Here is a list of books that are worth reading.

Work-As-Done vs. Work-As-Imagined

EUROCONTROL Hindsight 25 – Summer 2017

Freely available: http://bit.ly/2uAdgCW

For those who know the new editor in Chief of Hindsight Magazine, there was little surprise in the title of this summer edition. Steven Shorock has been studying human factors in various industries for over 20 years. Strongly influenced by systems thinking, he is convinced of the Just Culture principle that people don’t come to work to do a bad job. In this edition, you will find articles from academics, front-line operators (pilots, controllers, healthcare workers) and even judges. A must read for all those who already experienced the gap between theory (procedures) and real world practice…

Safety At The Interfaces: Collaboration At Work

EUROCONTROL Hindsight 26 – Winter 2017

Freely available: http://bit.ly/2ChdUor

This issue explores safety at the interfaces between functions, departments, professions, organisations, even countries. None of these does anything of value alone; it is the interaction between them that produces something of value. This requires collaboration, between individuals, between people and machines, and between groups, organisations, and States. But how do we collaborate? What gets in the way of collaboration? How might we collaborate?

Unstable Approaches (3rd edition): Risk Mitigation Policies, Procedures and Best Practices

IFALPA (December 2017)

Freely available: http://bit.ly/2ECxKA0

This 3rd edition has been collaboratively written by IATA, CANSO, IFATCA and IFALPA to address the challenges surrounding unstable approaches, a major contributor to accidents. Despite improvements in the safety of operations, there remains a risk of an approach and landing accident, including hard landing, runway excursion, and other accident categories. A stable approach means that the aircraft will arrive at the runway in the correct configuration, at the correct speed and power setting, as well as on the correct lateral and vertical path. An unstable approach is where one or more of these parameters is incorrect, and as a result carries an increased risk of an approach and landing incident and/or accident.

A Life in Error, From Little Slips to Big Disasters

James Reason (2013)

Ashgate Publishing, Surrey – 133 pages, ca. 25Eur

This small but absorbing book covers the main way stations on James Reason’s 40-year journey in pursuit of the nature and varieties of human error. In it he presents an engrossing and very personal perspective, offering the reader exceptional insights, wisdom and wit. The journey begins with a bizarre absent-minded action slip committed by Professor Reason in the early 1970s – putting cat food into the teapot – and continues up to the present day, conveying his unique perceptions into a variety of major accidents that have shaped his thinking about unsafe acts and latent conditions. A Life in Error charts the development of his seminal and hugely influential work from its original focus into individual cognitive psychology through the broadening of scope to embrace social, organizational and systemic issues. The voyage recounted is both hugely entertaining and educational, imparting a real sense of how. Jim’s groundbreaking theories changed the way we think about human error, and why he is held in such esteem around the world wherever humans interact with technological systems.

Pre-Accident Investigations

Todd Conklin (2012)

Ashgate Publishing, Surrey – 140 pages, ca. 25Eur

Sometimes hard work doesn’t seem to pay off. This is true in all sectors and all departments – also the safety department. If you feel that your job has become merely administrative, probably you aren’t speaking the right “management” language. Enter Todd Conklin. As a senior advisor at Los Alamos National Laboratory – i.e. the place where the first atomic bomb was built – Conklin is a man with a plan. And the good news is he is willing to share it with you. A small, practical and above all handy toolkit for managers and staff who want to get the safety train moving.

Just Culture (3rd edition): Restoring Trust and Accountability in Your organisation

Sidney Dekker (2017)

CRC Press, Boca Raton -164 pages

This third edition of Sidney Dekker’s extremely successful Just Culture offers new material on restorative justice and ideas about why your people may be breaking rules. Supported by extensive case material, you will learn about safety reporting and honest disclosure, about retributive just culture and about the criminalization of human error. Some suspect a just culture means letting people off the hook. Yet they believe they need to remain able to hold people accountable for undesirable performance. In this new edition, Dekker asks you to look at ‘accountability’ in different ways. One is by asking which rule was broken, who did it, whether that behavior crossed some line, and what the appropriate consequences should be. In this retributive sense, an ‘account’ is something you get people to pay, or settle. But who will draw that line? And is the process fair? Another way to approach accountability after an incident is to ask who was hurt. To ask what their needs are. And to explore whose obligation it is to meet those needs. Dekker is not for the faint hearted and you will find yourself re-reading pages to grasp the idea. His academic writing style requires effort, but then again the subject is complex.