Tony Muschara
H&OP Specialist | Author | Consultant | Speaker
Critical Steps: Managing Human Performance Risk
Human beings are fallible. Consequently, people, regardless of their endeavors, pose a residual risk to any organization dependent on their performance. If an operation has the capacity to do work, then it has the capacity to do harm. Work is energy directed by human beings to create value. Therefore, work the use of force under the condition of uncertainty. The uncertainty of human error (a loss of control) cannot be left to chance—especially for high-risk operations that could trigger serious harm to people, product, or property. It must be managed proactively and in real time. Front-line workers must be able to see the risk, feel the risk, and control the risk to protect what is of value. This risk management session offers a means in helping front-line workers exercise risk-based thinking (anticipate, monitor, respond, and learn) before engaging in high-risk work.
This workshop addresses the following concepts that establish the bases for managing those specific human actions that must go right first time, every time:
• Work: the capacity to do harm
• Real-time, residual risk: human fallibility (risk of losing control)
• Definitions: CRITICAL STEP and Risk-Important Action
• Overarching goal of managing CRITICAL STEPS
• Four management objectives to achieve the goal (risk-based thinking)
• Summary of human performance tools in managing CRITICAL STEPS
• A high-hazard demonstration of a CRITICAL STEP and its management
• Excellence: why it is an unacceptable standard of performance at a CRITICAL STEP
After the session, participants will be able to 1) recognize CRITICAL STEPS and related Risk-Important Actions, 2) comprehend the risks they pose to key assets, and 3) manage them: able to anticipate, identify, assess, and mitigate the real-time human performance risks associated with high-hazard operations.
Since 2007, Tony has been active as an independent consultant in the human and organizational performance (H&OP) field working with high-hazard industries. He is the author of Risk-Based Thinking: Managing the Uncertainty of Human Error in Operations (2018) and co-author of Critical Steps: Managing What Must Go Right in High-Risk Operations (2022).
Tony is an operator at heart, which shapes much of his risk-based approach to H&OP. Before his 23-year career with the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), Tony served 7 years in the U.S. Navy on two nuclear submarines, qualified in submarines and certified as an Engineer of Naval Nuclear Propulsion Systems. After resigning his commission, he spent 3 years training nuclear plant control room operators for Westinghouse Electric before joining INPO.
At INPO, Tony authored several industry-specific publications on human performance, including Excellence in Human Performance (1997), Human Performance Tools for Workers (2006), and the Human Performance Reference Manual (2006) (adopted with revisions by the U.S. Department of Energy as its Human Performance Improvement Handbook. Volumes 1 and 2 (2009)).
Tony enjoys shotgun sports, golf, being a grandpa of 7 grandchildren, and is active at Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, Georgia.