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Stopping the Suicidal

23 November, 2019 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Preventing bad behaviour From the start of the industrial revolution to the mid 20th century, we British have used town gas. It lit our streets, fired our boilers and cooked our roast dinners.  Town gas was a by-product of the coke manufacturing industry.  Heating coal in the absence of oxygen removes the impurities and produces […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: accident prevention, culture, error proofing, human nature, reinforcing behaviour

Mishaps, Accidents and Family Bust-Ups

5 March, 2019 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Swiss cheese I went skiing during half term. It is the thing to do. The only (and I mean only) time you will ever prise the British middle classes out of their Volvos and BMWs and onto a bus is during the spring half term break. Then, miraculously, you will find all the little Joshuas […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: accident prevention, blame, culture, error proofing, swiss cheese model

Failing to Learn

23 July, 2018 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Flight 1549 On the 15th of January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of canada geese as it was climbing away from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport.  The plane lost all engine power.  The pilots, Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles, were forced to land on the River Hudson off Midtown Manhattan. Boats rescued […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: blame, culture, error proofing, human nature, incentives, learning, reinforcing behaviour

Danger of Death

14 April, 2018 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Danger of Death

Things gone wrong One of the simplest ways to improve performance is to stop things from going wrong. If you can change people’s behaviour and remove errors, defects or accidents, then performance will improve. It doesn’t matter if you work in a bank, a supermarket or collect bins for a living. Fewer errors equals better […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: accident prevention, error proofing, human nature, perceived risk, video

Human Error

18 May, 2017 by James Lawther 4 Comments

B-17 Cockpit

World War 2 During the second world war, over 60 million people were killed.  That was roughly 3% of the worldwide population.  It was a hazardous time. Amongst the hardest hit were the bomber crews.  The Eighth Air Force suffered half of all the U.S. Air Force’s casualties.  The British fared as badly.  The chances of surviving the […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: accident prevention, error proofing, human nature

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