Human error can adversely affect many aspects of what we do each day, at home or at work. And the results can be costly, even tragic. Ships running aground, explosions, spills, incorrect shipments, patients receiving the wrong medication, damaged equipment hampering production and profits ─ these are only some of the possible results. For over 25 years, I’ve studied and addressed the various human factors that cause errors. Let me share some of my findings and suggest some skills needed to reduce, and even eliminate, them.

How Understanding Error Can Improve Business

Business leaders today need to identify methods to prevent errors in all aspects of their operations. Understanding the causes of human error and how to reduce them can improve:

• The quality of systems, products and services; and
• The safety, health and well-being of employees, customers and the public

Regardless of their position or level of experience, everyone operating in the marketplace needs to work optimally, with the least chance for error. In this way, organizations become more successful and better able to carry out their missions, minimizing negative consequences.

Corporate Contributions to Human Error

People respond to their environments and your corporate culture may be contributing to an error-prone workplace. For example:

1. A Demanding Marketplace
Today’s business climate is demanding and fast-paced. Competition is fierce and businesses need to deliver in all circumstances. This creates a challenge for preventing errors. Personnel must be highly trained, capable and aware. They must be able to think in a multi-dimensional manner, focus, respond to changing situations, make good decisions and perform under pressure.

2. Organization-Based Confusion
Thus far, the 21st century has been characterized by near-constant organizational change and uncertainty. Flux, in the form of mergers, reorganizations, re-engineering, downsizing, upsizing and “right-sizing,” not to mention “dot-coming” and “Enron-izing,” are the norm. Levels of distraction and errors in judgment are compounded when employees are worried about their company’s and their own future.

3. Industry Changes
It’s not only negative changes that distract employees. Increased production demands, new equipment, increased responsibilities, cross-training and new management initiatives also play a part.

4. A Culture of Stress
Stress is at record levels in many workplaces. When researching the causes of incidents for a major chemical company, my colleagues and I found stress to be a contributing factor in incident causation. Whether related to personal or organizational concerns, stress can cause people to become distracted, as well as lose confidence and can feed into distrust of their co-workers and management. Stress can also erode employee relations, communications, cooperation and teamwork, ultimately affecting the quality of work, safety, health and environmental performance and increase the likelihood of error.

Conclusion

These are the effects of business on human errors. Of course, there are other factors, too. We’ll take a look at those next week.

MEMBER REPLIES

Last week’s article by Catherine Jones on training lessons learned while sailing fluttered a few sails. Here’s what some readers had to say on the subjects of communications and responsibilities:

Know Your Subject

I would like to add another possible communications failure: The instructor/speaker is not qualified or does not have sufficient knowledge of the subject that they are trying to communicate about.

Safety professionals are required to handle a multitude of tasks which requires a wide range of knowledge in many different fields that often require specialization skills. There is an old saying, “jack of all trades and master of none.” It applies to nearly everyone, including safety professionals. Do not try and educate someone on something that you don’t know or that you know just enough to get by on. Don’t try to wing your way through it. You can lose respect and your credibility. On topics like that, use an experienced employee or a vender/consultant that knows the subject thoroughly and assist them by having them highlight the areas that you may have concern about. Some training topics require the trainer to be degreed and/or certified.

Reggie Brown
FWUSA-HSES

Safety’s a Two-Way Street

I may have missed it in the article but I didn’t see anywhere that indicated you informed the instructor about your physical limitations. The photo shot of you doesn’t point to someone out who appears to be physically incapable of pulling/lifting themselves up on/into a boat. Yes, the instructor may have been the one to ask, but on many of these issues I always feel it’s a two-way street. 

Don Tomczyk
HR Dept.

The Real Responsibility Lies …

While “Trainers” do need to take responsibility for communication problems, “Trainees” also need to take responsibility and not just blame instructors when things go awry.

In your sailing analogy/story, the “Trainer” isn’t responsible for your weak shoulder inability, you are. You should have questioned the weight of the boat and realized that it was beyond your limit. You are the one alone in the water and thus the responsibility falls on you. Why you didn’t know the limitations of the weight you could shoulder is not the trainer’s fault. Did you tell him of your injury? Were they aware you had a limited shoulder?

As for the life vest, again it falls on you. You are the one wearing the darn thing and it is designed for your safety. Take responsibility for your actions and correct it.

People should look within first and foremost, then look externally afterwards. We must all take responsibility for our actions and realize when we have erred. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes as long as we learn from them. I just feel that North America is losing this. Safety managers would benefit from workers taking responsibility first and foremost instead of looking to inadequacies in their training. Having said that, safety managers must also provide the proper foundation for the workers to learn properly.

There will always be a gray area/chasm/void between the two, but it will be easier to bridge this when both sides accept responsibility and try to work together towards a better working solution.

Steve Gemmiti
Safety Compliance Coordinator

TRAINING BLOOPERS
True experiences that trainers would like to forget

Hammer Time

Several years ago, while I was working at a large refinery in southwest Louisiana, we invited a sales person onsite to demonstrate a new cool-vest to guard against heat stress. The vest had small gel-filled plastic packs that fit into pockets when worn and could be frozen in a regular freezer and replaced when they melted. The frozen plastic packs draw heat from wearers’ bodies, keeping them cool while working.

I was concerned about how strong these plastic packs were. The salesperson explained that to test the strength of a pack, a car was driven over them, but they didn’t burst. He invited me to stab the plastic pack with a screwdriver to test its strength, which I did several times.

Satisfied that these plastic packs were tough enough, I headed out to the field to sell this new option to the workers. Sitting around in a crowed lunchroom during the crew’s lunch break, I described the advantages of this new cool vest. As anticipated, the question came up about the pack’s strength.

Being confident and wanting to make a good impression, I said, “Watch this.”

Everyone gathered around as I placed a plastic pack on the table. I raised my right hand over my head, made a fist and slammed down on the plastic pack as hard as I could. The plastic pack exploded. Gel and oily liquids sprayed all over the room, onto employees, the walls, floors and in their food.

After a momentary delay of shock, I immediately picked up another plastic pack and said, “Let me try this again.”

Needless to say it never got that far. I had to buy several people lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning their break room. There were no injuries and the cool vests never took off. The plastic pack was sent to the manufacturer’s lab for analysis and it was discovered that that plastic pack had been used in repeated demonstrations and had weakened over time from being stabbed with sharp objects and smashed repeatedly.

After that episode I was referred to by the employees in that unit as “the Hammer.”

Paul Duplachan, CSP
Manager Health, Safety & Security
ISP Elastomers Port Neches, TX

Do you have a training blooper you’d like to share with SafetyXChange readers? Send them to catherinej@bongarde.com and let me know if we can use your name/company name.

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