#271
1. Understanding Errors and Violations: What’s the Difference?
In the world of safety and operations, human failures are often the most visible outcomes after incidents. However, not all human failures are the same. They fall into two broad categories:
- Errors are unintended actions. They occur when people mean well but do the wrong thing, forget a step, or misjudge a situation.
- Violations, in contrast, are deliberate deviations from a rule or procedure—but not necessarily malicious. They often stem from systemic pressures or cultural norms.
Key Distinction:
Errors = Fail to do the right thing unintentionally.
Violations = Choose not to follow the rule—usually due to contextual factors, not recklessness.
2. The Types of Errors and Violations
A. Errors (Unintentional)
These are often signs of system design weaknesses or cognitive overload.
- Slips of Action: Performing the wrong action due to distraction (e.g., turning the wrong valve).
- Lapses of Memory: Forgetting to perform a step (e.g., skipping PPE check).
- Mistakes: Doing something wrong thinking it is right, due to a knowledge gap or misjudgment.
B. Violations (Intentional, but often rationalised)
These are shaped by environment, culture, and workflow.
- Unintended Violations: Belief that the rules are being followed when they are not.
- Routine Violations: Rule-breaking becomes the norm—often seen when shortcuts are normalised.
- Situational Violations: People can’t do the job properly and follow the rules—forcing a compromise.
- Reckless Behaviour: A unique category—no thought or care for the consequences. This is rare but serious.
3. What is Recklessness?
Recklessness is not a mistake.
It’s not an error. It’s not a violation influenced by pressure or context. It is a wilful disregard for safety—when someone acts with conscious indifference to known risks. These are rare but often dominate headlines and lead to overgeneralised blame.
This is where systems must be nuanced. Recklessness deserves accountability, but it should not be confused with routine or situational violations that result from poor planning, unrealistic expectations, or flawed processes.
4. The Real Message: Human Fallibility is Normal
Organisations must stop expecting error-free performance and instead build systems that anticipate and absorb errors and violations without catastrophic outcomes.
Blaming people without understanding context is lazy safety management.
“As long as we have humans at work, we will have errors and violations. The goal is not to eliminate them—but to design systems that can learn from them.”
5. Building Effective Programs: From Blame to Solutions
Here’s what effective, mature organisations can do:
A. Improve Work System Design
- Simplify tasks and reduce cognitive load.
- Use fail-safes, checklists, and visual cues to reduce slips and lapses.
- Ensure that rules are relevant, practical, and updated.
B. Encourage Reporting Without Fear
- Create a psychologically safe environment to report errors and near-misses.
- Shift from “Who did it?” to “What allowed this to happen?”
C. Tackle Routine and Situational Violations
- Examine workflow constraints—are rules really practical?
- Review how performance pressure, time constraints, or lack of tools push people to bypass procedures.
- Involve frontline staff in writing realistic procedures.
D. Strengthen Competence and Judgement
- Focus on training for decision-making under pressure, not just compliance.
- Encourage reflection through case studies and team learning exercises.
- Promote understanding of why rules exist—not just what they are.
E. Use Human Factors Engineering
- Understand how perception, fatigue, environment, and team dynamics affect decisions.
- Integrate human factors into incident investigations, audits, and risk assessments.
F. Address Organisational Culture
- Leadership must walk the talk—don’t reward shortcuts with praise or promotions.
- Avoid knee-jerk punishments—understand intent, capability, and situation.
- Reward learning behaviours: curiosity, asking for help, admitting mistakes.
6. Final Thoughts
Errors and violations are not signs of bad people—they are signals of normal human behaviour operating in complex systems. Safety leaders must move beyond slogans and checklists to embrace learning systems that improve through feedback, trust, and transparency.
“Safety isn’t the absence of error—it’s the presence of defences, readiness, and resilience.”
What do you think?
Karthik.
16/5/25 1130am.
Health, Environment, Safety, Sustainability (HESS) 