The five habits shared by highly reliable organizations (HROs)

                                                                      

Suggested by Karl Weick, an organizational psychologist, organizations that can spot the unexpected and quickly adapt to the changed environment are highly reliable organizations (HROs) which share five habits.

1.      They’re not tricked by their success. HROs are very responsive to anything that doesn’t fit with their expectations. They are preoccupied with their failures and alert to the smallest deviations.

2.      They defer to the experts on the frontline. Experts on the frontline are personnel who are actually occupied working directly with customers, product, and suppliers. For example store managers of retail chain stores or none-commissioned officers in the military. HROs would get their input and let them make decisions.

3.      They let unexpected circumstances provide the solution. HROs do not always go by predefined procedures to resolve a problem. In special circumstances HROs may come up with a solution that is actually the contrary of routine procedures.

4.      The embrace complexity. We instinctively try to make a simple model when analyzing a complex situation. For HROs it’s the contrary. They believe it takes complexity to sense complexity. They believe that the business is complex so they take a complex route to deal with things. They keep asking “why” and try to aim for deeper understanding. They try to explore deeply in the heart of the problem and consider all the criteria.       

5.      They anticipate but also recognize their limits. HROs anticipate in small scales and they think by acting and by doing things. It is like playing chess. You can’t anticipate everything from the beginning. You have to go by the game and anticipate in small scales in order to win.

Decisions of a High Reliable Organization are supposed to be more reliable because of the organization’s habits and practices, but yet business is complex and involves risk. Decision makers are risk takers because so often times, there is a fine line between a good and bad decision, and between victory and defeat.

Reference:  Coulter Mary, Robbins Stephen; Management, Prentice Hall, Pearson, 10^th edition.