It occurs to me that we can use the categories of human
factors skills to classify some of the most common types of error that
occur in child protection.
Doing that might help us spot more easily a
mistake while it is occurring – allowing us to mitigate it, or even avoid it,
before it is too late.
We can also use the framework to review work that
has involved mistakes and so address the issue of how they may be avoided in future.
I won’t pretend that this is a scientific
classification. Its value is largely heuristic. Accordingly I’ve tried to give
different types of errors names that are memorable.
I’m going to follow this post up with one for each
of the six skill areas. If you read around the human factors literature you will see that various authors divide
the skills into slightly different categories (e.g. Flin et al [1] have eight categories). That doesn’t really matter, I
find the way I divide them up is convenient for me and I hope it is useful for
you.
My six categories are:
·
Situation
awareness - the ability to know, through attention and perception, what is
happening in a given environment
·
Decision-making
- how to make good judgements or good choices of options
·
Authority/challenge
- understanding the risks of situations in which rules or powerful
individuals or dominant groups may appear to mandate particular outcomes; and
knowing how to challenge authority appropriately and constructively and how to
be challenged and how to welcome challenge
·
Communication
- understanding the factors which inhibit good communication, such as
ambiguity, ‘noise’ or information overload; and understanding how to improve
personal and organisational communication practices and to develop enhanced skills
in communicating with others
·
Leadership
and Teamwork - thinking more creatively about how to work in teams and being
aware of some of the risks of team working; understanding how leaders are
selected and how they operate effectively
·
Working in
difficult conditions - recognising the impact of fatigue and stress on all
the above areas and in work generally
My next post will be about Situation Awareness –
so watch this space.
Notes
[1] Flin, R, O'Connor, P. and Crichton, M. Safety at the Sharp End: a guide to non-technical skills Farnham: Ashgate 2008
