7 Sharp or Blunt End?
Reactions to failure focus firstly and predominantly on those people who were closest to producing or potentially avoiding the mishap. It is easy to see these people as the engine of action. If it were not for them, the trouble would not have occurred.
Someone called me on the phone from London, wanting to know how it was possible that train drivers ran red lights. Britain had just suffered one of its worst rail disasters—this time at Ladbroke Grove near Paddington station in London. A commuter train had run head-on into a high-speed intercity coming from the other direction. Many travelers were killed in the crash and ensuing fire. The investigation returned a verdict of “human error”. The driver of the commuter train ...
Get The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
