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In today's fast-paced and dynamic work environments, ensuring the safety of employees is paramount. Effective communication plays a crucial role in enhancing workplace safety by promoting a culture of awareness and accountability. Fisher Improvement Technologies (FIT), located in Concord, NC, a leading provider of safety courses and occupational safety training, recognizes the significance...

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At Fisher Improvement Technologies, we know that in fast-paced and ever-changing business landscapes, organizations are continually seeking ways to improve efficiency and safety. The Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) framework offers a new perspective on achieving these...

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In the dynamic landscape of modern business, ensuring the safety of your workforce and optimizing operational processes is paramount. Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) emerges as a key framework to systematically analyze processes and employee behaviors, maximizing occupational safety measures....

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Join Fisher Improvement Technologies for our Operational Excellence Conference on January 17th and 18th, 2024! Designed for optimal networking opportunities with like-minded people who are currently deploying FIT technologies in operational excellence, safety, quality, and production.

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Creating and maintaining a safe work environment is of utmost importance for any organization. Workplace injuries not only impact the well-being of employees but also have significant financial and operational consequences for businesses. By implementing proactive measures, organizations can minimize the risk of accidents and foster a culture of safety. In this blog, we will explore four simple steps that can help prevent workplace injuries...

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Welcome to Fisher Improvement Technologies, your dedicated partner in fostering a safer work environment through comprehensive Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) solutions. Workplace safety is of utmost importance, and we understand the critical role it plays in ensuring the well-being of employees and the success of businesses. In this article, we will explore four preventative steps that can...

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The Top 5 Error Traps

At Fisher Improvement Technologies, we understand that no business is immune to errors, and that even the best teams can make mistakes. It’s not just about what went wrong, but how you address the issue, because when it comes to running a successful business, avoiding error traps should be a top priority. To help organizations reduce the likelihood of error traps occurring, Fisher Improvement...

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Cause analysis procedures are important for understanding the root causes of issues, defects, and other problems that may arise in the workplace. Enhancing these procedures with Fisher Improvement Technologies, can help to reduce the time and cost of resolving these problems.

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Has your organization been struggling to find solutions for improving performance? Are you looking for a reliable company that can provide you with the necessary tools and resources? Look no further than Fisher Improvement Technologies, Inc. (FIT)! Our virtual coaching can include topics such as Human and Organizational Performance, Advanced Error Reduction, executive and leadership coaching,...

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When it comes to your business, there are a lot of things you can do to improve performance and avoid potential accidents. But sometimes, accidents happen despite our best efforts. If an accident does occur, it’s essential to have a corrective action plan in place so that you can quickly address the issue while preventing it from happening again. There’s no question that a corrective action plan can be daunting. But with the right partner,...

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When it comes to workplace safety courses, Fisher Improvement Technologies is the best in the business. We have a team of experts who develop workplace safety training programs that are designed to reduce human error. Our courses are based on real-world examples and case studies, so you can be sure that you’re getting the most accurate and up-to-date information. Keep reading to learn more...

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Do you need to improve your workplace safety? Are there accidents occurring that are eerily similar to ones you’ve experience in the past? If so, our Advanced Root Cause Analysis Workshop at Fisher Improvement Technologies is the perfect FIT for you and your team. This workshop is designed to help you find and fix the root causes of accidents and safety incidents in the workplace. Keep...

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We at Fisher Improvement Technologies take a comprehensive approach to improving human and organizational performance. In today’s blog post, we’re breaking down the difference between human and organizational performance and behavior-based safety. If you’re interested in seeing how Fisher Improvement Technologies can help make your business a safer place to work,...

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Workplace health and safety is one of the most important aspects of any business. It’s not just about having a safe work environment — it’s also about protecting your workers from injury. Fisher Improvement Technologies is here with some practical applications for health and safety in the workplace so you can protect your employees and increase productivity!

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Do you know if human error is impacting your business? When you sign up for our virtual work safety classes, the team at Fisher Improvement Technologies is here to help you improve your health and safety procedures and reduce your risk of incident.

Learn more about our virtual work safety classes and sign up for one of our classes...

