Critical Task Performance

In the SEAL Teams, we had a saying… “Slow is smooth… smooth is fast.” Your smoothest crews may look slow but I bet they finish on schedule (if not before)… AND I bet they have fun. I mean, check this dude out… He moved like he had all the time in the world: slow… deliberate… tiny micro-corrections. Owners in energy + manufacturing will recognize this instantly: If he loses focus, he doesn’t “fix it later.” He starts over completely. Also: it’s dangerous. At one point he even says something like, “I don’t want to burn the cameraman.” That’s the truth about focus in the real world: It’s quality + safety + cost control. But it’s also something we don’t talk about enough: Focus is where the FUN is y’all! Not “fun” like goofing off. Fun like flow. Fun like, “I’m fully here, I’m good at this, and it matters.” A lot of leaders think speed = productivity. In high-consequence work, speed usually means: more interruptions → more rework → more risk → more frustration. The calm pros look slow because they’re protecting the only thing that actually produces: attention. A simple “Focus → Flow → Fun → Fulfillment” reset (60 seconds) Use this before any critical task (startup, switching, lift, lockout, verification, handoff): 1. One breath. In through the nose, long exhale. 2. Name the next 30 seconds. “This is a critical moment.” 3. Scan for the two biggest risks. (People + process) 4. One commitment line. “Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.” That’s it. Not complicated. Not fluffy. Just a micro-dose of mindfulness that makes space for better decisions and keeps your team in the kind of focus that prevents defects and makes work feel worth doing. Save this and turn it into a pre-task habit for anything you can’t afford to redo.

Critical path analysis changed everything for me. Most project managers believe it's simply about identifying the longest sequence of tasks. They're missing the point. Here's what the critical path actually teaches you: • Where your project will break if one thing goes wrong • Which team members hold your timeline hostage • Why padding every task with buffer time is amateur hour I learned this the hard way at Epic Games. We had 150 developers working on Gears of War 3. Complex dependencies everywhere. One day, our audio team encountered a minor roadblock. Just a 2-day delay on some sound effects. But those sound effects were on the critical path. That 2-day delay cascaded across all the disciplines. All because I didn't understand which tasks actually mattered. Now I do this differently: • Map the critical path first, everything else second • Have daily check-ins with critical path owners • Build buffers only where the path is most fragile • Communicate changes immediately to stakeholders The critical path isn't just a scheduling tool. It's your project's lifeline. Master it, or watch your timelines crumble.

In 1996 (30 years ago – yikes!), I started my consulting career working with David Embrey on a major human factors project at a UK refinery. Looking back I can see that we were laying the groundwork for what we now call Safety Critical Task Analysis (SCTA). That project led to us developing the HSE’s OTO 1999/092 guidance. It introduced ideas like combining Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) with Human Error Analysis (HEA). This approach has largely been adopted as the industry standard. Around 2020 I joined a group of CIEHF members to work together to discuss SCTA practice. This resulted in “How to carry out human factors assessments of critical tasks - Guidance for COMAH establishments” published in 2023. It sets a ‘gold standard’ for SCTA, and if I were engaging a human factors specialist (someone like me) I would expect them to follow it. Recently, I’ve been working with Step Change in Safety in Aberdeen. The energy sector companies there opened my eyes to a major gap: * They often didn't know where to start with SCTA. * The analysis rarely provided enough benefit to justify the costs. * Crucially, the link between the task and the actual process safety risk was often completely missing. My conclusion Value doesn't come from a theoretically perfect identification of human error. It comes from finding exactly where human error drives the greatest risk, and implementing the right controls (which are often technical, not human factors). To bridge this gap, Step Change in Safety has just released a new guidance pack that I helped develop, free to anyone. It trades a bit of academic rigor for massive accessibility. If the people responsible for controlling risks can actually use it, that's a massive win. Download the free guidance pack at https://lnkd.in/exRee6HB (You can also find the original OTO 1999/092 document here for the history buffs: https://lnkd.in/evG4Ftiq) #HumanFactors #ProcessSafety #SCTA #SCiS #SimpleSensibleSafety

