The ETTO Principle: Efficiency-Thoroughness Trade-Off

The ETTO Principle: Efficiency-Thoroughness Trade-Off
Author: Professor Erik Hollnagel
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2012-10-01
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1409485994

Accident investigation and risk assessment have for decades focused on the human factor, particularly ‘human error’. This bias towards performance failures leads to a neglect of normal performance. It assumes that failures and successes have different origins so there is little to be gained from studying them together. Erik Hollnagel believes this assumption is false and that safety cannot be attained only by eliminating risks and failures. The alternative is to understand why things go right and to amplify that. The ETTO Principle looks at the common trait of people at work to adjust what they do to match the conditions. It proposes that this efficiency-thoroughness trade-off (ETTO) is normal. While in some cases the adjustments may lead to adverse outcomes, these are due to the same processes that produce successes.

The ETTO Principle

The ETTO Principle
Author: Erik Hollnagel
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780754676775

Accident investigation and risk assessment have for decades focused on the human factor, particularly 'human error'. This bias towards performance failures leads to a neglect of normal performance. It assumes that failures and successes have different origins so there is little to be gained from studying them together. Erik Hollnagel believes this assumption is false and that safety cannot be attained only by eliminating risks and failures. The alternative is to understand why things go right and to amplify that.The ETTO Principle looks at the common trait of people at work to adjust what they do to match the conditions. It proposes that this efficiency-thoroughness trade-off (ETTO) is normal. While in some cases the adjustments may lead to adverse outcomes, these are due to the same processes that produce successes.

Safety Differently

Safety Differently
Author: Sidney Dekker
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2014-06-23
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1482242001

The second edition of a bestseller, Safety Differently: Human Factors for a New Era is a complete update of Ten Questions About Human Error: A New View of Human Factors and System Safety. Today, the unrelenting pace of technology change and growth of complexity calls for a different kind of safety thinking. Automation and new technologies have resu

Resilience Engineering

Resilience Engineering
Author: Professor David D Woods
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 511
Release: 2012-10-01
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1409463060

For Resilience Engineering, 'failure' is the result of the adaptations necessary to cope with the complexity of the real world, rather than a malfunction. Human performance must continually adjust to current conditions and, because resources and time are finite, such adjustments are always approximate. Featuring contributions from leading international figures in human factors and safety, Resilience Engineering provides thought-provoking insights into system safety as an aggregate of its various components - subsystems, software, organizations, human behaviours - and the way in which they interact.

The ETTO Principle: Efficiency-Thoroughness Trade-Off

The ETTO Principle: Efficiency-Thoroughness Trade-Off
Author: Erik Hollnagel
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2017-11-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1317033604

Accident investigation and risk assessment have for decades focused on the human factor, particularly 'human error'. Countless books and papers have been written about how to identify, classify, eliminate, prevent and compensate for it. This bias towards the study of performance failures, leads to a neglect of normal or 'error-free' performance and the assumption that as failures and successes have different origins there is little to be gained from studying them together. Erik Hollnagel believes this assumption is false and that safety cannot be attained only by eliminating risks and failures. The ETTO Principle looks at the common trait of people at work to adjust what they do to match the conditions - to what has happened, to what happens, and to what may happen. It proposes that this efficiency-thoroughness trade-off (ETTO) - usually sacrificing thoroughness for efficiency - is normal. While in some cases the adjustments may lead to adverse outcomes, these are due to the very same processes that produce successes, rather than to errors and malfunctions. The ETTO Principle removes the need for specialised theories and models of failure and 'human error' and offers a viable basis for effective and just approaches to both reactive and proactive safety management.

