Back when I was studying my undergraduate degree some 20 years ago, I recall being introduced to personality testing. I quickly realised that my personality score could be influenced very easily - in essence I could cheat!
I also remember seeing the Stroop test which is a visual test of selective attention whereby you determine the font colours of words that are saying different colours...
Read more...There is a lot of excitement about the use of automation to combat human error or make things run faster, leaner and more productive.
Oh no! Another anti-automation rant from someone who could be out of a job if the world is run by machines and not people. Well I am not a naysayer to automation so you can rest easy.
Well I can say you can rest easy but in reality, those...
Read more...Having recently completed some work looking at how employees react to IT systems, it got me thinking. Many of the biggest errors that have happened in industry have focused on the interaction by the employee and IT. With so much money being spent on the usability or user friendliness on anything from your company intranet to your HR management system – why do people still struggle to use IT...
Read more...A customer recently asked me "what is the silver bullet" (the solution) when managing human error. The fact is there isn't one. If there was a silver bullet, we would have found it ages ago and there would be no more reports of human error.
To be honest, I am glad there isn't one, because all attention would turn to cutting corners, violating rules and regulations all in the name of...
Read more...Well not exactly. If we look at a lot of the cases of human error that have occurred in New Zealand, and worldwide; they focus on IT. We at HFEx Ltd see daily reports on confidentiality breaches, data security and compliance issues all attributed to human error. So surely if we were to conduct a root-cause analysis, it comes down to how the project delivering the relevant IT system was...
Read more...The reports of human error are coming in thick and fast. This year we have seen:
Accounts of human error have appeared in the press quite a lot In New Zealand over the past 3-4 years. A 'simple case of human error', or 'she'll be alright', are terms used on many occasions. Human error seems to becoming a bit of a buzz word when faced with negative media attention.
Now at risk of making my peers baulk and throw their organisational resilience and systems engineering...
Read more...Below is an article published in Skipper Magazine July/August 2013.
The question of human factors. By Karl Bridges
Even though I work in the field of human factors (also known as ergonomics) and have all the relevant qualifications, I know people know themselves better than I do; they know how they operate, what makes or breaks them, how hard they can work, what risks (if any)...
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