Enhancing the Effectiveness of Job Briefings (Part 1)

Focusing on the Form: In the world of utility line work, 'The Form' – be it a Job Brief Form, JSA, JHA, or any other title – has undergone a subtle but significant transformation. Originally designed as a record of conversation, it's now often the starting point, overshadowing the crucial discussions it was meant to document.

KnowledgeVine studied over 100,000 OSHA incidents and discovered that more than 25% of accidents occurred because individuals were unclear about their responsibilities or those meant to ensure their safety were unaware of their duties. Surprisingly, less than 10% of Job Safety Analyses (JSAs) emphasize the importance of knowing your role, indicating a significant gap in our current practices.  Join us for a discussion about enhancing the effectiveness of job briefings in a two-part series this month and next, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

Workforce Development and Creating a Solid Talent Pipeline

Workforce development and creating a solid talent pipeline are critical needs for large companies, and the need to educate students faster and better continues to grow. Many organizations use new technologies, such as e-books, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality, in an attempt to accelerate this educational effort. Index AR will discuss what they've learned through building and deploying these technologies into a community college classroom, teaching advanced line worker skills and human performance. 

Human Performance R&D and the Cyber-Physical Nexus

Mike and Dr. Mark Rice, Group Leader in Electricity Security at Pacific Northwest National Labs, will discuss a multi-year research project they've collaborated on, looking at the interactions across an organization during a cyber event (system operators, EMS support personnel, IT/Cyber analysts, trainers, management, etc.) In addition to talking about the project and what we've learned, we'll also discuss how we've had to adapt and update the project to changing work conditions, such as the COVID-19 Pandemic. Our goal is not only to talk about human performance research being done in energy but also about the resilience and adaptive capacity of researchers.

Using AI and Data Analytics to Explain, Predict, and Change Human Behavior

Dr. Warren Hearnes, Chief Data Scientist at Best Buy, will be discussing an emerging trend in human performance: the use of Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning to better understand and predict human behavior. As an expert and leader in the field, we'll learn how to (and not to) use these advanced technologies, and how these tools can support continuous improvement.

Identity Crisis

Shari Heino, Chief Risk & Compliance Officer at Brazos Electric Cooperative will give a real-world example of what happens when an unprecedented "black swan" event occurs. In such an event, both organizations and their people are faced with immediate real-time stress, and the recognition that decisions may have far-reaching implications. Shari will talk about how an event like this occurred, how it was addressed, and what the recovery process looks like at the individual and organizational levels.

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Human Performance

It's impossible to read the news these days without some mention of Artificial Intelligence. As the complexity of our world increases, we see more and more technology playing roles in our daily lives, generating images and essays, and finding patterns that we humans would struggle to find. While these technologies have incredible promise, human performance concerns in how we build, use, and trust these systems are growing.

Join us for a discussion on Artificial Intelligence, how it's affected our work and personal lives, and how we can use human performance practices to ensure these technologies strengthen our work and lives, not just shifting risk from one domain to another.

200 Years of Maritime Safety Leadership (or the Lack of it)

Jim Morrison will discuss the human performance aspects of ten maritime disasters – two you likely know and others you have probably never heard about -- keying on significant events that illustrate the evolution of a culture of safety in the maritime industry. Human performance considerations range from power distance aboard the Titanic, over-reliance on technology aboard Royal Majesty, to condoned deviance aboard the Costa Concordia, and complacency aboard the Aegean.

After Action Review (AAR) from the Human Performance in Action Conference

MIke and James will conduct a review and summary of the Human Performance in Action Conference in Houston. They will still be on the conference site and any attendees on-site are welcome to join in person. We, along with some of the Knowledge Vine staff will be together for a thorough hot wash and review. We would love for you to come and hear some of the fresh insights and lessons learned as they come out of this week's events.

Humans Collaborating During Cyber Events

Sam Chanoski of INL and Mike will discuss our growing understanding of what happens in the real world when a cyber attack occurs; how groups of people have to collaborate (maybe for the first time), crossing teams, departments, organizations, knowledge bases, and vocabularies. Bringing together Resilience Engineering research and real-world stories, we look forward to discussing how people and organizations can ensure they, and their organizations, are increasingly resilient to these new challenges.

Reducing Worker Burden to Improve Focus During High-Risk Tasks

L.D. Holland of Duke Energy will be talking about a critical challenge facing today's workers in high-risk, cognitively-intense tasks. L.D. will explore how workers have to manage high-risk work while many other distractions, burdens, and challenges compete for their limited cognitive resources. L.D.'s discussion will highlight the importance of reducing those things actively interfering with the worker's attention to improve their safety and set them up for success in that critical work.

Selecting Excellent Leaders

Dr. David Dubin will talk about how to pick out the superstar candidates from those who aren’t going to make it.

Some of the topics we'll cover:

  • The common biases we battle against during an interview

  • Defining what good looks like in your organization through competency modeling

  • How to develop interview questions that map onto these competencies

  • The art of probing for relevant information during the interview

  • Scoring an interview, so it’s valuable and legally defensible.

  • Special considerations when these interviews are for your leaders

Commander's Intent and Imparting Presence

Commander's Intent and Imparting Presence: The Psychology of setting goals, imparting values, and relaying expectations in the workplace.  

In today's meeting, Mike and James are going to discuss the military doctrine and concept of Commander's Intent. They will expand this ideology into the concept of Imparting Presence, which is just as important in the everyday workspace for safe, efficient, and productive organizations.  If you're interested in learning more about how these messages and conversations develop, tune in and listen this afternoon, December 15th.

Want to read more about these concepts? See this article written by Dr. Larry Shattuck.

Bringing Human Performance to Your Organization Through New Media, and The Power Element Podcast

Sturgeon Electric California
Raul Guardado, Director of T&D Operations
Paul Salgado, Journeyman Lineman, Podcast Producer & Senior Field Media Advisor 
Megan Kleeburg (Operations Marketing Coordinator)

In today's meeting, Sturgeon Electric California's, Director Raul Guardado and his team will be discussing how deciding to spread the message of leadership, safety, and culture to his workforce has grown into the podcast and social platforms it has today. Wanting to add value to the conversations surrounding the workforce and industry, Sturgeon Electric California adapted and utilized the resources (social media) available to them. Turning it into an opportunity to uniquely educate, learn, and spread their message.

The Ethics of Research (Part II)

Do some of the studies we have relied on for decades possibly lack scientific rigor? Are they subject to misinterpretation? 

We are excited to discuss some of the challenges that are surfacing within the Psychology Community referencing some of the seminal works we have studied and taught for years. We are anxious to see what the community thinks about these challenges. Studies to include Zimbardo's famous Stanford Prison Experiment and Marcial Losada and the Losada Line.  

We're excited to be joined by Dr. Jake Mazulewicz on this topic!

The Ethics of Research (Part I)

Do some of the studies we have relied on for decades possibly lack scientific rigor? Are they subject to misinterpretation? 

We are excited to discuss some of the challenges that are surfacing within the Psychology Community referencing some of the seminal works we have studied and taught for years. We are anxious to see what the community thinks about these challenges. 

In researching this topic and conferring with colleagues, we found there is so much to discuss here, we will make this a multi-part series.