Develop a Custom Human Performance Improvement Program
How to Make Your Own Custom Human Performance Improvement Program
Do you need to improve human performance? Have you seen the complex, one size fits all programs that seem too hard to implement? Does the program seem like it might work but you don’t understand the human factors basis that underlies the program? Then maybe you need to develop a custom human performance improvement program.
How can you get the knowledge you need to develop a custom human performance improvement program? Read on to find out how it is done…
What Do YOU Need To Know About Human Performance?
The first thing you need to know is that the human performance that was acceptable long ago (the oilfield hands above in 1927) is not acceptable today. And the human performance we have today won’t be acceptable 10 to 20 years from now.
That’s right! You will have to continuously improve human performance just to keep up with ever-escalating expectations. And continuously improving requires a plan and a program that can constantly be improved.
But before you start developing a custom human performance improvement program, you should probably know something about human error. There is a whole field of study about this called human factors or ergonomics.
When I started designing my first human performance improvement program, I had just finished my Master’s Degree with an emphasis on Human Factors. Also, I had just left the Nuclear Navy with extensive experience in high-reliability operations. Therefore, I had a pretty good background to develop a program.
You probably don’t have time to get a Human Factors Master’s Degree or spend seven years in the Nuclear Navy to get a background to develop a human performance improvement program. What should you do? I would recommend:
- Get as much information as you can about human factors.
- Review other human error reduction/human performance improvement programs.
- Review the large variety of human error reduction techniques being taught to understand how they work and their human factors basis.
- Get feedback or test how the various human performance improvement tools work.
That’s a pretty good list.
To Start – Read the Book
Getting all this information is a lot of work. How do I know? Because I’ve done it. I did this to get the information that I used to write the book, Stopping Human Error.
But there is another way to get the information…
Step Two – Attend the Course
Great news. We developed a 2-Day Stopping Human Error Course that has lots of the information suggest above.
The course is designed to help you develop a custom human performance improvement program that best fits the needs of your company.
Not only did we develop a course, but we learned how to teach it virtually. Our first virtual training was a hybrid course giving just before the 2021 Global TapRoot® Summit. It received such high praise that we decided to offer a straight virtual Stopping Human Error Course on October 26-27.
What’s In the Stopping Human Error Course?
Here is the course outline…
Stopping Human Error Course Outline
Day 1 (9:00am to 5:00pm)
- See how human error is caused – An Exercise
- Foundations of Improving Human Performance
- Resilience and Safeguards
- Using TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis for Reactive Problem Analysis
- Using TapRooT® Human Performance Best Practices Proactively
- Human Engineering
- Procedures
- Training
- Communications
- Management System
- Work Direction
- Quality Control
- Stopping Normalization of Deviation
- Pre-Job Hazard Analysis
- Pre-Job Briefs
- Personal Safety Assessment
Day 2 (9:00am to 5:00pm)
- Applying Critical Human Action Profile Proactively
- Human Performance Improvement Technology
- Procedure Use/Adherence
- Place Keeping
- Independent Verification
- Three-Way Communication
- Pre-Job Brief
- Personal Safety Assessment
- Observation and Coaching
- Post-Job Brief
- Concurrent Verification
- Questioning Attitude
- Stop-Think-Act-Review
- Time Out
- Attention to Detail
- Management of Change
- Error Traps and Precursors
- Validate Assumptions
- Do Not Disturb Sign
- Conservative Decision Making
- Admiral Rickover and “Facing the Facts”
- Which Tools Will Work Best for You?
- Sample Plan/Suggestions for Your Plan
- Customizing Your Plan
- Present Your Plan, Benchmarking, and Feedback
With the exercises built-in to try the techniques, this is an active, quick-moving 2-Day Course.
You will leave this course with a clear understanding of methods to improve human performance and a custom plan to apply those methods at your company to achieve great gains in safety, quality, or operational and maintenance performance (all of which depend on human performance).
Factors in a Custom Human Performance Improvement Program
What are some of the factors that go into building your custom human performance improvement program? Here’s a slide (used by permission) from the course…
The improvement program checklist (mentioned above) comes from Book 2, TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis Implementation – Changing the Way Your Company Solves Problems. It would be a worthwhile read before you attend the Stopping Human Error Course.
By the way, you get Book 10, Stopping Human Error, when you attend the Stopping Human Error Course.
Three Easy Steps to Develop a Custom Human Performance Improvement Program
Here are the three easy steps to building your company’s custom human performance improvement program:
- Read the Stopping Human Error Book (we will send you one when you register for the course below).
- Register for and attend the Stopping Human Error Course.
- As part of the course, develop your company’s human performance improvement program.
That makes building a human performance improvement plan easy. You don’t even need to leave your desk (the course is virtual).
Register for the October Virtual Stopping Human Error Course
To register for the October 26-27, 2-Day Virtual Stopping Human Error Course, CLICK HERE.
Mark and Alex Paradies Discuss Human Performance Improvement
Here is an older video with Alex Paradies and Mark Paradies (two of the Stopping Human Error Course instructors) discussing the book and the course…
But the next course is the one we mentioned above … the October 26-27, 2–Day Virtual Stopping Human Error Training.
