While ramping back up following our summer holidays, we at bSafer came across an interesting article published by the BBC, https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220812-the-illusion-of-knowledge-that-makes-people-overconfident. It describes a phenomenon known as the “illusion of knowledge” which is summed up nicely by the article leader text “while you may have plenty of skills and knowledge, it’s quite likely you know less than you think”. Interesting. But how does this relate to the QHSE management function? Well, take a risk assessment (safe job analysis), to identify the risks adequately it’s vital that the task is thoroughly understood from all perspectives, meaning that the assessment should be attended by sufficient personnel to ensure some overlap of knowledge and experience since the attendees, as individuals, probably know less than they themselves believe. Another possible example is a quality verification activity. Something to think about when planning (including attendees) your risk assessments, quality verifications, audits, inspections or other activities (in bSafer of course!).
This interesting article also talks about “the illusion of skill acquisition”, which is a whole other discussion, one that may become a critical factor if you suddenly find that you are required to land a plane…!
