This book outlines how you can take the lessons learned in the aviation industry and apply these in your organisation to improve organisational resilience and performance, reduce errors and utilise the full potential of your people. Over the past 40 years, the aviation industry has pioneered ‘human factors’ programs specifically designed to improve teamwork and reduce error-making. The findings from aircraft accident investigations have resulted in improvements in aviation technology, automation and, importantly, processes and procedures to address human error and poor teamwork, otherwise known as ‘human factors.’ We can learn a lot from this rich experience. The principles underpinning human factors programs developed in the aviation industry can be applied to your organisation too – in fact, to any place where humans operate. You don’t have to operate in high risk industries to benefit from adopting these concepts. Errors matter. A poor business decision or a misreading of the market might result in a lost business opportunity or, even worse, a business closure which impacts your livelihood and that of your staff and their families. When information which is common knowledge in the marketing department is not shared with the production department, market share may well be lost. Imagine if we could reduce the number of errors that happen by half? Half the number of missed business opportunities or avoidable business failures, half the amount of time spinning our wheels correcting errors. The Human Factor shines a light on human fallibility and error-making, and explores the simple principles and practices used in the aviation industry to improve safety and efficiency through the adoption of human factors thinking. This thinking can be applied to your organisation too, to boost business performance, reduce errors and get the best from your people.
