Drift-to-danger Model

The drift-to-danger model is a dynamic model for understanding workplace safety.

Contents

Description

In brief:

A system is established with goals and constraints, e.g. a factory has N staff and targets Y output and has various workplace safety policies.
Individuals form strategies for how to meet goals and constraints balancing their effort.
As circumstances change, so too do individuals' strategies; certain changes can cause strategies to drift towards danger, e.g neglect of safety policies.
A well functioning system requires defenses in depth--systems as independent layers that will react to transgressions and provide a negative feedback signal.
A highly complex system (i.e. many layers) also requires a coordinating agent that is familiar with all layers and can identify accumulating transgressions.
A complex system fails when too many layers have transgressed and or failed to provide negative feedback.