Insights from the Eddistone Team
Practical thinking on resilience, emergency and crisis management, technical safety, exercises and organisational preparedness.
Human Factors – Communication
Communication is fundamental to working efficiently and safety. It seems straightforward to expect a high level of skill and effectiveness for teams working in high hazard contexts such as chemical processing and storage facilities. But when we take a closer look we find that problems with communication are regularly cited as significant contributing factors to [...]
Crisis Management & Bias
Some of the most challenging and rewarding work we do is around crisis management teams under pressure. Whether the pressure is real or simulated, we get to watch leaders perform in a ‘pressure cooker’, often with interesting results. The ‘pressure cooker’ tends to amplify some behaviours. We’ve been looking at how bias is amplified and [...]
Learning from aviation research and development
When things go wrong in aviation the consequences are usually severe and because of this the industry has long been at the forefront of safety research and development. Not only have aircraft become increasingly reliable, but advancements in the understanding of human performance have also contributed to better safety performance. Over the years, a range [...]
Competency maintenance needs regular input
In the last five months two customers have postponed strategic Crisis Management training at group level because of COVID-19 and an operational issue. Postponing Crisis Management training because of an operational interruption is like running a bus company that have repeated crashes and postponing refreshing the driver’s skills… Introducing delays like this is quite short-sighted [...]
Training evaluation demonstrates return on investment
Organisations continue to invest heavily in training however it remains the case that many do not collect the information required to determine the usefulness and impact of their training programmes. Techniques remain unevaluated, transfer remains unmeasured and return on investment is considered too difficult to establish. Organisations often simply rely on initial delegate reactions as [...]
Human Factors – Managing fatigue in 24/7 operations
Many high-hazard industries require 24/7 operations. Complex site processes need to run continuously and this necessitates long hours of shift work. This also means the potential for human fatigue needs to be considered as a risk factor. Fatigue is acknowledged to be a significant safety concern and history shows that it has contributed to many [...]