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The general work environment does so much when it comes to productivity and efficiency in any industry. So giving everyone working in the organization a safe working environment works in the favor of the company and the workers. FIT makes use of four major services in helping companies achieve safety at work. Read on to find out more!

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We all want to be successful, however, it is clear that not everyone gets to achieve their definition of success or excellence. Some common reasons why many people don’t achieve optimal success is not having a clear goal, and failing to mitigate risks or obstacles. In order for you to get where you want, you must understand the benefits of a corrective action program that will help you set a working routine that should help you get there....

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Want to make measurable improvements in performance and reap sustainable, long-term results for your organization when it comes to error reduction? Allow us to introduce to you the AERO system! This task-based system helps individuals become aware of and better manage their personal tendencies to enable more effective workplace interactions. The system is designed to improve workplace safety, quality, efficiency, and effectiveness. Sounds...

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Employee injuries can be devastating for businesses, especially small businesses. While worker’s compensation insurance will be able to take care of medical costs for the employee, your business will have to absorb costs for lost productivity, training replacement, and more.

The best way to minimize the cost of workplace injuries is to prevent accidents from happening in the first place. Follow the steps below to reduce the risk of...

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Your One-Stop Shop For Error Reduction, Cause Analysis, Effective Written Guidance, & More

Fisher Improvement Technologies (FIT) provides a holistic spectrum of free content to help your organizations and individuals immediately improve performance. FIT is dedicated to consistently adding new free content to FIT online as well as online training courses and virtual instructor-led workshops.

FIT Online provides...

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We Will Guide You to Workplace Safety!

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Hello followers and colleagues. I hope this finds you all staying well and using some of our time to reflect and energize for the future. This Robservation is difficult. I entitled it “how fast is too fast,” but it is more about the speed at which we try to manage risk, errors, and defenses.

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Hi, and welcome to the next Robservation. In today’s discussion, I want to talk about one of the major roadblocks to effective organizational problem solving, even as deep as incident analysis.

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We have been talking a lot recently about how leader language and behaviors shape an organizations’ ability to improve. I even heard a recent podcast that talked about how the organization in question had pushed HOP principles out to the field, but the leadership wasn’t actively engaged. That, by the way, is one of the Top 5 HOP deployment errors and has been for years. Those of you who know us well know that we at FIT don’t even engage...

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A term we have heard a lot of lately in business, and in life that describes our current times is VUCA. It stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. I think we can all agree that whether we are staying at home or essential workers on the front lines, these four terms in the aggregate pretty well describe what we are living through

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For decades now, we have been told how important employee engagement is. Companies do surveys, and they do corrective actions if the surveys say employee engagement is too low, they give refreshers on how employees should engage… it goes on and on. What I want to talk about today is LEADER engagement, more specifically, how leaders engage to ensure that there are shared visions and values set amongst the leadership and the workforce.

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Dan O’Brien was as close as you’ll ever get to a sure bet for winning a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics. At the 1991 World Championships, he’d posted the top score in five of the ten events comprising the men’s decathlon. In contrast, none of the 26 world-class athletes competing against him won more than a single event. Sportswear giant Reebok’s confidence in Dan was so high that they spent over $25 million on an advertising campaign...

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Today’s blog will wrap up this series on successfully resolving issues the first time around, thereby avoiding reliving bad days like Bill Murray’s character Phil Connors in the comedy Groundhog Day. We’ve covered the first four principles below…so on to #5!

  1. Find the REAL source of the problem
  2. Don’t assume the problem is isolated
  3. Identify solid long-term fixes, rather than band-aids
  4. Implement...
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Let’s continue our series on the following principles for resolving issues the first time around, thereby avoiding the unpleasant experience of weatherman Phil Connors in the best comedy ever made (in 1993, anyway), Groundhog Day:

  1. Find the REAL source of the problem
  2. Don’t assume the problem is isolated
  3. Identify solid long-term fixes, rather than band-aids
  4. Implement fixes promptly and...
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In this series, I’m covering five principles that will help organizations like yours avoid repeating bad days, such as those experienced by Bill Murray’s character Phil Connors in 1993’s groundbreaking comedy Groundhog Day. They are:

1. Find the REAL source of the problem

2. Don’t assume the problem is isolated

3. Identify solid long-term fixes, rather than band-aids

4. Implement fixes...

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Welcome to episode 10 of the ELC podcast. I am your host and intentional leader, Rob Fisher, coming to you from the AEROhp.com Studios in the FIT Center for Excellence, here in Concord, NC!

