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  • The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error'

  • By: Sidney Dekker
  • Narrated by: Sidney Dekker
  • Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (29 ratings)

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The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error'

By: Sidney Dekker
Narrated by: Sidney Dekker
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Publisher's Summary

When faced with a human error problem, you may be tempted to ask "Why didn't these people watch out better?" Or, "How can I get my people more engaged in safety?"

You might think you can solve your safety problems by telling your people to be more careful, by reprimanding the miscreants, by issuing a new rule or procedure and demanding compliance. These are all expressions of "The Bad Apple Theory" where you believe your system is basically safe if it were not for those unreliable people in it.

Building on its successful predecessors, the third edition of The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error' will show a new way of dealing with a perceived "human error" problem in your organization. It will help you trace how your organization juggles inherent trade-offs between safety and other pressures and expectations, suggesting that you are not the custodian of an already safe system. It will encourage you to start looking more closely at the performance that others may still call "human error", allowing you to discover how your people create safety through practice, at all levels of your organization, mostly successfully, under the pressure of resource constraints and multiple conflicting goals. 

The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error' will help you understand how to move beyond "human error"; how to understand accidents; how to do better investigations; how to understand and improve your safety work. You will be invited to think creatively and differently about the safety issues you and your organization face. In each, you will find possibilities for a new language, for different concepts, and for new leverage points to influence your own thinking and practice, as well as that of your colleagues and organization. If you are faced with a human error problem, abandon the fallacy of a quick fix. Listen to this audio.

©2014 Sidney Dekker (P)2018 Sidney Dekker

What listeners say about The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error'

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This has made me think in a completely different way

I love that I am now looking at things in a different way when it comes to incident/near miss investigation. It’s so easy to blame “human error” but after listening to this book it completely debunks “human error” and helps you to understand how to see what actually led up to an incident/near miss and why.

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  • Liz
  • 26-09-2020

informative

Great overview of the concept of human error. A useful perspective to assist uncovering flaws in systems and creating safer environments.

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  • Adrienne Ashcraft
  • 13-07-2021

Amazing

Incredibly thought provoking from the first to last word! Absolute must read whether you are in the safety field or not.

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  • Davis
  • 28-07-2019

Must read for incident managers

This book shows several uncommon, yet very logical, approaches to analysing incidents/accidents involving so called "human errors".
This book helps to move from human blaming (or eye-closing in blameless postmortems) to systematic analysis of the situation involving "human error".

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  • David R Owens
  • 20-04-2019

Excellent

Excellent progressive view of human error. Valuable and practical approach to improving safety performance. Highly recommend for safety professional, but even more for the manager.

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  • Adrian
  • 08-06-2018

Great work mate

Great work see you at the next QLD Safety Differently Master Class. Cheers from a long time follow. AT

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  • Shea T. Melton
  • 30-11-2022

Good information, but…

I thought the author presented decent points but it felt intentionally wordy. I got it. You own a thesaurus.

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  • Jose
  • 19-11-2022

One of my best reads!!!

It's explain in a new view how human error is viewed. And it makes a lot of sense.

if you like operational research or simply organization process, it's a must!!!

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  • Rob
  • 08-05-2022

MUST READ

This is a must read for anyone involved in safety science, safety management, improvement science, and all leaders. Sidney Dekker changes the landscape on organizational complications and “failures” that are a part of day to day work, that happen to people who came to work that day with the best of intentions. Blaming them really only weakens your organization.

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  • jayson pagan
  • 21-11-2021

awesome content

I only wish someone else read it. His voice can put you to sleep but great content.

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  • Zack Tyler
  • 23-06-2021

A must read for anybody in industry

Sydney's book challenges professionals to examine safety from a different point of view. I think it should be required reading for all safety departments, as well as all levels of management in all companies, big or small.

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  • NAVY04
  • 28-12-2019

Well thought, Well Studied, and On Point!

I’ve spent over 15 years working onboard nuclear powered submarines - incredibly complex machines that require volumes of procedures and policies to operate safely. I found Sydney’s work profound to not only to my work but to future analysis of failures for any industry that builds and operates complex technology. The author is quite boorish in his narration, but the content is great and worth a listen.

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  • Mika Julin
  • 05-07-2023

Quality managers and engineers need this

A great listen and applicable not only to safety but also to industrial quality issues. There are no human errors, only systems and incentives that produce and allow humans to operate it in an unsafe, poor quality way.

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  • Alex Eastabrook
  • 21-02-2020

If you enjoy Air-crash Investigations Read this !

I was clued in on this book from the Youtube Video "Who Destroyed Three Mile Island? - Nickolas Means".
It is a great book that talks realistically about Human Factors and Safety Culture.

I would recommend this book for anyone who has authority in Safety in their organisation, as it provides a good template on how to install a good approach for improving the system.

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  • H
  • 31-01-2020

Some good insights

Some interesting insights and anacdotes. Overall, not the most thrilling subject, but good to know all the same.

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  • Manfred
  • 30-11-2018

A management must

A good ready for any senior manager regardless of industry or role. Could & should be applied thinking to food safety, QC, H&S, Operational root cause and HR investigations.

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