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Category archive of ORC HSE Book Reviews
ORC HSE Book Review: We Fed an Island
An Anthony Bourdain Book, published by HarperCollins, 2018. Jose Andres is a DC-based celebrity chef who dedicates much of his time to disaster relief. His new book, We Fed an Island, focuses on his first-hand experience organizing an unprecedented food response campaign after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last year. The campaign prepared 3 million meals using 20,000 volunteers and involving 24 kitchens. Andres, a native of Spain, never graduated from high school, yet his insights into the failures of traditional disaster response systems and thinking provides valuable lessons for health and safety professionals.
ORC HSE Book Review: How Could This Happen? Managing Errors in Organizations
If you feel happy, is it time to be concerned? You have likely seen the video of singer Pharrell Williams’ infectious song featuring the refrain—- I’m Happy! When it comes to safety, we may need to sing a different tune. How Could this Happen: Managing Errors in Organizations is a compilation of 17 papers by authors with wide-ranging approaches to error management. Edmondson and Verdin quote John Carroll’s research that in many organizations “workers are worried, supervisors are concerned, managers are mixed, and executives are happy!” Carroll’s observation reminds me of the Iceberg of Ignorance frequently presented by Allergan’s David Eherts. Carroll and Eherts’ ideas strike me as two sides of the same coin.
ORC HSE Book Review: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time
An Anthony Bourdain Book, published by HarperCollins, 2018. Jose Andres is a DC-based celebrity chef who dedicates much of his time to disaster relief. His new book, We Fed an Island, focuses on his first-hand experience organizing an unprecedented food response campaign after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last year. The campaign prepared 3 million meals using 20,000 volunteers and involving 24 kitchens. Andres, a native of Spain, never graduated from high school, yet his insights into the failures of traditional disaster response systems and thinking provides valuable lessons for health and safety professionals.
High Reliability Organizations (HROs) – Book Review
If you are interested in human and organizational performance (HOP) and or “new view” safety thinking you will especially value the important insights found in Organizing for Reliability: A Guide for Research and Practice, edited by Rangaraj Ramanujam and Karlene Roberts, and published by Stanford University Press, 2018. The book is a compilation of chapters written by more than a dozen diverse experts, many of whom have decades of experience is the study of reliability. One aim of the book is to identify areas for future research.