Human and Organizational Performance

What is HOP? Why are some of the biggest and most successful organizations instituting HOP principles into their operations? In simple terms, HOP is a different way of looking at why incidents occur in a business or work environment and how they can be addressed in a more effective and systematic way. Well, let me let you in on some facts that have been known for decades. About 20-30% of all incidents are caused by equipment or machinery failures. Guess what the other 70-80% or so is associated with, HUMAN BEHAVIOURS! That's right. The decisions or choices that employees will make have the highest impact on the outcomes of any organization's operation; good or bad. Let's not kid ourselves. We as humans are prone to error, and we will make mistakes from time to time. That's just who we are. We can try to manage our sloppiness, but cannot get rid of that trait completely. But this only accounts for ~10% of why incidents occur. The big chunk (~70%) of why most incidents occur in any organization is attributed to the organization’s process and culture! For the longest time and to this day, organizations have focused their investigations on aspects related to equipment failures and the employee/s (~20-30%) involved in the incident. Maybe they just didn't know that there were indeed organizational weaknesses (70-80%) that could potentially have contributed to any one incident to occur. If an organization recognizes this weakness, it can target its solutions with a deeper understanding of how it might have played a role. This will enable the organization to implement effective controls that are thoughtful and sustainable.