FEATURE PEOPLE RISK


Mary Clarke, CEO, Cognisco, provides a perspective on the Bavarian train incident and takes a look at the catastrophic effects of human error.


Human error is a term often used when companies are unable to blame systems, technology or processes when things go wrong. It has been used to explain countless major incidents and catastrophes, including the train crash in Bavaria, Germany on 9th February this year.


It seems human error took the lives of 11 people and injured at least 80 more when two passenger trains collided at 100kmh. The signaller of the train in question is currently facing involuntary manslaughter charges, with a possible five year jail term.


So why did the apparently well qualified area controller decide to open the track to two trains on a collision course, only to notify both drivers afterwards?


AN EXPERT OPINION James Reason, Professor of Psychology at Manchester University, sheds light on the role of human error in accident causation in his Swiss Cheese Model theory.


Reason says that 99.9% of the time a company’s systems, processes and people will align and work together despite small gaps in some places, with no issues. However, when holes and gaps in different layers shift and align then everything can change in an instant.


Thinking about the crash in terms of this theory, the majority of people want to do their best for their company, however, rightly or wrongly, people often navigate around standard procedures, processes, and best practice. There is a possibility that those on the train may have been told to work outside a process by their manager because it was quicker. These process tweaks can be effective, but they can expose a company.


Cognisco calls this exposing yourself to People Risk.


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So why does this happen? The typical responses from companies following catastrophic incidents are, ‘we’ll thoroughly review our processes’ and ‘we’ll invest in more training’. However, these initiatives won’t make any difference if the process or the training wasn’t the root cause.


If the process wasn’t followed, why would a different one work? What would be the benefit of more training for people who didn’t understand or apply correctly what they had learned? Why should anything change?


THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX A different approach must be applied to support the infrastructure.


It would be better if organisations had insight into what their people actually understood about their role from the training provided and the embedded processes.


Every organisation would benefit from insight into gaps in understanding across whole teams and whole organisations. Everyone could then have the specific learning, training and support they need, and the company would avoid ‘sheep dipping’ everyone with the same ‘solutions’.


A PERSON-CENTRED


APPROACH With a well-rounded view of every individual’s understanding, capability and confidence, companies could identify and mitigate risk more easily. Having people-centred data that aligns to people, their understanding, their capability and their confidence in real time will enable companies to address their people risks.


Such data is available and is transforming how some of the largest and most well respected organisations operate globally.


Cognisco are working with a plethora of companies to help them access real time data about their employee’s capabilities. When such data is


“HAVING PEOPLE- CENTRED DATA


THAT ALIGNS TO PEOPLE, THEIR


UNDERSTANDING,


THEIR CAPABILITY AND THEIR CONFIDENCE IN REAL TIME WILL


ENABLE COMPANIES TO ADDRESS THEIR PEOPLE RISKS.”


underpinned by robust systems, technology and processes too, companies can see many benefits.


They can make strategic people-based decisions with confidence, make better use of the skills of their employees and retain, develop and attract the best talent. Such data can be used to evidence regulatory compliance, decrease risk and reduce the cost of audit and litigation.


www.cognisco.com www.tomorrowshs.com


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