(168b) When Safety Becomes Unsafe: A New Model for Proactively Improving Human Performance

With incidents on the rise and traditional root cause analyses no longer producing desired results, a new model for analyzing the human performer in incident investigation is needed to break through the cycle of repeated costly mistakes and performance plateaus.

In this interactive session, we discuss the need to shift from traditional causal models of human performance to an evolved adaptive performance approach, accomplished through building operational resilience.

Operational resilience is defined as the capacity of an organization’s people to adapt their responses to changing system conditions through normal decision making to produce desired safety and business outcomes. Cultivating adaptive capacity is the critical enabler of building operational resilience and the human performer’s ability to proactively identify and respond to normal and unanticipated system dynamics, emerging risks, and navigate disruptions.

Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, we developed and evaluated a multi-dimensional model of operational resilience measuring the interactions between operating discipline (mechanical, process and human reliability), latent environmental factors, and multiple dimensions of adaptive capacity. Examination of the complex relationships of human performance within a dynamic systems environment, gives us insight into blind spots and opportunities to develop the ability of leaders and operators to anticipate change, learn from experience to deal with changing conditions, monitor systems for imbalance, and adjust organizational processes to effectively navigate and mitigate risks.

By illustrating the relationships between operating discipline and adaptive capacity, participants will have insight into the critical human performance strategies needed to develop practical solutions valuable in their safety and business operations at home.