INTRODUCTION
I was supposed to be in Boston presenting at “The Disaster Conferences” on 28 January 2015. Well, the weather just put us out to 19 March 2015 for the now, rescheduled Boston conference. I guess that they are still feeling the effects of this week’s blizzard, now named “Juno”; that left Boston with over 24 inches of snow. Continue reading
Human beings have been taking considered risks for thousands of years, ever since we realised that we could understand the past and use this to try and predict the future. In our history the emergence of understanding mathematically the probability of certain events occurring and chaos theory stand out as key milestones in shaping what we now title ‘Risk Management’. Continue reading
We’ve been asked how come we talk about complexity and also root cause analysis. Aren’t they incompatible? The answer is no, and here we explain why root cause analysis is your best friend in managing complex situations and environments. Continue reading
I was surprised this week by a New York Times article: FAA Orders Airlines to Devise Plans to Identify Risks.
What’s the driver for these risk assessments? The International Civil Aviation Association (ICAO) is part of the United Nations. ICAO rules impact 191 countries. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the US signatory to ICAO. As such, they are now mandating airlines to develop risk based plans, which are also called Safety Management Systems. Continue reading
There is no end to helpful advice about making decisions. Most of this advice assumes that decision-making is fact-based, procedural, and decision-makers can follow a process. You need to have proper “framing”, know desired outcomes, be objective, evaluate alternatives, etc. In theory this is very good advice. Continue reading