SYSTEMS LEARNING for HUMAN AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Most events (surprises) occur because many managers do not truly understand their organization. Frontline workers create value, often in spite of clunky organizations and subsystems. With that in mind, this webinar will illustrate a “collective mental model” of H&OP that is useful in both 1) building and aligning a system structure for success at the sharp end, and 2) refining the system’s structure and capacity to better respond to opportunities and threats. This means that the management of human performance must adopt a holistic perspective—to understand human interactions with other parts of the system before realigning the system.

This webinar will attempt to educate participants by introducing the fundamental principles of the following aspects of SYSTEMS LEARNING:

• Systems, Complex Systems, Systems Learning, Systems Thinking, Mental Models, and Leverage
• The concept of emergence in human performance systems
• Why understanding success and failure in complex systems requires more than linear cause-and-effect thinking
• How systems thinking explains the difference between work-as-done and work-as-planned
• How mental models influence the management of successful human performance in the workplace, and the analysis of and response to events and adverse trends
• The three phases of SYSTEMS LEARNING

About the Presenter:

Tony Muschara, H&OP Specialist | Author | Consultant | Speaker

After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1975, Tony served seven years in nuclear submarines. He qualified in submarines and certified by Naval Reactors as an “engineer of naval nuclear propulsion systems.” Afterwards, Tony trained civilian nuclear control room operators at a commercial electric utility for 3 years. Between 1985 and 2007, while employed by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), Tony authored several publications on human performance, including Excellence in Human Performance (1997), Human Performance Tools for Workers, and the Human Performance Reference Manual (both 2006). The U.S. DOE adopted the latter (with revisions) as its Human Performance Improvement Handbook in 2009. 

Tony began consulting in human and organizational performance (H&OP) in 2008, focused on managing operational, human performance risks. Tony authored the following books: RISK-BASED THINKING: Managing the Uncertainty of Human Error in Operations (2018) • CRITICAL STEPS: Managing What Must Go Right in High-Risk Operations (2022).