Our Approach
Improve performance through understanding and correcting the causes to bad outcomes.
We employ a no blame method that is designed to investigate at a system level with a focus on understanding human behaviour.
We invest in learning as much as in the analysis by conducting disruptive discussions to help leaders shift their understanding of how work is actually being done. This learning enables leaders to advise the organization on where to take action that will improve performance long-term.
The Four Key Phases
Define
Delineate the problem to be analysed.
Discover
Analyse the problem causally at the system level.
Transform
Learn from the causes to shift beliefs.
Improve
Correct causes and implement a new way to work.
Principles of the Method
Causes are perceptible and specific
Logic and data form cause
The system influences behaviour
Leadership creates the system
Learning drives change
Action both disrupts and creates
What Makes This Approach Work
Causal Reasoning
The reasoning we apply to understanding these bad outcomes is focused on what happened and why instead what was missing or what we think needs to be done.
This method is highly disciplined on applying causal reasoning through each of the phases of performance improvement work. Trained facilitators and development programs for support facilitators drive the work forward to ensure the reasoning remains causal.
Understanding Human Behaviour
Understanding why people behave the way they do, especially after a bad outcome, can reveal how people work and how the systems of the organization influence that work. This method strives to create an understanding based on what people were doing and why, rather than what they weren’t doing, missed or forgot.
Accountability for Performance
This approach is focused on where the accountability, and therefore the authority, resides within an organization for performance improvement. Performance is a combination of how physical mechanisms work, the actions and decisions of humans and the influencing factors of the system that surrounds them. Connecting performance to accountability is necessary as change can only be created by those with relevant authority.
This method connects performance accountability to relevant leadership through clear sponsorship and chartered work.
“Having experienced many incidents over the years, most very similar to one another, I’ve found that when I discover what’s happened based on what we were doing (rather than what was missing) I learn something new that is different than how I thought it would be. This way of improving performance is strategic, rather than trial and error.”
Oliver Kleiber
Senior Director EHS, Cargill
There’s a better way.