Human Performance Fundamentals
A New Way of Thinking

PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN PERFORMANCE

Part of the 'new way of thinking' about human performance is expressed in five simple statements referred to as the Principles or underlying truths of human performance. Excellence in human performance can only be realized when individuals at all levels of the organization accept these principles and embrace concepts and practices that support them. These principles are the foundation blocks for the behaviors described and promoted in this Standard. Integrating these principles into management and leadership practices, worker practices, and the organization's processes and values will be instrumental in developing a working philosophy and implementing strategies for improving human performance within your organization

1. People are fallible, and even the best people make mistakes.

Error is universal. No one is immune regardless of age, experience, educational level, status of health or any other demographic discriminator. The saying "to err is human" is indeed a truism. It is human nature to be imprecise — to err. Consequently, error will happen. No amount of counseling, training, or motivation can alter a person's fallibility. Dr. James Reason, author of Human Error (1990) wrote: It is crucial that personnel and particularly their managers become more aware of the human potential for errors, the task, workplace, and organizational factors that shape their likelihood and their consequences. Understanding how and why unsafe acts occur is the essential first step in effective error management.

2. Error-likely situations are predictable, manageable, and preventable.

Despite the inevitability of human error in general, specific errors are preventable. ^viiCenter for Chemical Process Safety. Guidelines for Preventing Human Error in Process safety, American Institute of Chemical Engineers. 1994, pp.12-17, 103-107. Just as we can predict that a person writing a personal check at the beginning of a new year stands a good chance of writing the previous year on the check, a similar prediction can be made within the context of work at the job site. Rigorously structuring one's thinking (focusing attention) can help people identify error traps that provoke errors more consistently prior to performing the task or activity. Recognizing error traps and actively communicating these hazards to others proactively manages situations and prevents the occurrence of error. By changing the work situation to prevent, remove, or minimize the presence of conditions that provoke error, task and individual factors at the job site can be managed to prevent, or at least minimize, the chance for error.

3. Individual behavior is influenced by organizational processes and values.

Organizations are goal-directed and as such their processes and values are developed to direct the behavior of the individuals in the organization. The organization mirrors the sum of the ways work is divided into distinct jobs and then coordinated to conduct work and generate deliverables safely and reliably. Management is in the business of directing workers' behaviors. Historically, management of human performance has focused on the "individual error-prone or apathetic workers." ^viiiReason. Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents. 1998, p.127. Work is achieved, however, within the context of the organizational processes, culture, and management planning and control systems. It is exactly these phenomena that contribute most of the causes of human performance problems and resulting facility events. ^ixDemming. Out of the Crisis. 1986, p.315.

4. People achieve high levels of performance largely because of the encouragement and reinforcement received from leaders, peers, and subordinates.

The organization is perfectly tuned to get the performance it receives from the workforce. All human behavior, good and bad, is reinforced, whether by immediate consequences or by past experience. A behavior is reinforced by the consequences that an individual experiences when the behavior occurs. ^xDaniels. Bringing Out the Best in People. 1994, pp.8-9. The level of safety and reliability of a facility is directly dependent on the behavior of people. Further, human performance is a function of behavior. Because behavior is influenced by the consequences workers experience, what happens to workers when they exhibit certain behaviors is an important factor in improving human performance. Positive and immediate reinforcement for expected behaviors is ideal.

5. Events can be avoided through an understanding of the reasons mistakes occur and application of the lessons learned from past events (or errors).

Traditionally, improvement in human performance has resulted from corrective actions derived from an analysis of facility events and problem reports — a method that reacts to what happened in the past. Learning from our mistakes and the mistakes of others is reactive — after the fact, but important for continuous improvement. Human performance improvement today requires a combination of both proactive and reactive approaches. Anticipating how an event or error can be prevented is proactive and is a more cost-effective means of preventing events and problems from developing.