4: Mistakes Are Inevitable

Errors will always occur, even in high-reliability organizations. The question isn’t whether we can eliminate every mistake, but whether our systems are designed to absorb, adapt and recover when they happen. This session, full of memorable stories, reframes safety from an exclusively prevention-first mindset to one that pairs prevention with engineered recovery capacity: controls and practices that minimize consequence and speed detection and response. We’ll explore practical ways to build recoverable systems, pre-task verification, critical step management, human-error-tolerant design and structured learning after normal work and deviations – rooted in Human and Organizational Performance and resilience thinking. You’ll leave with a field-ready checklist and conversation guides to surface error-likely conditions, strengthen safeguards and convert everyday work insights into durable improvements.