On being human

One of the truths about being human is we are an error prone species.  Most of us make up to hundreds of no consequence errors every day.

For example, I go into my bedroom to get my cell phone off the nightstand to put in my purse.  I notice the laundry basket is full, so I pick it up, take it to the laundry room, sort it and start a load of laundry.  When I go back into the kitchen, I see my purse on the counter, and remember I forgot to get my cell phone.  I go back into the bedroom to get my cell phone, and this time I actually remember to pick it up.  When I get to the kitchen, the house phone rings, so I set my cell phone on the counter and answer the house phone.  After I talk to my sister, I grab my purse and head out to the car to go grocery shopping.  I look at my purse as I set it on the passenger seat and realize my cell phone is still on the kitchen counter.  I decide it will be OK to go to the store without my cell phone, so don't go back inside for it.  When I get home from the store, I finally put my phone in my purse.

How many errors did I make in that paragraph?  I forgot what I was doing twice.   I forgot that I forgot once.  These were basically no consequence errors.

But what about errors that have consequence?  One of the rules that I learned to live by as a safety professional is that if the consequence of an error is unacceptable, you need to put a safeguard in the system to prevent the consequence.  I'll use some familiar examples.

Most people have either fuses or circuit breakers in their homes so that if there is an electrical overload that could lead to a fire the fuse blows or the circuit breaker trips.

Most cars need to have the brake engaged to put the car in reverse or drive.

These are engineering controls to prevent high consequence error.

Everything can't have an engineered solution, so we as humans have to think about the consequences of error, and build in our own safeguards.

When I think about high consequence errors, I primarily think of errors that will cause someone to get hurt.  (I include pets as someones.)

My dogs are high energy, and smart, so I put them in their crates when I leave them alone at the house.  They are safer that way.

The dogs are also restrained in car seats when I drive with them, because they are very distracting if not restrained, and could distract me while driving, which could cause a high consequence error.

Every one of us has our own set of high consequence errors that can happen to us.  We need to proactively think about those and create our own safeguards.

We all make mistakes.  It is part of being human.

Next blog post will discuss over-confidence, another human trait, which leads to decisions that can have very negative consequences.