Answers will vary but may include any response from the bullets listed below the “HRO ~ The Five Basic Principles” in High Reliability Organizing – What It Is, Why It Works, How to Lead It (included as a student handout). After the engineers successfully conduct a test on a $5,000,000 piece of equipment to ensure it can withstand impact, Steve Silverman leaves the engineers to conduct a postmortem exercise. What is a postmortem exercise? What is a premortem exercise? Discuss in your group your experiences conducting premortem and postmortem exercises. Answers will vary. See definitions provided in High Reliability Organizing – What It Is, Why It Works, How to Lead It (included as a student handout). Scientists and engineers worked together to ensure the success of the MER project. In your groups, discuss the following quote and possible similarities found within the wildland fire service: “There’s a natural built-in creative tension between the science and the engineering. And ultimately, even though it gets people kind of riled up sometimes, it works to the benefit of the system.”
HIGH RELIABILITY ORGANIZING WHAT IT IS, WHY IT WORKS, HOW TO LEAD IT (Derived from the BLM Fire and Aviation Directorate’s Division of Fire Operations March 2010 HRO training session) HRO – Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe cite wildland firefighting crews as one example of a high reliability organization in their book, Managing The Unexpected – Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty. They ask their readers to use our organization as a benchmark, “not because they ‘have it right’ but because they struggle to get it right on a continuous basis.” HRO: A Donna Hunter explained to attendees that HROs are developed more through discipline than following a recipe for success. The goal of HRO is to have employees operate in a hyper-vigilant state of mind. Hyper-vigilant employees “recognize even subtle signals, and know that the signal was significant in context.” Quoting Karlene Roberts in New Challenges to Understanding Organizations, Hunter noted that employees in HROs: Seek perfection but never expect to achieve it. Demand complete safety but never expect it. Dread surprise but always anticipate it. Deliver reliability but never take it for granted. Live by the book but are unwilling to die by it. The four key pillars for sustainable risk management taken from James Reason’s Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents are: Reporting Culture ~ Safety cultures are dependent on knowledge gained from near misses, mistakes, and other “free lessons.” People must feel willing to discuss their own errors in an open, non-punitive environment. Just Culture ~ An atmosphere of trust where people are encouraged to provide essential information yet a clear line is drawn between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Flexible Culture ~ One that adapts to changing demands by flattening hierarchies and deferring to expertise regardless of rank. Learning Culture ~ The combination of candid reporting, justice, and flexibility enables people to witness best practices and learn from ongoing hazard identification and new ways to cope with them. To be a premier organization we must: Feed the learning back into the organizations Encourage team members to ask critical questions.