“Why Are We Having More Incidents?” Causal Loops in Reactions to Unwanted Events

One way to understand the links between unwanted events, conditions and interventions is via causal…

“Why Aren’t They Reporting Incidents?” Influences on Reporting Behaviour

Reporting behaviour associated with safety-related accidents, incidents, and hazards is a concern for many managers,…

Competency and Moral Dilemmas: “What Would You Do?”

Sometimes in our working lives, we have to make decisions that involve a kind of…

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

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.

Learning Teams, Learning from Communities

Learning Teams, Learning from Communities
In this article, I refer to some of the ideas and writings of asset-based community development to reflect on Learning Teams in health and safety, and small group conversations and action more generally in organisations. I highlight four lessons from ABCD for learning teams and host organisations.

Twelve Properties of Effective Classification Schemes

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.

Occupational Overuse Syndrome – Human Error Variant (OOS-HEV)

Occupational Overuse Syndrome – Human Error Variant (OOS-HEV) is a condition involving the overuse of the…