Latest / Safe As Podcast / E38: 4Ds - Dumb, Dangerous, Different, Difficult - for learning (quickisode)

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E38: 4Ds - Dumb, Dangerous, Different, Difficult - for learning (quickisode) · Safe As Podcast

• 0:07
  What are the 4DS and how can they help?
• 0:09
  Learn from and improve daily and sometimes hazardous work before
• 0:14
  something goes bang. Welcome to another quick
• 0:17
  disorder safe as now. This 4D isn't the robotics one
• 0:21
  that some of you may have heard of being dumb, dangerous, dull
• 0:25
  and dirty. Rather, this 4D is dumb,
• 0:29
  dangerous, different and difficult.
• 0:31
  You can find more info in the book from Sutton ET al. 4D's for
• 0:35
  Hop and Learning teams, A practical how to guide to
• 0:39
  facilitate learning from everyday work, critical and
• 0:42
  dynamic risks. With the 4D's, 4D aligns with
• 0:46
  some of the progressive philosophies like Human and
• 0:48
  Organisational performance, or HOP, which recognises that work
• 0:53
  is often dynamic, error is normal, and workplace risk
• 0:58
  efforts requires that our systems are tolerant of human
• 1:01
  performance like errors, and allow safe recovery and even
• 1:05
  safe failures. Here are the key elements of
• 1:09
  four DS So dumb this ask What doesn't make sense to you about
• 1:14
  the work we are doing or how we're doing it?
• 1:17
  It encourages workers to describe when something seems
• 1:20
  unhelpful, redundant or unreasonable, helping align the
• 1:24
  team and prevent workarounds, or at least better understand and
• 1:27
  frame the workarounds. For example, in a transport and
• 1:31
  logistics company, processes might be identified as dumb due
• 1:35
  to redundant paperwork, which is a complete waste.
• 1:39
  It takes away time from when they can be better planning
• 1:41
  safer, more reliable work. Dangerous.
• 1:45
  This prompts what feels risky to you about the work that you do.
• 1:49
  Facilitates open discussion around risk perception and even
• 1:53
  what's acceptable risks for different communities.
• 1:57
  A construction company might identify a procedure as
• 1:59
  dangerous because work is close to live energy.
• 2:03
  Difficult. This question is what tasks do
• 2:06
  you find difficult or hard to do well?
• 2:09
  Task difficulty can signal that the work may not be done as
• 2:12
  expected or planned. The relevant production
• 2:15
  pressures and the like make it introduced or challenging trade
• 2:18
  off decisions are being made that could also somehow increase
• 2:21
  risk or something is amiss in the system.
• 2:24
  Following the threads of what makes work difficult opens the
• 2:27
  door so you can see normally hidden constraints, lighting
• 2:31
  conditions and threats. Make it as easy as possible to
• 2:35
  do the desired task in the desired way.
• 2:38
  Remove unnecessary clutter and then make it harder to get into
• 2:42
  unsafe conditions. Different this us what is change
• 2:46
  or is changing relative to how things are usually done.
• 2:50
  Work rarely goes exactly as planned.
• 2:53
  It often requires workers to adapt to variability.
• 2:57
  Encouraging this question helps address changes not covered by
• 3:00
  procedures. For instance, it could involve
• 3:03
  discussing an unnoticed procedural change that
• 3:05
  introduces new risks. Further change management and
• 3:10
  just general changes and differences on size are often
• 3:13
  implicated in fatal and major accidents.
• 3:16
  Exploring what's different may work as a weak signal for
• 3:19
  something ominous just around the corner.
• 3:22
  SO4DS can be leveraged in lots of ways.
• 3:24
  They can be used in pre starts, just general discussions, risk
• 3:28
  assessments, brainstorming, and even investigations.
• 3:32
  They're designed to foster open communication and a form of
• 3:34
  proactive risk management, helping to bridge the gap
• 3:37
  between how work is imagined and how it's actually done.
• 3:41
  Finally, if you search 4 days on the net, you'll likely run into
• 3:44
  one of Jeffrey Lythe's articles, which quotes Todd Conklin.
• 3:48
  Todd argues that death hides in normal work and that stable
• 3:52
  systems make risk detection difficult.
• 3:55
  I agree. And if death does lurk in the
• 3:57
  mundane of everyday work, then the four days could be one way
• 4:01
  to illuminate the path in this unfortunate game of hide and
• 4:05
  seek with the Reaper.