Safety Book is a Winner

February 12th, 2004 by Hal

I've continued my search for a few good books on safety. Thank you to those readers who left comments and sent me emails with their recommendations. In short, I've still not found much out there. Greg Howell, champion of the IGLC 2004 safety track sent me a copy of Proactive Risk Management in a Dynamic Society, by Jens Rasmussen and Inge Svedung. This book is a winner!

Ok, I have nothing to compare this book to. I haven't read others. And you can't get it in the US. The book is published by The Swedish Rescue Services Agency, www.srv.se. The title is descriptive of the authors' premise:

"In a dynamic environment…risk management can no longer be based on responses to past accidents and incidents, but must be increasingly proactive. Risk management must apply an adaptive, closed loop feedback control strategy…(A) human organization presents a particular potential for such adaptive control, given the right conditions — people are a very important safety resource, not only an error source."

That "important safety resource" is the same as the capacity for autonomic project controls. It is the untapped observation and assessment abilities of the project participants scattered about our work sites. We need to learn to call on that capability, to develop it further, and to redefine the (arbitrary) boundaries of planning, execution, and control.

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One Response to “Safety Book is a Winner”

mitch Says:
May 4th, 2004 at 3:14 pm
Would it be possible for you to tell me a little more about Jens Rasmussens work? A model has been developed by Sven Bertelesen to describe a complex project near chaos. Bertelesen extended the model Rasmussen developed for worker safety. I am interested in learning more about Rasmussens book and his recent efforts on projects if any.

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