By: Rob Roloson, AGC Safety Management Consultant
Nobody is perfect. It is a universal truth that we all know to be true. Our brains are built to learn through trial and error, and making mistakes is the primary way we learn, gain wisdom, and adapt to our environment. Bad judgment leads to experience, and experience leads to good judgment. So why do we expect workers to be perfect on a dynamic job site while managing multiple tasks under pressure from budgets, workloads, and deadlines?
Human and Operational Performance (HOP) is a science-based philosophy that transforms how organizations view errors and manage safety. It shifts your organization’s culture from blaming individuals for mistakes they will inevitably make to fixing broken systems and implementing controls on a job site. HOP acknowledges that human error is inevitable, but catastrophic failure is preventable.
The Five Core Principles of HOP
The foundation of HOP rests on five interrelated principles that guide organizational culture and operational design.
- People make errors: Human error is inevitable. Even the most experienced workers make mistakes daily. Acknowledging this fact allows organizations to focus on minimizing its impact rather than denying its occurrence.
- Error is predictable: Most errors are traps that occur because of poor processes, situational or environmental conditions, or task demands exceeding capabilities. These error precursors increase the likelihood of a human error.
- Blame fixes nothing: Punishing employees drives the errors underground and stops organizational learning. Disciplinary actions must be focused intentionally and not to punish mistakes.
- Learning is vital: Organizations must study how work actually happens, not just how it is planned. Organizational culture needs to adopt a growth mindset that focuses on continuous improvement.
- Response matters: How leaders respond to failure is critical and may dictate the future safety culture of an organization.
A central concept in HOP is understanding that there is a gap between how work is planned and how work is done. Work is planned by management, designers, and written procedures. Work is performed by employees who are constantly adapting to real-world (often messy) realities. HOP strives to bridge this gap by aligning procedures with the reality in the field. The ultimate goal is to build resilience and defenses into the system such that mistakes can happen without severely injuring a worker in the process. By understanding error precursors, implementing control measures, and learning from past mistakes, companies can create a highly adaptable, safe, and high-performing workforce. We just need to stop trying to fix the worker and focus on fixing the work.
For more information on HOP, check out the National Association of Safety Professionals, the National Safety Council, or SAIF.
This article was written with an assist from AI.