Episode Summary

Welcome back to the Safety of Work podcast. On today’s episode, we are discussing how a trade-off decision is made between production and safety.

Episode Notes

We use the paper, Articulating the Differences Between Safety and Resilience, in order to frame our chat.

Topics:

  • How to navigate competing operational goals.
  • Why there isn’t a lot of great theory about goal conflicts.
  • Exploring how people make decisions.
  • How dealing with risk gives you expertise.
  • Piece-rate contracting strategies.
  • Why simulations can hurt or help.

Quotes:

“So, you’re constantly in this fuzzy boundary of, well, we’ve made the trade-off for safety, but how do we know that we had to make it?

“Step one was to do what we suggested is necessary for a lot of safety research; which is to get out there and to at least spend some time watching it correctly in context.”

“We need to be very mindful of piece-rate contracting strategies…which is that contractors don’t get paid if the work doesn’t get done.”

Resources:

Morel, G., Amalberti, R., & Chauvin, C. (2008). Articulating the differences between safety and resilience: the decision-making process of professional sea-fishing skippersHuman factors50(1), 1-16.

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