Human errors, human solutions?
The word ‘errors’ in ‘human errors’ occasionally is equated with ‘limitations’. As humans do not function like hardware, human errors are difficult to predict and avoid. Their causes are multifactorial and carry impactful consequences.
Even if quality engineers, psychologists and researchers have conducted a series of tests over the years, it remains difficult to answer the following question: How could we function better without adding a new layer of process, automatization or add more pressure? In this helicopter view we will focus on the fundamentals of being human and the strength of human capacities.
An overview
Myers-Briggs Test (MBTI), DISC Profiles and Insight Discovery are a few of the dozens of models focusing on the dimensions of being human: most of them are based on Carl Jung’s theory. The main points being two attitudes (extraversion and introversion) interacting with two rational functions (thinking and feeling). Simply put, each person’s characteristics will combine one attitude and one rational function.
- Extraversion and Introversion: Where do you put your attention and get your energy? Do you like to spend time in the outer world of people and things (Extraversion), or in your inner world of ideas and images (Introversion)?
- Thinking and Feeling. How do you like to make decisions? Do you like to put more weight on objective principles and impersonal facts (Thinking or task preference) or do you put more weight on personal concerns and the people involved (Feeling or relationship preference)?
Coming back to reducing human errors, I recall the James Reason’s Swiss Cheese model with successive layers of defenses with the personality perspectives on the work floor. In the following examples, I translated the layers of defense into ‘facilitators’.
Some examples
Quality Engineers (who are generally more “analytical”) prefer the ‘Procedural Facilitators’. Managers (who are highly visible within a company) prefer ‘Technical Facilitators’. When the rational function “Feeling”, as indicated by studies as the Insight Discovery training, is not concretized, a vicious circle starts: frustration, lack of attention, human errors, lack of confidence, more pressure, frustration…
Human factors are components to achieve project quality, as well as safety and productivity. If you are a manager developing a Corrective or Preventive Action plan, keep this in mind. Let’s re-equilibrate the kind of solutions you or your team proposes. Work culture and organizational facilitators are perhaps less tangible but will have a significant impact too. Examples are available in the next figure:
About the author: Christophe Oudot is expert in change management for Altran Belgium, in the Solution Center department. He helps large companies or associations to undertake collaborative cultures that respect the human being. He creates training materials and regularly organizes workshops around the themes of innovation, change management, team building and human factors.
Altran’s Solution Center focuses around providing (inter)national clients with solutions covering operational excellence, supply chain & manufacturing and health & safety.
Paloma Paes
ce ne sont pas no préférences qui nous guident dans notre vie active, les émotions jouent un grand rôle, sauf que 'PENSE' qu'on est plus objectifs et pragmatiques quand on aborde le sujet. le fait de ne pas être en parfaite concordance en soi même est une source d'erreurs, mais comprendre qui on est est le vrai problème à résoudre pour se 'SENTIR' sur la bonne voie. Entre ce qui est sentiment et pensée, il y'a un juste équilibre qui est très difficile d'atteindre, et c'est ce qui fait qu'on soit des humains, c'est qu'on fait des erreurs qui sont issue de contre balancement entre nos sentiments et nos pensées. De ce fait, quand on est dans une réunion de travail, notre comportement et nos 'considérations' par rapport a autrui, fait en sorte de soit se concentrer sur le problème à résoudre, soit sur ceux qui sont présents, et les comptes rendus ressortent erronés puisque les personnes se sentent en difficultés à bien s'exprimer et se concentrer sur les problèmes à résoudre, ce qui amène à des erreurs dans le travail. à la fin, s'il n'y a pas d'erreurs, il n'y aurait pas d’évolutions.
This is only the first step in "human error" understanding that everyone functions differently and therefore "read" the reality with a slight different angle. By the way pay attention to the fact that the presented typology is about preferences and natural reflexes and not competencies. The next step in analyzing "human error" is to understand the systemic aspects of errors. What is more and more often called today as collective intelligence. But this can only work if the first step is being taken into account Thank you Christophe, for your contribution
Myers-Briggs Test (MBTI), DISC Profiles and Insight Discovery have long been falsified as have the theories of Jung.