SH22: The Need for a Different Perspective

In this podcast episode, the focus is on the significance of learning from diving incidents, accidents, and near-misses, as these provide valuable lessons for safety improvement. While media attention tends to center on fatalities, the episode argues that a "Just Culture," emphasizing a psychologically-safe environment for open conversation, can promote better learning from incidents and near-misses. It addresses the prevalent tendency to blame individuals for adverse outcomes, highlighting the limitations of this approach, which doesn't consider the context or conditions that lead to these events. The episode introduces two contrasting perspectives: the Individual Blame Logic (IBL), which attributes incidents to individual choices and seeks to assign blame, and the Organisational Function Logic (OFL), which identifies systemic factors that influence outcomes and aims to improve the system. Through a case example, it illustrates how the OFL approach reveals multiple organizational and latent conditions. In conclusion, it underscores the importance of the OFL in creating a safer and more learning-oriented environment compared to the punitive IBL, which tends to conceal learning opportunities.   Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/who-to-blame-what-to-learn Links: A review of LiteratureIndividucal Blame vs Organisational Functional Logics in Accident Analysis. Catino, 2008: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227822215_A_Review_of_Literature_Individual_Blame_vs_Organizational_Function_Logics_in_Accident_Analysis Tags: - English, Decision-Making, Gareth Lock, Just Culture