Safety-I and Safety-II

Safety-I and Safety-II
Author: Erik Hollnagel
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2018-04-17
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1317059794

Safety has traditionally been defined as a condition where the number of adverse outcomes was as low as possible (Safety-I). From a Safety-I perspective, the purpose of safety management is to make sure that the number of accidents and incidents is kept as low as possible, or as low as is reasonably practicable. This means that safety management must start from the manifestations of the absence of safety and that - paradoxically - safety is measured by counting the number of cases where it fails rather than by the number of cases where it succeeds. This unavoidably leads to a reactive approach based on responding to what goes wrong or what is identified as a risk - as something that could go wrong. Focusing on what goes right, rather than on what goes wrong, changes the definition of safety from ’avoiding that something goes wrong’ to ’ensuring that everything goes right’. More precisely, Safety-II is the ability to succeed under varying conditions, so that the number of intended and acceptable outcomes is as high as possible. From a Safety-II perspective, the purpose of safety management is to ensure that as much as possible goes right, in the sense that everyday work achieves its objectives. This means that safety is managed by what it achieves (successes, things that go right), and that likewise it is measured by counting the number of cases where things go right. In order to do this, safety management cannot only be reactive, it must also be proactive. But it must be proactive with regard to how actions succeed, to everyday acceptable performance, rather than with regard to how they can fail, as traditional risk analysis does. This book analyses and explains the principles behind both approaches and uses this to consider the past and future of safety management practices. The analysis makes use of common examples and cases from domains such as aviation, nuclear power production, process management and health care. The final chapters explain the theoret

Critical Steps

Critical Steps
Author: Tony Muschara
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2021-11-22
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1000476812

Critical Steps happen every day at work and at home, purposefully. Work does not happen otherwise. If an operation has the capacity to do work, then it has the capacity to do harm. Work is energy directed by human beings to create value. But people are imperfect—we make mistakes, and sometimes we lose control of the work. Therefore, work is the use of force under conditions of uncertainty. A Critical Step is a human action that will trigger immediate, irreversible, and intolerable harm to an asset, if that action or a preceding action is performed improperly. Whether the human action involves clicking on a link attached to an e-mail message, walking down a flight of stairs with a newborn baby in arms, engaging the clutch on a gasoline-driven chain saw, or administering a medication to a patient in a hospital, these all satisfy the definition of what constitutes critical risks in our daily lives, professionally or personally. The overarching goal of managing Critical Steps is to maximize the success (safety, reliability, productivity, quality, profitability, etc.) of people’s performance in the workplace, to create value for the organization without losing control of built-in hazards necessary to create that value.

Pre-Accident Investigations

Pre-Accident Investigations
Author: Dr Todd Conklin
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2012-10-28
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1409483541

This book is a set of new skills written for the managers that drive safety in their workplace. This is Human Performance theory made simple. If you are starting a new program, revamping an old program, or simply interested in understanding more about safety performance, this guide will be extremely helpful.

The Human Element

The Human Element
Author: Dik Gregory
Publisher:
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2010-04-29
Genre: Merchant marine
ISBN: 9780115531200

Based on a wide range of consultations with maritime organisations, the guide was produced by organisational psychologists gs partnership ltd, for consortium partners UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency, BP Shipping, Teekay Marine Services, and the Standard P&I Club. Aimed at everyone in the shipping industry, the Guide explains the fundamental aspects of human behaviour, which together constitute what the commercial maritime sector calls 'the human element'. It makes clear that the human element is neither peripheral nor optional in the pursuit of a profitable and safe shipping industry. The Guide clearly shows that managing the human element must take place simultaneously at all levels of the industry. Analysis of continuing shipping disasters has increasingly implicated the human element. The loss of life, the impact on company profits and credibility, and the vast environmental damage that can result from the loss of even a single vessel remain clear. The Guide offers insight, explanation and advice to help manage the human element more effectively, more safely and more profitably.

The Field Guide to Human Error Investigations

The Field Guide to Human Error Investigations
Author: Sidney Dekker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 137
Release: 2017-11-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351786032

This title was first published in 2002: This field guide assesses two views of human error - the old view, in which human error becomes the cause of an incident or accident, or the new view, in which human error is merely a symptom of deeper trouble within the system. The two parts of this guide concentrate on each view, leading towards an appreciation of the new view, in which human error is the starting point of an investigation, rather than its conclusion. The second part of this guide focuses on the circumstances which unfold around people, which causes their assessments and actions to change accordingly. It shows how to "reverse engineer" human error, which, like any other componant, needs to be put back together in a mishap investigation.