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Welcome to episode 9 of the ELC podcast. I am your host and intentional leader, Rob Fisher, coming to you from the AEROhp.com Studios in the FIT Center for Excellence, here in Concord, NC!

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Welcome to episode 8 of the ELC podcast. I am your host and intentional leader, Rob Fisher, coming to you from the AEROhp.com Studios in the FIT Center for Excellence, here in Concord, NC!

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For this series, I’ve drawn inspiration from the comedy Groundhog Day, which was released by Columbia Pictures in 1993. In this classic movie (classic to me, anyway), cranky weatherman Phil Connors finds himself reliving the same bad experiences over and over.

In my first installment, I introduced the following principles that enable organizations like yours to put problems behind them the first time, thereby avoiding Phil’s...

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One of my all-time favorite movies is 1993’s Groundhog Day, in which Bill Murray’s character Phil Connors repeatedly relives the same day until he eventually gets it right. Phil has a luxury that we seldom get in real life, in that he gets to apply lessons learned from one bad experience to the next without having to carry over any of the consequences. A true do-over!

Here are five principles organizations and individuals...

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Hello, and welcome to the next Robservation. You know there is one phrase that, when I hear it, makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck, and here it is – “We’ve got good processes we just can’t get people to follow them!”

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Welcome to episode 7 of the ELC podcast. I am your host and intentional leader, Rob Fisher, coming to you from the AEROhp.com Studios in the FIT Center for Excellence, here in Concord, NC!

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Welcome to episode 6 of the ELC podcast. I am your host and intentional leader, Rob Fisher, coming to you from the AEROhp.com Studios in the FIT Center for Excellence, here in Concord, NC!

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Welcome to episode 5 of the ELC podcast. I am your host and intentional leader, Rob Fisher, coming to you from the AEROhp.com Studios in the FIT Center for Excellence, here in Concord, NC!

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Welcome to episode 4 of the ELC podcast. I am your host and intentional leader, Rob Fisher, coming to you from the AEROhp.com Studios in the FIT Center for Excellence, here in Concord, NC!

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Welcome to episode 3 of the ELC podcast. I am your host and intentional leader, Rob Fisher.

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Welcome to episode 2 of the ELC podcast. I am your host and intentional leader, Rob Fisher.

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Welcome to the Essential Leadership Cycle podcast. I am your host and intentional leader, Rob Fisher, President and Director of Operations for Fisher Improvement Technologies. We have spent the last 25 years helping organizations and individuals. The Essential Leadership Cycle podcast is here to provide leaders information, insights, methods, and tools to ensure a highly reliable, sustainable, and resilient organization. Most of the podcasts...

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In today’s Robservation, I want to give a little different view of something that I hear a lot of in the industrial world. That is a description of some organizations as having a “blame culture.” I have even heard it used to describe the reason organizations need to change (most often, I have heard it as a need to use this consultant or that consultant to “solve” our blame culture and “turn it around”).

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Hi, and welcome to the next Robservation. Today I want to shift the focus a bit to the importance of integrating concepts. I know that first, we have to change our knowledge and change our paradigms, and then leaders need to start to change their language and behaviors based on this new knowledge.

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Hi and welcome to our next Robservation…

You may have heard the famous quote, “a problem well defined is half solved.” Some attribute the quote to the famous inventor, Charles Kettering. Others attribute it to John Dewey, the psychologist, and philosopher. I learned the importance of the quote a little closer to home for me many years ago through my nuclear power background when Einstein was quoted as saying something along the lines...

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Welcome to the first Robservation of a new decade. We at FIT want to wish you and yours a happy, fruitful, and improved new year. I am also doing this Robservation from our new studio, where we will be starting the Essential Leadership Cycle podcast in early January.

