Admiral Rickover’s Original High-Reliability Organization

Admiral Rickover Built the FIRST (and Perhaps Only) High-Reliability Organization – the Nuclear Navy.

Above is a picture of Captain Rickover before Congress forced the Navy to promote him to be an Admiral. The fight between the old Navy and Rickover could be a whole discussion on its own, but that’s not the topic of this article.

This article is about a session at the 2025 Global TapRooT® Summit that explains:

• How Rickover created the culture of the Nuclear Navy,
• Set high standards,
• Achieved exceptional performance (as Forbes magazine wrote: America’s Nuclear Navy is one of the oldest and largest nuclear organizations in the world and has the best safety record of any industry), and
• Left a tradition of high reliability that lived on to today (long after Admiral Rickover retired).

Not all the stories are success stories. There is room for improvement. But if you understand the standards maintained by the Nuclear Navy, you will realize why governmentally required regulations, such as OSHA PSM regulation and the EPA’s RMP, fall short and continue to allow process safety accidents to occur.

Who Will Tell the Story?

Mark Paradies, the speaker for this session, was interviewed by Admiral Rickover, served on two nuclear-powered ships, was qualified as an “Engineer” by NAVSEA 08 (the headquarters Nuclear Navy organization), and has studied Rickover’s methods for decades. Don’t be misled by academic studies of high-reliability organizations by people who have never achieved high-reliability. Mark (someone who has been there and paid the price) will explain why achieving high reliability is so difficult.

Session Details and Summit Info

Learn about Admiral Rickover and high-reliability organizations at the 2025 Global TapRooT® Summit, which will be held on October 1-3 at the Knoxville Convention Center in Knoxville, TN. This session will be held on October 3, 2025, from 10:00 to 10:50 a.m.

This session is in the High-Reliability Organization Best Practices Track. But you can customize your schedule and attend this session when you sign up for any of the eight tracks.

What else is in the High-Reliability Organization Best Practices Track? Here is the complete session list:

• Admiral Rickover’s Original High-Reliability Organization
• Peer Reviews & Inspections to Achieve High Compliance Panel Discussion
• Sharing Ideas to Achieve High-Reliability/Performance Roundtable
• Root Cause Analysis for High-Performance Organizations
• Fatigue and Human Error
• Procedure Writing and Use for High-Reliability
• Training Beyond the Mistake
• Mistakes By Design
• Lions, Tigers, and Bears, OH MY! Don’t Fear the Equifactor®

Plan to attend, network, and benchmark with others interested in operational excellence and high reliability.

What the other Best Practice Tracks?

• Human Performance Best Practices
• Improvement Program Best Practices
• Investigations & RCA Best Practices
• Safety & Risk Management Best Practices
• Maintenance & Reliability Best Practices
• Psychology of Improvement Best Practices
• Instructor Recertification Track
• High-Reliability Organization Best Practices

Want to see the sessions in a particular track? Click the link above. To see the complete 2025 Global TapRooT® Summit Schedule, CLICK HERE.

See the five Keynote Speakers topics HERE.

Download the eight-page Summit brochure HERE.

Pre-Summit Courses

Learn about the 11 special Pre-Summit Courses being held on September 29-30, 2025 (just before the Summit) by CLICKING HERE. Here is a list of all the courses to choose from…

• Analyzing and Adjusting Safety Culture
• Advanced Communications/Presentations Skills
• The Best Ways to Use Data to Improve Performance
• TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis Training
• Equifactor® Equipment Troubleshooting & TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis
• TapRooT® Advanced Case Study Workshop
• Stopping Human Error
• TapRooT® Software Training
• Auditing & Proactive Improvement Using TapRooT® RCA
• Interviewing & Evidence Collection
• Developing an Incident Command System

SAVE!

SAVE when you attend both the Summit and a pre-Summit Course. Save even more when you bring a team (up to $900 per person).

SUMMIT GUARANTEE

If you have any doubt about how worthwhile the Summit will be, let us remove all doubt with this GUARANTEE:

Attend the Global TapRooT® Summit. Go back to work and implement your roadmap to success. If you don’t save 10 times the cost of the Summit fee, let us know and return your Summit materials and we will refund 100% of the Summit registration fee. This guarantee shows how certain we are that you will learn valuable best practices to take your team’s performance—and that of your whole organization—to the next level.

That should make you feel comfortable about your decision to attend the 2025 Global TapRooT® Summit.

REGISTER NOW!

REGISTER for a Pre-Summit Course and the Summit by CLICKING HERE.