We are the grease in the cogs

By Dave English

Powerful four minute video by professor and pilot Sidney Dekker introduces what we find when we stop looking at accidents, and instead study highly reliable organizations. It’s resilience: the ability to accommodate change and absorb disturbances without catastrophic failure. And it’s not about reducing negatives, but rather promoting positives. The four behaviors that resilient teams practice are:

  1. Don’t take past success as a guarantee of future safety.
  2. Keep a discussion of risk alive even when everything looks safe.
  3. Bring in different and fresh perspectives. Invite doubt, stay curious and openminded.
  4. Invest in safety when others say no.

We are not error makers messing up a safe system, we are the grease in the cogs that allows the machine to keep running. Safely.

sidneyDekker

Button Pushing

By Dave English

“A musician must practice every day. A baseball player must practice every day. Heck, even a clown has to practice. So why do pilots get to push buttons on an autopilot and consider that flying? That is not flying.”

  ~ Rick Erikson, writing about automation dependency and proficiency in the June 2015 edition of Soaring magazine.

Otto Pilot from the 1980 movie Airplane!
Otto Pilot from the 1980 movie Airplane!

All dangers are over?

By Dave English

“He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea.”

~ Thomas Fuller. He wrote this towards the end of the 1600’s. So we’ve known for a long time that ‘perfect safety’ or zero-accidents is kinda silly. There are always dangers in the deep and in the air.

The ship Garthsnaid in heavy seas, c. 1920. Out of copyright, from State Library of Victoria.
The ship Garthsnaid in heavy seas, c. 1920. Out of copyright, from State Library of Victoria.