Increasing complexity requires new risk awareness
Many engineers are dissatisfied with how risk is handled and managed in the current context. With increasing complexity and interconnectedness, risks are increasing, both within companies and organisations and socially. The current, mainly procedural, approach through rules, prohibitions, fines and liability has insufficient answer to this. Such a mechanical incident approach not only gives many blind spots, but also leads to rigidity, new risks and pass-on behaviour. How to turn this tide is no easy task, but affects almost everyone.
Multidisciplinary cooperation
A professional association such as KIVI is an obvious, independent platform to set up an interdisciplinary Risk Management and Engineering Division (RBT) for this purpose.
The RBT Department is a cross-disciplinary one and has many interfaces with other departments within the KIVI network.
Given its multidisciplinary character, the department's field of activity has important interfaces with sectors outside the engineering discipline, such as management and organisation, behavioural and communication sciences, finance and governance, with which contact and/or cooperation will be sought for specific subjects.
Vision and mission
Whereas:
- Goal-oriented people are actually goal-oriented and therefore focus on the goal with enthusiasm and vigour.
- Goal-oriented people thereby tend to ignore or disregard those things, which do not directly contribute to the achievement of the goal or which pose substantial dangers later on when used¹.
- This is a very human trait, expressed in sayings such as: When the calf has been drowned, one fills the well.
- We have money and time at all times to repair disasters and then take adequate measures,
Defines RBT as its vision²
Human beings should by now behave more intelligently and creatively than too often demonstrated to date and think beforehand when tackling an activity. Through this forethought, risks are identified and adequate measures are defined and taken to accept only acceptable risks.
If avoiding risks proves too costly or impracticable, measures are defined and taken beforehand to mitigate and remedy the consequences of any risks encountered.
RBT defines it as its mission
Extend this vision to all disciplines of the engineering profession and far beyond. Get this vision integrated into all vocational training.
¹ The hardest part of rethinking is daring to let go of the reflex to want to solve a problem - Rethinking calendar 10 November 2022
² Preventiveness and inventiveness are synonyms -WF