The H&OP Glossary
Human and Organizational Performance (H&OP)

H&OP Glossary...familiar words that matter in the context of H&OP.

• Accountability : The expectation that an individual or an organization is answerable for results; to explain its actions, or be subject to the consequences judged appropriate by others; the degree to which individuals accept responsibility for the consequences of their actions, including the rewards or sanctions.
  
  The above is a raw definition of accountability. In the context of H&OP an Organization needs to have a Just Culture that carefully delineates accountability between inevitable human errors and reckless behavior.
  
  Many Organizations demand to be safe while at the same time demanding that a person always be blamed when ever they make a human error that causes harm. For an Organization to achieve zero serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs) this will not work because it destroys the trust and collaboration that the Organization needs to learn how the same human error keeps causing harm.
  
  

  
  H&OP Context:
  
  “The medical malpractice system, by design, demonizes faithful healthcare servants simply because of their predictable human fallibility.” 
  -- David Marx, Whack-a-Mole: The Price We Pay For Expecting Perfection 2009
  
  
  “What is an honest mistake, or rather, when is a mistake no longer honest?”
  -- Sidney Dekker, Just Culture: Balancing Safety and Accountability 2007
  
  




• Active Human Error :A real time error that triggers immediate unintentional (good or bad) consequences.
  (See also latent human error)
  



• Latent Human Error :(jargon: trap, land mine) A previously made error that results in a latent condition that is revealed later sometimes by an action which causes the latent error to trigger immediate unintentional (good or bad) consequences.
  (See also latent condition)
  
  

  
  H&OP Context:
  
  "Latent errors (also known as traps and land mines) that can cause harm are hazards. Using stop when unsure and near misses as clues, latent errors must be discovered without harm and mapped. Hazard prevention and control must then be applied to mapped latent errors so that when an active human error or other trigger inevitably occurs, the system will fail safely."
  -- Tom Neary
  
  




• Inevitable :Incapable of being avoided or evaded
  
  

  
  H&OP Context:
  
  "To err is human; to admit it, superhuman."
  -- Doug Larson
  
  
  "We must accept human error as inevitable and design around that fact."
  -- Donald Berwick
  
  
  "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
  -- Albert Einstein
  
  




• Unintentional :not done by intention or design : not intentional
  
  

  
  H&OP Context:
  
  "Error is not meaningful without the consideration of intention. Error has no meaning when applied to unintentional behaviors because errors depend on two kinds of failure, either actions do not go as intended or the intended action is not the correct one."
  -- James Reason
  
  
  Error: An unintentional deviation from truth, accuracy, judgement or code of behavior
  -- Merriam-Webster's Dictionary