“Major saves” are at the center of reliable policy and management

I

It’s long recorded that control room operators in key critical infrastructures prevent, often daily and unbeknownst to the public, major accidents and failures. Because these do not occur, are not recorded as savings to the public weal.

This track record of saves matters when justifying proposals for wholesale replacement or upgrading of these systems because failures or accidents do happen from time to time. As if the latter costs are considered reason enough to jettison the system without regard, however, to the losses in savings incurred in the jettisoning.

II

Not starting with the saves is far more than a methods problem. It takes us to the entire notion of “problem” as a starting point for major policy and management.

In my profession, policy analysis, asking “What’s the problem?” is the first step in an analyzing an issue.

As reasonable as that may sound, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that preventing something from becoming a problem is therefore a major part of that analysis and policymaking as well. This applies to reliability professionals wherever they are, from pastoralists to control room operators. Nor is this anything like news. “Is not the best policymaker the one who makes changes before the problem emerges?”

Source

Martin Reuss (1988). “The Myth and Reality of Policy History”. The Public Historian 10(1): 41 – 49 (p. 42).