In his latest article under the One Percent Safer banner for SHEQ Management magazine, OPS founder and chair Dr Andrew Sharman looks at the common misconception that the greatest risk comes from the most complex operations. Instead, he argues, we need to pay attention to the small deviations and the weak signals. These can be signs of serious risk building up

The human mind finds it hard to grasp the significance of small elements compounding and combining to create something bigger. Andrew cites the tale of the king presented with the game of chess by its inventor. Offered a reward of his choice, the inventor asks for a single grain of rice on the first square of the board, two grains on the  second, four on the third. Doubling the amount on each successive square compounds the reward to demand more grain than there is in the whole kingdom.

The king didn’t see it coming because, as Andrew says, we struggle with the idea of exponential growth, defaulting to linear mode; “we assume that small inputs produce small outputs”. But if the cautionary message is that small inputs can contribute to catastrophic outcomes, Andrew offers the more hopeful thought that small contributions to improvement are also the foundation of positive results. That is at the heart of the One Percent Safer movement, that the collective effect of small efforts by many individuals can create a stronger culture of care and save lives. Moving the dial by just one percentage point could save 29,000 lives a year.

Read the full article here.