Managing the Unexpected by Karl E. Weick & Kathleen M. Sutcliffe

Author:Karl E. Weick & Kathleen M. Sutcliffe [Sutcliffe, Kathleen M.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2010-12-29T21:00:00+00:00

Audit 5.3: Where You Need to Be Most Mindful

You need to be alert to the dimensions of mindfulness and mindlessness and how they permeate your work and your system. But you also need to be more attentive to situations where mindfulness can make a big difference. By that we mean situations where “ugly” surprises might be more likely to show up. In Chapter Three, you saw that surprises often surface at the human-system interface, such as maintenance-related work.7 From the work of sociologist Charles Perrow we also know that unexpected events are likely to occur in contexts that are tightly coupled and interactively complex.8 Coupling concerns the degree to which actions in one part of the system directly and immediately affect other parts. A loosely coupled system is one where delays may occur and alternative pathways to completion are possible. A tightly coupled system has little slack, and a process or set of activities, once initiated, proceeds rapidly and irreversibly to a known or unknown conclusion. Tightly coupled systems have more time-dependent processes, so items must move continuously through the production process, and delays or storage of incomplete products is not possible.9 For example, nuclear power generation and chemical processing are both highly time-dependent and precise processes.

Audit 5.3: Assessing Where Mindfulness Is Most Required

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