The Concepts
1. Values Alignment / Setting Expectations
Every organization has a mission. From there, every organization should have core values that they will not unreasonably compromise to meet that mission (e.g., employee safety, customer privacy). From there, every organization will likely have secondary values, which if impinged, will compromise the mission or the core values (e.g., internal transparency, compassion). We will not be perfect on any of these values. That said, we still need expectations to drive design. What’s the risk? What’s the reward? That’s the starting point.
2. System Design
System design should be a deliberate process. Flowing from values and expectations, systems can be designed to optimize outcomes across a variety of values. Engineers speak of the design trades. Cost versus quality. Timeliness versus availability. Using socio-technical design tools, we can help you design the system to meet expectations on the front end. Again, not waiting for harm to occur first.
3. Risk Modeling
We do not need to wait for harm to occur. We can assess the quality of a system’s design ahead of imposing that system on the world. We built NASA’s human factors failure modes and effects analysis tool, and we’ve built socio-technical probabilistic risk models (ST-PRA) for organizations and regulators around the world. Waiting for an event to happen is simply not enough. We can assess in advance because we know in advance how systems, parts and humans will fail.
4. Safe Choices
Our system design is a measure of what we value. Our behavioral choices are a measure of our culture. System design and behavioral choices are the keys to socio-technical performance. Our Safe Choices™ program, is but one example of our ability to help organizations achieve superior results.
5. Event Reporting and Investigation
We do our best to design the right system. We invariably get it wrong. Every socio-technical system will work in ways we did not anticipate. We must learn. Employees must report. Organizations must investigate. Systems redesigned. Behaviors changed.
We designed human factors investigative tools used by NASA, airlines and hospitals around the world. There is a science to how we learn.
6. Justice
Justice is a thread that runs through every socio-technical system – from small organizations to societies as a whole. How we view each other’s fallibility, how we hold each other accountable – these are cornerstones in our ability to achieve desired outcomes. Outcome engineering has led the dialogue around workplace justice for the last 15 years, creating notions of the Just Culture, and creating tools for regulators, organizations and individuals to use.
7. Social Responsibility
All organizations fit within a larger society context. Sometimes, in order to help organizations achieve better results, we need to change our societal construct and challenge the marketplace’s status quo of ideas. David Marx’s first book, Whack-a-Mole: The Price We Pay for Expecting Perfection, is a rallying cry for those who desire to create a better world. |
