High Reliability Organizing Theory (HROT) uses an operational framework for unifying and leading a team to understand and manage risk, and to consistently improve operations, in order to dependably deliver on their commitments. HROs employs 5 habits to identify weak danger signals and to respond to these signals strongly so that system functioning is maintained and critical risks avoided.
- Pre-occupation With Failure:A shop floor to boardroom preoccupation with understanding failure – before, during, and after it occurs.
- Reluctance to Accept Simplification:A passion for resisting the easy answer that comes from simplifying explanations/root causes of problems.
- Sensitivity to Operations: A staunch recognition that operations is a key center of gravity for eliminating or creating problems.
- Commitment to Resilience: An insistence that preventing failures requires investing in resilient processes and diligent people, primarily at the lowest levels of the hierarchy.
- Deference to Expertise: An overriding trust that operational expertise is found closest to the day-to-day efforts rather than at the top of the organizational hierarchy
