Ronald Farris
Ronald Farris
COO
High Reliability Training
Adaptive Capacity: The Key to Real Safety is Your Frontline Workers
Adaptive Capacity is the ability to adjust and respond when circumstances change, ensuring safety and success in high-risk environments. Workers are the key to real safety—they bridge the gap between work-as-imagined (the black line) and work-as-done (the blue line). This gap exists because procedures and plans can’t fully account for the dynamic realities of work.
Despite human fallibility, complex systems, and resource constraints, workers adapt to challenges, resolve goal conflicts, and maintain safety. Their ability to act with flexibility and precision under changing conditions creates a critical safety margin. By empowering front-line teams with the freedom to adjust in real time, organizations can proactively manage risks and fail safely when necessary, minimizing harm to key assets.
This presentation will provide participants with practical insights on how to enhance adaptive capacity within their organizations. Attendees will learn strategies to support workers in closing the gap between plans and reality, improving both safety and operational performance. By fostering adaptive capacity, organizations gain resilience, reduce human error, and create a stronger safety culture.
Let your workers be the solution—adaptive capacity is how organizations build safety margins and thrive in uncertain environments.
Ron Farris is an accomplished author, keynote speaker, and specialist in Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) and High Reliability Organization (HRO). He serves as the Chief Operating Officer at High Reliability Training, Inc. and is a principal consultant at Ronald Keith Farris Consulting, LLC.
Ron brings a wealth of experience from his eight years of active duty in the U.S. Navy’s elite nuclear program, where he qualified on four different reactor types and served as Chief Machinery Operator aboard the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier.
Following his military service, he became a senior reactor operator at Argonne National Laboratory’s Experimental Breeder Reactor Two (EBR-II).
With over 27 years at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Ron held key roles as an accident investigator, safety engineer, Human Performance manager, and human factors research scientist. He authored several technical publications on human factors and played a pivotal role in advancing safety and performance initiatives.
Ron has also contributed to academia as an adjunct professor at the University of Idaho, teaching courses for the Human Performance Certificate Program.
His expertise has been sought by organizations such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Department of Energy (DOE), and industries spanning nuclear energy, mining, petrochemical, and electrical power.
Ron holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Idaho and has dedicated his career to improving safety, reliability, and performance in high-risk industries. His practical and academic experience makes him a sought-after consultant and thought leader in operational excellence and human performance.
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