Showing posts with label high reliability organizations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label high reliability organizations. Show all posts

Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity Review

Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity
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Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity ReviewI have read and enjoyed several of Weick's books and articles on organizational performance. For the most part, they were difficult, but insightful works on how people in organizations behave. But it was not easy to translate the insights I gleaned from Weick's work into tools and strategies to improve the performance of the organization which employs me (a small hospital).
In Managing the Unexpected, Weick and coauthor Sutcliffe have written a short book that summarizes the insights gained from studying high reliability organizations (HROs) and details "doable" strategies to enable other organizations to improve their own reliability. The book's use of several case studies, detailing of key strategies and techniques, and chapter summaries make it a quick and interesting read. What is most valuable, though, is that a person working in an HRO, or an organization that should aspire to such a status, can immediately take the techniques and strategies detailed in the book and start to use them to improve the organization's performance and reliability.
Despite the fact that this book offers concrete strategies to improve organizational performance, it admits right from the start that successful HROs are extremely complex organizations. The authors allow the reader to appreciate that the success of these organizations in delivering quality products and services under often adverse circumstances is due to cadres of employees with diverse perspectives, skills, and expertise, that respect the complexity of the organization, and are willing to allow important decisions to be made by the individuals with the greatest understanding of the current situation.
Thus, although Managing the Unexpected provides concrete tools and strategies for improving organizational performance, it also emphasizes the importance of mindfulness for employees working in HROs, or organizations endeavoring to such status. Mindfulness includes working constantly to be aware of the complexity of the organization, its environment, and that our expectations and plans for the future may be erroneous. This emphasis on mindfulness and disciplined awareness makes the reader aware that although the tools and strategies presented by the authors may seem simple, to be effective they must be used by individuals who have worked diligently to understand their organization, its employees, and the organization's environment.
Managing the Unexpected is a welcome book for those of us who have always marveled at the success of our organizations in delivering quality goods and services in chaotic environments. It is not a quick fix that will send you to organizational nirvana with mindless platitudes. No, it is more like an organizational Leatherman that you keep on your belt at all times with the understanding that successful complex organizations are always needing to be fine tuned with a wide variety of skills, tools, and awareness.Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity Overview

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Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty Review

Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty
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Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty ReviewThis second edition - an update of the 2001 book that introduced us to the 'mindful' organization - is a timely and well-done re-write that furthers the authors' contention that mindfulness is at the core of a learning organization. By substituting a failed preemptive burn incident, (the 2000 Cerro Grande wildland fire that caused $1 billion of damage to Los Alamos), for the 1st edition's Union Pacific/Southern Pacific merger debacle as the central example of their 5 principles of mindfulness, the reader is able to feel the flames of the unexpected leap beyond the control lines of the HRO (High Reliability Organizations) environment. This wind-fed fire metaphor gives life to the uncontrollable nature of today's business environment and every business's need for a mindful response to the unexpected. Managing only for the expected will not provide containment when the winds of change blow into your marketplace. From the authors' perspective, the appropriate response is the creation of an infrastructure to provide the 5 principles of mindfulness.
1.Preoccupation with failure - treating any failure (often small ones) as a symptom that something is wrong with the system, a mindful organization is continually updating its understanding.
2.Reluctance to simplify interpretations - ensuring a more complete and nuanced picture, simplifying less and seeing more.
3.Sensitivity to operations - paying attention to relationships at the front line, where the work gets done.
4.Commitment to resilience - maintaining a deep knowledge of the technology, the system, one's coworkers, and one's self as avenues for improvising and keeping the system functioning.
5.Deference to expertise - cultivating diversity to do more with complexities, mindful organizations push decisions down to the people with the most expertise, not the most rank or even seniority. This deference moves issues around/across the system, migrating problems to someone with the knowledge and capabilities to address them.
I found the book interesting and instructive the first time around, and I was even more impressed with this 2nd edition. Professor's Weick and Sutcliffe make good use of examples to demonstrate their conclusions and to bring the principles to life. The book is thought provoking and instructive; providing yet another perspective on how to manage performance in the face of today's rapidly flattening landscape.
Dennis DeWilde, author of
"The Performance Connection"
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