The Psychology Behind Safer Work! What if I told you your brain doesn’t know the difference between doing a task and vividly imagining doing it? That’s not a motivational quote. That’s neuroscience. Studies show that mental rehearsal activates the same neural pathways as real physical action. Just seconds of visualizing a task can improve performance, reduce errors, and increase focus. In safety-critical work, that means: • Better hazard recognition • Ensuring controls are present • Sharper situational awareness under pressure I’ve experienced the power of visualization firsthand. I’ve completed 10 consecutive San Francisco Marathons, and a major part of that success wasn’t just physical training; it was mental. Before race day, I’d mentally run the course dozens of times: • I visualized the start line nerves • I felt the uphill pain at Mile 10 • I saw myself crossing the Golden Gate Bridge strong • And I rehearsed pushing through “the wall” at Mile 21 By the time the race came, my mind had already been there. Professional athletes do this, too: • Michael Phelps rehearsed every detail of his swim, including his goggles failing (which happened in the Olympics… and he still won gold) • Lindsey Vonn mentally skied her courses before every race, so vividly that researchers said she would sweat just from imagining it So why don’t we use the same tool on the job site to improve situational awareness and ensure controls are present for high-risk work? Science backs it: • Mental rehearsal can almost match the benefits of real practice (Taylor & Pham, 1996) • In surgery, visualization reduced errors and stress in high-pressure environments (Arora et al., 2011) Try this during your pre-job briefing: Before a complex or high-risk task, pause for a minute and close your eyes. Imagine the worst-case scenario. Use tools like the Energy Wheel to identify the high-energy sources that may be present. Then ask yourself: What controls are in place to prevent serious injuries or fatalities? Mentally walk through each step of your work safely. Visualize yourself completing the task and going home safe. It is that simple. It costs nothing. It takes seconds. It rewires the brain for safety. and backed by science. Just like we check our tools, we need to check in with our mindset, for safe operation and keeping everyone safe. 📖 References: • Taylor, S. E., & Pham, L. B. (1996). Why thinking about goals and tasks enhances performance: Mental simulation and the focus on doing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(5), 875–889. https://lnkd.in/gv6iv6xr • Arora, S., et al. (2011). Mental practice: Effective stress management training for novice surgeons. J Am Coll Surg, 212(2), 225–233. https://lnkd.in/gufqffNQ • Orlick, T. (2008). In Pursuit of Excellence. Human Kinetics. #SafetyMindset #MindfulnessSafety #HumanPerformance #SafetyCulture #ASSP #BCSP #NSC #CSP #SMS

In 2024, 83% of mining fatalities happened where the critical control was already identified. The mining industry report (ICMM) published that number in its 2025 safety performance report. Forty-two people died at work across its member companies, up from thirty-three in 2022. Controls were in place, but the people still died. We work with organisations across industries, and we see a pattern. The controls are written into the system, and the verification schedule confirms it is checked, but nobody asks whether that control can be used under the real conditions of the shift, with the staffing levels and equipment the crew actually faces. Procedures and verification checklists assume conditions to be in place that may not exist at 2am on a Tuesday when two people are doing a job created for three people. Critical control management tells you which controls matter most, but not whether those controls survive contact with time pressure and lean staffing. It cannot tell you whether equipment has changed since your procedure was written or whether workarounds became standard practice years ago. ICMM recognised this in its own 2026 update to the Good Practice Guide, which added stronger governance and maturity checks. The revision itself is evidence that naming controls and verifying them on paper was not translating into barrier performance. The question for the SIF prevention programmes is whether you test control reliability under real conditions or assume that specification equals performance. In the organisations we work with, proactive learning closes that gap. We learn how tasks are actually done and surface the conditions that make the identified controls unreliable, while there is still time to fix them. #LearningFromNormalWork #CriticalControls #SIFPrevention #SafetyLeadership #SystemicRisk References: ICMM. (2025). Safety Performance: Benchmarking progress of ICMM company members in 2024. ICMM. ICMM. (2026). Critical Control Management: Good Practice Guide (2026 Edition). ICMM. Hollnagel, E. (2014). Safety-I and Safety-II: The past and future of safety management. Ashgate Publishing.  

Performing a discrete task under high pressure – should you go FAST or SLOW? One highly visible and measurable, self-paced time-interval for football PENALTY takers occurs right after the referee has given the signal for the shot to ensue. How long do you take after the whistle before you move towards the ball? Historically, between 1970 and around 2010, football penalty takers tended to take less than one second before they (literally) rushed towards the ball. Their hurry could possibly reflect an attempt to get the situation (and the unpleasant stress) over with quickly. Lately, and particularly in the past 4-5 years, experienced penalty takers have become more deliberate and composed, typically taking 2-5 seconds before they initiate their run-up. Is such time-taking linked to performance? We published a study in 2009, showing that players who take the shortest times score significantly fewer goals than those who pause and take just a moment or two longer. Even though players take longer now than in the past, more recent observations indicate the same pattern – the quickest players (on average) seem to perform somewhat worse than those who pause a moment before they go. I suspect this could be because SOME of the quick players (but not all) act based on their emotions, with no time for deliberate coping techniques. At the same time, some of the players who take a pause use that extra moment to make sure they are composed and focused on their task, and this could benefit their performance. Note however, these are observations about average effects, and there are no guarantees for success. These types of complex tasks require stress coping strategies that are adapted to each individual, and people have different preferences. Besides, plenty of examples show players taking a long pause, then missing their shots. And, you can wait too long, think too much and over-complicate, which is a well-known choking mechanism. With that said, with all the evidence I know at my disposal, and if I found myself in a situation with everything on the line, I personally would have: – taken a brief PAUSE – done one or two deep breaths – reminded myself about my performance strategy, to make sure I was properly focused on the right thing – THEN initiated my performance The published study: https://lnkd.in/ezx_jrD Many more details, examples, and applications in my book, that recently was released in a paperback version: https://lnkd.in/drb9jnFj