Managing Threats

Mandy Hickson

25 years: Ex-RAF pilot & leadership expert

Threats can be defined as any situation, event, or circumstance that occurs outside of your influence and which may affect the safety of an operation. Mandy discusses the different ways to avoid, trap and mitigate these threats.

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Managing Threats

11 mins 31 secs

Key learning objectives:

Determine the root causes of the majority of workplace accidents
Understand the best way to manage a threat
Identify the two different types of threats

Overview:

All large organisations conduct regular threat analysis. But how many had a worldwide pandemic in their top 3 threats? Some threats can’t be completely avoided but they can be mitigated with the right plans in place.

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Summary

What are the two different types of threats?

Observable Threats - For example in aviation, a strong crosswind
Latent Threats - Factors residing in the system, organisation or individual that increase risk & are not directly observable in operations

What are the causes of most accidents in organisations?

Most accidents can be traced to one or more of four failure domains:

Organisational influences
Supervision
Preconditions
Specific acts

For example, in aviation, preconditions for unsafe acts include fatigued air crew or improper communications practices. Unsafe supervision encompasses for example, pairing inexperienced pilots on a night flight into known adverse weather. Organisational influences encompass such things as reduction in expenditure on pilot training in times of financial austerity.

What is the best way to manage a threat?

The best way to manage threats in any environment is to “Avoid, trap and mitigate” the threats. To avoid the threat it's all about Prevention and preparation. Plan for the worst case scenario. Have an action plan to minimise risk. Prepare for a crisis. Have in place a reputation monitoring system to identify emerging threats.

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Mandy Hickson

Mandy Hickson was one of the first female fighter pilots in the Royal Air Force having joined in 1994. Mandy has over 25 years experience within aviation, operating in hostile environments, including patrolling the ‘No Fly’ zone, flying over 50 combat missions over Iraq. Drawing on her experience of calculated risk-taking, leadership, decision-making under pressure and the critical role of the human in the system, Mandy now transfers these lessons from the cockpit to many other management and leadership contexts.

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