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When organizations try to solve problems, there are two things that I see them struggle with that tend to drive them towards ineffective analysis, conclusions, or corrective actions.

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As I was listening to Todd Conklin’s recent podcast on “transparency,” I started thinking about some of the “HOWS” for making risk more transparent.

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Well, it’s that time again. At least here in the US, we are in that sweet spot between Halloween and the new year. You know – when the retailers push holiday sales earlier and earlier, and all of the Christmas decorations start going up – and not just in the stores!

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Hello, and welcome back to another Robservation.

Today I’d like to talk about taking some of what we learn at work about the positive impact of diversity and inclusion home to the family table. I have heard that some families struggle when they gather at the family table for celebrations.

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Welcome to another Robservation.

Today I wanted to tell a story from a few years ago that highlights two things. First, don’t exclude people because you don’t think they are in the ‘target audience’ for error reduction and second, is the importance of triggers. In the early 2000’s FIT developed the method of using triggers, or clues to recognize vulnerabilities so that you can do something about it before it drives an error or...

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Welcome to the next FIT-losophy. FIT-losophies are insights into how and why FIT approaches errors and incidents in the manner that we do, to help you better understand and manage them in your organization. FIT-losophies have been developed using the information we have encountered in over 25 years of integrating human and organizational performance concepts into the day to day work in over 250 organizations worldwide.

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Hello and welcome to another Robservation

Over the last 5 years, we have been working with Equilibria, who have spent over a decade collecting and analyzing information on how different personalities see and manage risk. By analyzing over 600,000 data points, we know fairly precisely how individuals with different personality tendencies react to changes in the system in very predictable ways.

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Last week I found myself in a lot of pain and exhibiting some of the symptoms that I saw my mom go through the day she died. It scared me, and when I went to the hospital, they confirmed that my gallbladder needed to be removed immediately. I want to thank all the individuals involved in my care at Atrium Health in Concord, NC. You were awesome!

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It wasn’t until recently that we started understanding that individuals tend to naturally pay more attention to safety attributes like work environment, people, equipment, processes, etc. based on their personality tendencies. Here are some simple definitions to get you thinking about personalities in a different way:1

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This Robservation discusses some of the understandings and misunderstandings of safety, human and organizational performance (HOP) and the overlaps. Specifically, when an organization uses concepts like HOP and safety markedly improves (which is one of the natural outcomes if HOP is done right), what tends to be left are incidents that organizations put into the category of “isolated errors and incidents.” It baffles and frustrates...

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“That’s the way we have always done it…” Are there ‘traditions’ that blind us to risk?

As we approach July 4th, Independence Day in the US, we should take a moment to try to understand if we may be blinded to potential risk by our traditions or “that’s the way we have always done it.” I remember in the year 2000, I was an analyst on the collapse of the Texas A&M Bonfire stack that killed 12 people...

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As it becomes warmer here in the US, we inevitably start to see the news stories about kids being left in hot cars. Let’s take a bit of a different view of this terrible situation and hopefully change the way people see it, approach it, and possibly change the way people try to fix it.

I like to communicate through stories. Here at FIT, we call it “teaching by storying around1.” Often the stories we hear from the people we are...

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Error Traps increase the probability that an individual could make an error (or mistake) that unintentionally results in a bad outcome. These error traps often lay hidden, ready to spring when we least expect it. In order to deal with the error traps, and reduce the probability of a mistake, we must know what they look like, what they feel like, what they will do to you, and what you can do about them. We must watch for clues, or triggers, to...

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In my travels and interactions with leaders, I often come across people who use mentors or coaches to attempt to better their own performance. Many times, the role of the mentor or coach dissolves into one person being the teacher and one being the student. If not managed well, it can turn into a one-way set of interactions and learnings that have a big benefit to the person being mentored or coached but being a drain on the mentor or coach...

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I’ll bet that got your attention! What I mean is, as one of the first steps to understanding how bad things happen, you may want to change your language. I have posted before on the importance of definitions in improving performance, and use of the term “investigation” is way up there on the list of words that I think need to be changed. When we say we are going to “investigate” something, what do you think people hear? What do you think this...

