Human Factors Hub

Martin Anderson: Is your organisation susceptible to "normalisation of deviance"? Ten questions to ask

Many in health and social care may be unaware of the controversy surrounding the concept of Situation Awareness…it’s not what you think.

• In this Blog, Martin Anderson explores the concept, understanding and application in more detail

Another useful article by Martin Anderson on Alarm Management

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"When General Stanley McChrystal took over the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command[1] (JSOC) in Iraq during the mid-2000s, he inherited an organisation struggling to overcome the Al Qaeda insurgency plaguing the country. After a few weeks in the job, he realised his new team had been viewing their enemy through the wrong lens, and therefore had been using the wrong strategies to defeat them. Ultimately, this insight led him to revolutionise the Command’s structure, and challenge its very core beliefs about how it could win the war.

At the heart of McChrystal’s revolutionary strategy was an appreciation for the difference between systems that are complicated and those that are complex..."

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"Over the last decade, I have spent a lot of time listening to operational, technical, specialist, support and managerial staff in small groups around Europe. The conversations – aimed at learning about safety – have changed over the years. What started off as strongly facilitated workshops to interrogate safety culture questionnaire results, became only loosely based on questionnaire results, and more on what mattered to participants, but still with predetermined issues in mind. Finally, the conversations became much more open still. In small groups, we sat in a circle to understand the issues that mattered to the participants, concerning safety and the effectiveness of work more generally."

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