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Daved Vanstralen • October 10, 2013

Everybody wants to do better. The problem is how to learn and who do we learn from. With the increasing complexity of industry today there is also a focus on improving safety. This has brought in academics who observe operators but, during the observation, knowledge is lost. It has also created an industry of consultants who can bring safety and reliability to your program. We need the academics who can bring science to our experience. We need the consultants who can act as coaches, observing us and giving us methods to improve. I will not take away from them. I will offer methods to begin creating an HRO immediately. These come from my personal experience and from those whom I have worked with closely over the years.


I have taken my experiences and formed them into a list of topics. Over time my goal is to link experience with science and fill out the list of topics for you. It is important to maintain this linkage between experience and science to avoid the urban myth, the appeal of authority, and the loss of “street” knowledge during research.


What I discuss in my blog posts must be immediately useful to you. It must also be useful to anyone in the work column, from line worker through the middle manager to the executive. Some of it may be applicable to a few industries but it is my experience that the more industries a concept covers the more valid it is.



Please let me know what works for you and what you have problems understanding. I must also apply the principles of HRO to my blog, improving it, making it better every day. Thank you for your attention and spending your valuable time reviewing this material.


By Daved Vanstralen October 13, 2013
Engagement to solve problems creates High Reliability Organizing; withdrawal from the situation toward structure (rules and principles) or authority may be an anxiety response to uncertainty and threat.
By Daved Vanstralen October 12, 2013
Preoccupation with failure from my experience.
By Daved Vanstralen October 12, 2013
Further comments on preoccupation with failure in operational terms.
By Daved Vanstralen October 12, 2013
"Reluctance to simplify" in operational terms from my experience.
By Daved Vanstralen October 12, 2013
Further comments from operational experience with "Sensitivity to operations."
By Daved Vanstralen October 12, 2013
"Deference to expertise" from my operational experience.
By Daved Vanstralen October 12, 2013
Enactment, the process of engaging the situation and changing circumstances, is the basis for High Reliability Organizing.
By Daved Vanstralen October 12, 2013
"Sensitivity to operations" in operational terms from my experience.
By Daved Vanstralen October 11, 2013
Before I had heard of HRO, Dr. Ron Perkin and I created one in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
By Daved Vanstralen October 11, 2013
With the intent to give better service to referring Emergency Departments, we created a High Reliability Critical Care Transport Service
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