Human Performance
Unlocking high performance in teams and individuals by focusing on excellence and learning to fail safely
Human Factors
Applying human factors and crew resource management techniques to improve performance and safety
Systems Thinking
Developing high performance by understanding the complexity of your sociotechnical system
Just Culture
Developing an understanding that human error is normal and there is a need to fix systemic issues.
Improving Human Performance within your System
Safety comes as a by-product of high performance, integrity and a Just Culture. Therefore our aim is to develop excellence within teams and individuals by applying Human Performance, Human Factors, Just Culture and Systems-thinking principles. The result is the most positive, safe and productive working environment possible, especially for those operating in high-risk domains.
Training & Education
"Training to acquire skills is only the first step to high performance. Knowledge and attitude towards failure need to be developed too."
Working with you via targeted training and coaching programmes focusing on human factors, just culture and the ability to fail safely, we will help you to unlock the high performance latent within your teams and individuals. A team is only as strong as the weakest member.
Consulting
"Often we can't see the wood for the trees. A new perspective provides an opportunity to create an understanding because context is everything."
Using decades of experience, we can bring a fresh perspective to your problems. We will work with you to understand the issues at hand through review and analysis, develop credible solutions. Not a sheep-dip approach, but a programme of lasting results.
Speaking
"Storytelling is the perfect way of informing and motivating others on their journey towards excellence. Great stories often lead to great results."
Gareth has gained numerous unique experiences during his career - military aviation in operational and training roles, exploring shipwrecks 75m down, delivering HF training and coaching offshore in the Oil & Gas sector, and his own research into human factors.
Who We Are
"Very patient. The training and simulation stayed fun, even though human factors and safety is a serious subject."
Human in the System was established in 2015 with the aim of improving safety and performance in teams. We are a leading provider of human factors and crew resource management training services and consultancy in high-risk domains. Operating globally, we use a unique set of tools and experiences to provide you with the ability to create positive change in your team/organisation.
What We Do
"Having a human performance framework in which to explore team dynamics and fail safely is a very useful and powerful tool."
Our aim is to increase the effectiveness of your teams with bespoke human performance programmes across all levels in the business. Our expert and passionate trainers understand how to design, develop and deliver practical solutions to improve human performance, not just imparting knowledge, but creating real long-lasting change.
Where We've Operated
"Gareth challenged me. He made it stressful so our unconscious reactions came out and then we could work on them."
We have a breadth of experience across multiple sectors and cultures. From the oil and gas sector in the Middle East, to high tech businesses in the UK, to cave-diving exploration teams in Florida and New Zealand, through to surgical teams in the UK. This means we are able to recognise and take into account cultural differences - one size doesn't fit all.
Are you willing to make that call...
"Thank you very much for running the day in such a way as to give freedom of expression and allow personalities to come through so well in such a short time. Insightful seems to have been the operative word. I found the day very interesting and surprisingly hard work. "
Jack Parry-Jones
Consultant, ABUHB Team
"A much greater insight into key components of communication and understanding of non-technical skills. This programme really helped to separate them out from the clinical decisions which can then be handled retrospectively."
Caroline Toolan
Cardiothoracic Surgeon, ST5B cohort
"The class and subject are imperative for dive teams, organisations and individuals to progress in a quantum step. Each diver knows the mental attributes of the discipline is of paramount importance. Gareth has given the discipline a path to success in these avenues."
Ed O’Brien
Diving Safety Officer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Why 'Human in the System'?
Human factors is core to our business and a key theme of human factors is ensuring the 'system' is optimised for the positives and limitations of human performance. Focusing on developing human performance will not produce credible results if we don't take into account the socio-technical system in which we operate. Behaviour is a function of the person and the environment we operate within, so don't focus on changing the person, change the system in which they are operating within to optimise their performance.
The training and consultancy services provided by Human in the System are based on outputs from high reliability organisations such as the Royal Air Force, the CAA, the FAA and the Royal College of Surgeons. These are combined with published academic research covering both the traditional 'safety' view and the 'safety differently' or 'Safety II' view.
While we use formal incident analysis techniques to determine the multiple contributory and causal factors, we ensure we don't just focus on what went wrong, but also what went well and why, with the aim of reinforcing and optimising team and system performance.
Our aim is to help create new or enhanced mental models which help operational teams make better decisions, and for the leadership and management to understand how to make the 'system' more effective and not just blame the guy at the 'sharp end' when things go wrong.
In 'Known Known' situations we can write procedures, processes and rules for people to follow. But the real world, especially when operating in high-risk domains, rarely follows a linear path and therefore we need to share mental models to be effective as a team.
A team is most effective when role clarity and goals are coherent, trust established and operations are collaborative and that requires the application of non-technical skills or crew resource management techniques.
In many high-risk domains, we are operating in ambiguous, uncertain and complex environments and the only way to solve problems is via the application of HF, non-technical skills and learning from experience.
What is the biggest human performance challenge you face?
"If you think your team is high performing, take the online eLearning programme and find out how much you don't know you don't know. If you want to _make your team_ higher functioning, achieve more, have more fun, take the two-day class."
Meredith Tanguay
GUE Cave Instructor, Project Baseline Diving Safety Officer
"Impressive course. I now realise how important non-technical skills/human factors are in relation to my role and also how effective a simulation model is to improve our skills."
Izanee Mydin
Cardiothoracic Surgeon, ST5B cohort
"I found this course as challenging as I thought it would be, which I think everyone needs to do to raise their self-awareness. Putting it into practice will be hard work but I believe it will be very worthwhile."
CB
Senior Manager, UK-based charity
Services Provided
For your journey from incompetent and unaware to excellence and high performance
Blogs and regular informative emails
Sharing knowledge, tips and tricks to help unlock the high performance within teams and individuals
Free theory-based webinars
Human performance, human factors and just culture knowledge being shared to improve your performance and that of your team
Online eLearning Solutions
Providing a core level of understanding of human factors and just culture, and how they impact personal and organisational performance
Webinar-based seminars
For those who want to delve deeper into topics, but are dispersed geographically. An ideal solution to knowledge development.
Short and effective solutions
A mixture of theory and experiential learning delivered over a small number of days to improve the skills and knowledge within your organisation.
Longer-term programmes
For those committed to excellence. Learning and development with analysis, self-reflection and targeted goals for improved behaviours and results.
