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E54: Work-as-imagined, prescribed, disclosed and done · Safe As Podcast

• 0:06
  G'day everyone, and welcome to the next quickest site of Safe
• 0:09
  as today we're looking at how work is understood, or rather
• 0:14
  misunderstood. While many professions aim to
• 0:18
  improve human work, the methods are used often mystified.
• 0:23
  Today's source is an article from Stephen Shark called The
• 0:27
  Varieties of Human Work from 2016, founded on his blog
• 0:32
  humanisticsystems.com. Using Stephen's article, we can
• 0:37
  demystify work by looking at 4 basic varieties of work.
• 0:41
  First, there's work as imagined. This is what people think Work
• 0:46
  is, both what others do and what they might do in the future.
• 0:52
  Policy makers, managers, and the public all have an imagination
• 0:56
  of operational work. Critically, these mental models
• 1:00
  are often incorrect, incomplete, or simplified, especially when
• 1:04
  imagining the work of those in different contexts.
• 1:07
  When decisions that affect operations are based on an
• 1:10
  incorrect imagined view, it can result in poorly designed work
• 1:14
  and unintended consequences. Next is work as prescribed.
• 1:19
  This is the formalisation of work through laws or procedures,
• 1:22
  checklists and rules. It's unique because it usually
• 1:26
  assumed to be the safe and right way to work, incorporating
• 1:30
  formal risk controls. However, work is rarely simple
• 1:34
  enough to be fully captured in prescribed form.
• 1:37
  A powerful example of this gap is the work to rule strategy,
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  where strict adherence to prescribed rules paralyses the
• 1:45
  system, demonstrating that routine function relies on
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  interpretation and necessary deviation.
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  This leads us to work as done, which is the actual activity.
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  This reality is characterised by constant adjustments,
• 1:59
  compromises and trade offs made necessary by variable demands,
• 2:03
  degraded resources or time constraints.
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  While these adaptations are necessary to meet demand, they
• 2:10
  may not be subject to formal risk analysis or review,
• 2:14
  potentially creating operational threats.
• 2:17
  Finally, there's workers disclosed.
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  This is what we say a right about work.
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  It's tailored to the audience and purpose.
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  Staff may deliberately reduce the overlap between what they
• 2:28
  say and what they actually do. Their work is done if they fear
• 2:32
  sanctions or having resources withdrawn, or something else.
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  For example, a staff member might avoid telling a manager
• 2:39
  about necessary shortcuts if they suspect that disclosing the
• 2:43
  shortcut will lead to punishment instead of improvement.
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  In all, we can't understand work by focusing solely on procedures
• 2:51
  or even just direct observations alone, in Stephen's words.
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  It also cannot be limited to as we imagine it, nor work as
• 2:59
  people talk about it. Only by considering all of these
• 3:03
  varieties of human work can we hope to understand what's going
• 3:07
  on. That's it on this quickest way
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  to safe As.