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I was recently exposed to a new way of thinking about how we see and manage risk. Well really…risk is harder to manage if you can’t or don’t SEE it! So do we really see what is there? The concept I was recently exposed to is called Visual Literacy. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Visual Literacy as “the ability to recognize and understand ideas conveyed through visible actions or images…”

Allison Sekuler, associate professor of...

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When problems or adverse consequences occur, organizations tend to immediately start ‘investigating’ so that they can create actions to fix the problem and prevent future occurrences. There is a simple method or approach to problem-solving and incident analysis that applies whether the problem is big or small. This approach is called the 5Cs. The 5Cs are Conditions, Correlations, Contributions, Causes, and Corrections. Listed below is the...

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As many of you know my background is both military and nuclear. And even though it has been a LONG time, I remember well that for most things we did we had to either discuss or document our ‘lessons learned’…“Did you file the lessons learned? Did you look at the lessons learned file? Did you talk about the lessons learned? Did you review the lessons learned?”

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Written by Mr. Randy Mayes

As I interact with workers, supervisors, and managers, I am often asked, “Do I really need written guidance for every task?” The simple answer is no. The more correct answer is, it depends! There is a lot to unpack with the “it depends” part so let’s start with one simple question, “Do you want or need a consistent outcome for your process or product?”. If the answer is “yes”, then you probably need...

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Hi, this is Rob Fisher with Fisher Improvement Technologies and welcome to Robservations. I’ve had several of these in the past and I wanted to take a minute to just chat about one that I see out there when people try to help others understand some of the techniques and technology behind what they’re trying to convey. Very often when these conversations happen one person is trying to convince another and they’re not really familiar with what...

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How do you change peoples minds about safety? How do you get people from where they’re at, to where you want them to go? Rob Fisher gives his thoughts…

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HOP involves the integration of error reduction, elimination, and mitigation strategies into an organization and requires the use of very specific definitions for things like errors, events, deviations, violations, traps, triggers, and tools. Leaders who commit to using specific, science-based and practical definitions see faster and more effective integration of HOP concepts into the day-to-day work. This integration results in more...

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Today we have a conversation with Rob Fisher, CEO and Director of Operations for Fisher Improvement Technologies. Rob talks about his involvement with HOP and how his life changed because of it.

Want another insight? CLICK HERE!

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What is HOP? Rob Fisher, of Fisher Improvement Technologies shares his knowledge and insights on the subject of Human and Organizational Performance.

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In this episode, we discuss what contributes to people not exercising stop work authority. Please comment below to continue the dialogue.

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Traditional safety, engineering, human factors, and human & organizational performance approaches do not effectively account for personality tendencies in a way that minimizes risk. From the oilfield to electric power generation and distribution, to construction and manufacturing, accounting for how individuals see and manage risk differently has been used to effectively reduce and mitigate risk, improve workforce engagement, and improve...

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Here is a great article, written by one of our clients that deployed our Advanced Error Reduction in Organizations (AERO) technology. You can find out more at error-reduction.com.

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This is the first of a new ongoing series called “Robservations.” These are intended to inform and start a dialog among professionals in the safety, quality, HOP and leadership fields. They are each based on things I have seen and experienced in my last 25 years of consulting in over 25 countries. I hope you will add to the conversation, and most importantly take some of the learnings to make your organizations and lives better.

This...

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As we’ve discussed previously, error traps increase the probability that we may make a mistake. During and after the holidays, many of us get some well-deserved time off with our families and friends. When we come back to work, our risk to get hurt can actually go up!

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Please enjoy this fun but serious look at how we may get hurt and ruin our holiday season. We hope you will share it with your peers and families to make this a safer and more joyous time of year.

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Error Traps increase the probability that an individual could make an error (or mistake) that unintentionally results in a bad outcome. These error traps often lay hidden, ready to spring when we least expect it. In order to deal with the error traps, and reduce the probability of a mistake, we must know what they look like, what they feel like, what they will do to you, and what you can do about them. We must watch for clues, or triggers, to...

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