People get overly tired. People get distracted; they get stressed and make poor decisions. People multitask when they shouldn’t. People lack training at times.

Our brains and bodies are machines, but they are imperfect ones. Even the most thorough and careful person will become an “err apparent” eventually because “mistakes can happen to anyone,” as Gen Xers, especially in the Chicago area, learned from the vintage cartoon series Most Important Person. The negative results of human errors in the workplace can also be compounded by what occurs in the limbic system of our brains. Experts refer to this as the “lizard brain” area of the mind, which is where feelings of fear and freezing up emerge under certain circumstances.

And any incident caused by a worker’s mistake that leads to an “oopsie,” “uh-oh,” “oh no,” or even a “holy smokes!” can and should be considered an operational risk to the organization.

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