The gap between how work is imagined and how work happens sits at the heart of most safety problems. Todd Conklin hosts the Pre-Accident Investigation Podcast and helped shape Human and Organizational Performance, known as HOP. Steve McCrone joined me as co-host for this one.
Todd traces HOP from its roots in high-consequence industries to a framework used across many sectors. It grew out of the limits of behavior-based safety programs that focus on the worker.
Systems over blame
Todd explains why scared people don’t take scary jobs, and why high-risk work calls for systems thinking. He describes safety as a capacity an organization builds, a definition that goes further than the absence of harm.
The worker as problem solver
Todd’s central point is that the worker is the problem solver. Expertise exists at every level of an organization, and workers adapt every day to hold imperfect systems together. Leaders who see that can learn from the people doing the work.
Orientation sits at the center of John Boyd’s real OODA loop. HOP asks leaders to orient on work as it happens, with the people closest to it.
Where is the gap between work as imagined and work as done in your organization?
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