Incident
Investigation -- Tips, Techniques & Trivia
In
a recent newsletter I spoke of developing a new program on workplace
discipline as it relates to the enforcement of health and safety
activities. I teamed up with two consultants specializing in
the area of human resource practices. They are Linda Maul and
Lynelle Mantai with Creating People Power. Both have extensive
experience in the field of human resource practices and the
provision of training and coaching.
After working with them in the development of the program I
realized that they could deliver the training much more effectively
than I could and as a result I have stepped back and taken a
secondary role. Appropriately, the program has also gone much
beyond the health and safety realm and now encompasses all aspects
of workplace performance.
I
look forward to our first session, which runs February 22, 2007
in Edmonton. I expect to run public classes likely on a quarterly
basis; however this program really lends itself to being taken
inside an organization and delivered on a team basis.
A
link to the "Creating People Power" website can be
found at the bottom of this newsletter.
Jeff
Investigation Bias
Hindsight
Bias
In the next few issues I'm going to focus
on some of the biases that we as investigators may bring to the
investigation process.
Hindsight is 20/20? Well, not always! When investigating
a workplace incident one of the first things we do is examine
the actions of people immediately prior to the incident. If there
has been an injury caused by an unsafe action we tend to zero
in even more on the worker's actions. The question becomes what
impact did a worker's actions have on the incident?
We become tempted to put ourselves in the role
of the injured worker; and many times will form the belief that
if it had been us we could have correctly predicted the outcome
of a future event (the incident).
This is a false belief as we are looking at the
problem from two very different perspectives, that of the investigator
and usually, the injured worker. The difference is not unlike
someone being in a maze (the worker) and another person (the investigator)
looking down from a height into the maze. Obviously we have a
unique view of the problem and can see the way out.
As investigators we have almost unlimited time
to review facts and come to a decision. We are not distracted
by performing multiple tasks, nor fatigued, nor do we have time
pressures or competing goals. We also know the outcome, the other
party doesn’t! Something to consider next time you try to
place yourself in someone’s shoes.
Creating
People Power
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