and Organisational Performance’ (or HOP) has become increasingly common…

The Real Focus of Safety-II

Safety-II has become a talking point. It is discussed not only among safety professionals, but – perhaps more importantly – among front line practitioners, managers, board members and regulators in a wide array of industries. But what is the real focus of Safety-II?

Suitably Qualified and Experienced? Five Questions to Ask Before Buying Human Factors Training or Consultancy

Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among…

The Loneliest Profession in Healthcare

You’d expect that Human Factors/Ergonomics would be very relevant to the NHS. But is it actually integrated?