Whack-a-Mole: The Price We Pay For Expecting Perfection

Marx succeeds in summarizing complex questions round accountability into a simple, yet robust framework of how to deal with human error, at-risk and reckless behavior. His easy to read writing style and use of everyday examples (driving, raising children, work environment) help to understand these basic principles, which are as valid to managers as they are to parents. Marx can't (and doesn't bother to) hide its US background (civil/tort law), but doesn't remain blind for foreign best-practices (UK, New Zealand). His message is clear: stop playing Whack-a-Mole and this book is the perfect means to get that message across.PS: personally I would have loved to see some academic references (which he defintely has), but it doesn't affect the quality of the text.

Accusing the others has become a wide spread bad habit - damaging relations with children, friends and colleagues. The sooner we get rid of it - the better. This book gives a new perspective to our eternal request for perfection in everybody - from our own kids to the luggage trolley driver at the airport. David Marx brings up statistics and real cases which prove the obvious: Nobody is perfect and errors are part of life. This is the funny part. Then comes the serious - and really interesting one - a study of the ways to improve people`s (and our own!) performance without doing more damage than help. This is a piece of precious information for any parent, friend and manager. It improves your life and relations immediately - as you start practicing the three-stage approach to human errors, presented in the book. The sooner YOU start - the better for all - including yourself!

Perhaps its the fault of my liberal education, but after reading this book I can see I am guilty of many of the behaviors described in this book like being a "no harm no foul" manager. And, while I may have been able to identify those behaviors and their potential negative impact on my organization, this book also has given me some tools to be able to start taking steps to change those behaviors- for everyone's benefit. Thanks!

An excellent place to start learning the meaning of Just Culture.David has reintroduced common sense to the world. He has highlighted, contra to many held business doctrines that most people want to do the best they can in the endeavours they pursue.

Excellent read. Highly recommend this book if your company is moving to the just culture approach!

Very informative and written at a level easily understandable. The author wrote like he was actually talking to you. The information contained in this book is of great value for those looking to reduce errors and determine the cause.

great condition

great read...

This seems to be a self-published book that could have done with input from a professional editor. The author makes some good points and quotes some very interesting cases, and the book is easy to read. But it's also very light on content and at times the style grated, such as when the author introduced stories by saying, 'His name is... '

A very good and readable explanation of the value of a just culture both within an organisation and within society more generally.As such it really does need to be read widely, particular as it makes important points on the reduction of healthcare induced illness and fatalities as well as challenging the gut reactions that occur after a wide range of adverse events (like the current financial crisis, Deepwater Horizon etc).While the basic theme should be familiar to many safety professionals (though perhaps not as many as there should be) there are some aspects that will be useful even if you are familiar with the just culture concept.Marx advocates one of three reactions:1) Console Human Errors2) Coach At-Risk Behaviour (where a choice has been made that resulted in excessive risk)3) Punish Reckless BehaviourImportantly he stresses this should be independent of the outcome that occurred rather than simply shrugging when recklessness fortunately doesn't result in harm (that time). My main niggle is that Marx, though a systems engineer by background, could have emphasised systemic responses to the first two categories more. Also I'm not convinced that Marx has really defined a clear boundary between 2 and 3.The critique of the Motorcyclist Magazines article 50 Ways To Save Your Life is an effective example of segregating good pro-safety preparations, safe behavioural choices and worthless advice.There is a lot of powerful discussion on error management in healthcare (200,000 people die in the US alone due to medical errors), but those of us in aviation can't be smug. There is a very effective deconstruction of a laughably poor and counter-productive disciplinary policy from a US airline (though I fear one that many HR professionals would consider state of the art). He also has some very interesting observations on the ASRS scheme in the US which does strongly suggest that the legal approach to aviation error in the US is having an adverse effect of the safety culture.The discussion on the work of the New Zealand Accident Compensation Corporation is also interesting, though it would have been interesting to see some safety data comparing NZ with other similar countries.

Recommended to me by a leading HF guru and he was right, fascinating stuff. It’s a must read to help dispel the advantages of a blame culture, time to wake up a smell the coffee, make your company work smarter and harder within a just culture.

'Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost the practical differentiation between human error, at-risk, and reckless behaviors. In doing so, we’ve created only one standard: perfection." : this is a profound societal and ethical insight with examples drawn from education, healthcare, sports, safety at work...Possibly, the author could have gone one step further to draw more actionable consequences of his observations.The book stays a bit short on proposals on how to reconcile human responsability and faillibility.Nevertheless, it stimulates the reader's self awareness in front of risks and 'failures' deserving well 3 (almost 4) stars.