Decision-Making: Four Practical Steps from Novice to Expert
Most decision-making models suggest a rational, "Compare-your-options" approach. Here's why that often fails, and what experts do instead.
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Practical skills to help technical experts prevent dangerous & expensive errors
Fewer Errors
Safer Operations
More Trust
250+
Client teams
since 2015
99%
Of 2,700+ participants got
valuable take-aways from Jake
97%
Of participants want to
work with Jake again
Errors in workplaces like yours
...ruin lives, derail careers, and waste $37 billion a year.
I show you how pilots, firefighters, paratroopers, and other high-reliability experts manage the risk of errors, and how you can, too.
The practical skills I teach and use come from 15+ years experience in Human & Organizational Performance (HOP), plus service on high reliability teams as a firefighter, an EMT and a military paratrooper.
“Before this workshop I thought, ‘Procedures will protect the employee.’
Now I’m realizing that while still important, not all incidents can be solved by procedures.”
Deputy Division Director at a national research laboratory
Results
"Even our most senior and experienced experts were impressed!... Several attendees told me that they've already begun applying these practical skills to improve safety and human reliability in our field teams around the world."
~ J.T. Lee, Senior HSE Advisor, Organizational Learning, Chevron
"Your investigation and analysis was the most thorough and well-documented of any we have had to date...the interviews and investigation were not threatening in any way... we have already implemented some changes to our processes."
~ Manager of System Operations in an electric power utility serving 1+ million customers
"Jake has played an integral role in re-shaping culture & behaviors around safety and work planning...The use of fail-safes, adaptive thinking, and peer checks are becoming part of the way we do things."
~ Work Planning & Control (WPC) Manager at a national scientific laboratory
"We got more practical ideas from Jake than from any other keynote we can remember. After dinner, we talked about Jake's presentation for more than TWO HOURS! That led to REAL change when we returned to the plant."
~ Maintenance & Reliability Leader at Xcelerate 2019
"This was the first session of my ASSP conference, and it was the most impactfulsession for me The information presented was amazing and relatable to anysituation, in my opinion. Jake kept the audience actively listening and fullyengaged for the duration of his presentation. I cant wait to attend anothersession led by Jake in the future!"
~ Marcus Fitzgerald, Global QEHS Director at CETCO Energy
"We engaged Jake as a keynote speaker for our company-wide safety conference.Our leaders, from field foreman through executives, were unanimouslyimpressed. Since Jake's presentation, our project managers and field foremanhave told me that they are starting to experiment with many of the practicalideas that Jake taught us"
~ Fred Barlow, Vice President & Chief Safety Offcer, Reliance Electric, Inc.
"From my initial reach out... to the follow through of our event, I have nothing but good things to say about my interactions with Jake.He was professional and organized, prompt with his communication and deliverables and engaged my audience in an intentional and thought provoking way Jake made my job easy AND our audience really enjoyed his sessions. That's what we call a win."
~ Molly Nolan, Marketing & Program Manager at Nolan Consulting Group, Inc.
"Jake walked through his step 6 process so efficiently I could confidently complete an event review tomorrow! He was also very well spoken. The overview he provided while still including applicable examples was a great balance."
~ Safety Manager for a steel construction company
"We invited Dr. Jake to guide and facilitate a workshop among our hiring managers... His facilitation process pulled the best information and ideas from our mixed-discipline group. We look forward to working with him on our next complex problem."
~ John J. Kumm, P.E., VP of Field Services POWER Engineers
"Great to see specific examples (all sectors) of when a learning-based approach worked and the results achieved."
Ashley Waddey
Operations & Systems Improvement Engineer at Biogen
Respect & Expertise
Errors in high-hazard workplaces can disrupt careers, reputations, and lives.
I respect that. Why? Because I've served on reliability-driven teams as a firefighter, an EMT, a military paratrooper, and as the Human Performance Lead for 3,600 experts in a large electric utility.
Like you, I've felt frustrated, mystified, even angry at errors that seem 100% preventable... in hindsight. And I've made plenty of errors myself.
So, over the past 15 years, I’ve collected the most practical strategies from: Human Performance / HOP, Safety II, the New View of Safety, High Reliability Organizations (HRO), and Resilience Engineering.
I love using and sharing these practical skills with experts in high-hazard industries so that everyone can be safer, more reliable and more engaged.
A Few of My Clients
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Argonne National Lab
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E3 OMI Environmental
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Energy Safety Canada
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Kraemer Construction
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Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MREA)
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National Safety Council HOP Summit
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Nolan Consulting
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Princeton Plasma Physics Lab
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Southern Industrial Constructors
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Western Area Power Administration
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Xcelerate
"Jake has played an integral role in re-shaping culture & behaviors around safety and work planning... The use of fail-safes, adaptive thinking and peer checks are becoming part of the way we do things."
Work Planning & Control (WPC) Manager at a national research laboratory
Why Clients Choose Me
Concise Practical Skills
"If you can’t explain it clearly, then you don’t understand it well enough.”
I love to present complex ideas so clearly, so concisely and so powerfully that my clients say, “Why didn’t we think of this before now!?”
Immediate Application to Work
Learning new ideas is simple. Putting them into practice is tricky.
So I give your teams dozens of concrete, real-world examples plus structured hands-on challenges so they apply their new skills to work immediately.
Zero Risk Guarantee
If you’re unsatisfied with any work I do, just tell me the details in writing within 24 hours.
If I can’t fix the problem to your satisfaction, I’ll waive my fee for that day.
Zero risk for you.
One hospital used a Learning Based Approach to reduce liability insurance premiums by
74%
One Navy ship captain used a Learning Based Approach to reduce safety incidents from 31 to 2 per year -- a reduction of
93%
In 18 months, one Baltimore physician used a Learning Based Approach to save 1,500 lives and
$175 million
Key Articles
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