By BobCudlin on
7/30/2009 7:35 AM
"Reliability is a dynamic non-event" is about complacency. Paradoxically, when incident rates are low for an extended period of time and if management does not maintain a high priority on safety, the organization may slip into complacency as individuals shift their attention to other priorities such as production pressures.
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By BobCudlin on
7/29/2009 9:37 AM
The MIT paper discusses the concept of feedback loops, an essential ingredient of systems dynamics, and critical to understanding the dynamics of safety management and organizational learning. Management's immediate response to safety incidents is a simple feedback loop but other cultural factors can create more complex feedback to the system.
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By BobCudlin on
7/29/2009 8:35 AM
The MIT authors cite the difference between “single loop” and “double loop” learning as vital to the way organizations respond to performance problems. Single loop learning “represents the immediate and local actions that individuals and organizations take in response to a perceived problem.” On the other hand, double loop learning “instead of focusing on enforcement…question[s] why rules were not originally followed . . . .”
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By BobCudlin on
7/29/2009 8:32 AM
A recent Wall Street Journal Bookshelf column reviews "Say Everything", a book about blogging. In the review, there is a comment that "reading blogs is like being beaten to death by croutons". The column goes on to note that the best blogs are those that are concise, current, and precisely targeted. That is the goal for this blog.
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By BobCudlin on
7/27/2009 7:46 PM
In a recent interview, Gregory Jaczko, newly appointed Chairman of the NRC, indicates that he wants to reinforce the need to maintain a safety culture at the agency and the nuclear industry. Safety culture has been an ongoing theme in many of Chairman Jaczko's public statements since joining the Commission four years ago.
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By BobCudlin on
7/27/2009 11:21 AM
The central question posed in the MIT paper is: What are the contributors to an organization’s ability to learn and sustain a robust safety culture?
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By BobCudlin on
7/26/2009 8:54 AM
TVA is developing an extensive organizational intervention in response to the fly ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant, an event that TVA Chairman Duncan has characterized as " . . . a wakeup call” to address weaknesses in the way TVA operates. What caught our attention is that TVA's culture is frequently mentioned in the consultant's report on the event.
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By BobCudlin on
7/24/2009 8:00 AM
Starting with this post we are reviewing an interesting recent paper from MIT - “Preventing Accidents and Building A Culture of Safety: Insights from a Simulation Model.” The paper offers many useful insights that are highly applicable to nuclear organizations.
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By BobCudlin on
7/23/2009 2:34 PM
German Chancellor Merkel expresses her disappointment in Vattenfall's performance.
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By BobCudlin on
7/23/2009 2:28 PM
Recent news items refer to the Swedish power company Vattenfall and problems that have occurred at two of their plants: Ringhals in Sweden and Krummel in Germany. In both cases the underlying causes of the problems and/or reactions to the events revealed safety culture issues.
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By Redcon1 on
7/23/2009 1:44 PM
A recent New York Times article discusses the use of a simulation game to illustrate the impact of texting on a driver’s ability to drive safety and react to changing road conditions. It illustrates how simulation games can provide realistic experiences of situations people may have to manage in real life - without the risks associated with the real life activity.
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