Assuring high performance in an age of complexity
Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe | 2001
One of the significant challenges any business or organisation can face is dealing with the unexpected. While traditional managerial practices such as planning are designed to manage unexpected threats, they often worsen things. How do you organise for high performance in a setting with overwhelming potential for error and disaster?
In this book, the authors look to high-reliability organisations (HROs)—aircraft carriers, nuclear power plants, firefighting crews, and others—for the answer. HROs have developed ways of acting that provide a template for all organisations that want to be more reliable in managing the unexpected. This book shows executives and upper-level managers how to manage under trying conditions.
The authors reveal how HROs create a collective mindfulness that enhances the ability to discover and correct errors before they escalate into a crisis. By discussing this principle and the practices that can be applied, the authors show how to anticipate and respond to threats with flexibility rather than rigidity.
Their practical, solutions-oriented approach includes numerous case studies demonstrating “mindful” practices and enables readers to assess and implement mindfulness in their organisations.
Bibliography
Weick, K. E., & Sutcliffe, K. M. (2001). Managing the unexpected: Assuring high performance in an age of complexity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
