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The ONE Thing That Will Actually Improve Your Human Factors Program in 2026

What’s your ONE thing for 2026? What I have learned is “We’ll implement Human Factors” isn’t a plan. It’s six topics and fifty things pretending to be one.
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Dr. Dominic Furniss

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Here’s my inbox from this morning: three client proposals to review, two blog drafts half-finished, a conference paper that needs fleshing out, an opportunity in Brazil to follow-up, a new course that needs mapping out, and a business coach gently reminding me I said I’d focus on ONE thing this quarter.

Four years ago, I read Oliver Burkeman’s ‘Four Thousand Weeks’. That’s roughly how long you get if you live to 80 – the title of Oliver Burkeman’s book that I mentioned reading about 200 weeks ago. His central message? Stop trying to do everything. Accept your limitations. Focus on what truly matters.

I understood the message. I even agreed with it. And yet…

Here I am, 200 weeks later, still finding focus harder than it should be. Client projects. Blog writing. Methodology development. Course creation. Software evolution. Consultancy work. Conference presentations. Each of these things gets done – and done well (I hope) – but the question Burkeman poses is more subtle: am I working on what truly matters most? Part of the problem is the level of ambition and vision, if there are all of these things to do, achieve, challenges to overcome, then the to-do list can run away with you. A business coach has been helping me get better at this, but it remains an ongoing challenge. The irony isn’t lost on me: I’m writing a blog about choosing ONE thing whilst still wrestling with saying no to things I really want to do or what interests me.

But perhaps that struggle is exactly what makes this worth writing about.

Because in those 200 weeks, despite – or maybe because of – the occasional chaos, we’ve achieved quite a bit:

That’s not the output of someone who successfully does “one thing.” Of course, I’m fortunate to work in a talented team – this isn’t a one-person operation. But the principle holds: trying to do everything at once means you’re doing nothing, or not much, because you’re spread too thin.

“It was an overnight success, 30yrs in the making.”

Another observation, sometimes these bigger projects require lots of jobs and moving parts, and then the larger goal seems to happen overnight because everything is in place. It reminds me of a quote from a film I watched recently, something along the lines of “It was an overnight success, 30yrs in the making.”

Organisations face similar challenge.

The “One Thing” Sounds Simple. It Isn’t.

When we work with clients – whether they’re COMAH sites in the UK, pharmaceutical manufacturers globally, or other safety-critical industries – we see this pattern repeatedly. Someone recognises the need for Human Factors work. Maybe they’ve attended training. Maybe they’ve read the HSE’s Delivery Guide with its six topics or have a HF inspection coming up. Maybe they’ve just had an incident that’s made the need painfully obvious.

And they want to focus. They want to choose their “one thing.”

But what is that one thing?

“Our one thing is Human Factors.” In many cases they might not even know how to break this down or organise it. 

The six-topic framework from the HSE’s Delivery Guide actually helps provide structure:

  1. Managing Human Performance (proactive risk assessment and incident investigation)
  2. Human Factors in Process Design (design of control systems, alarm management, HF integration in projects)
  3. Critical Communications (shift handover, control of work)
  4. Design and Management of Procedures
  5. Competence Management Systems
  6. Managing Organisational Factors (managing change, shift work and fatigue, staffing and workload)

This framework helps divide the work into manageable chunks. But even with this helpful structure, someone time-limited looks at this and thinks: “Where do I even start? My management wants to see progress across everything.”

“Our one thing is SCTA.” Better, but still too vague. SCTA for which tasks? Using what process? Involving whom? By when?

“Our one thing is improving safety.” That’s not even a thing; that’s an aspiration masquerading as a plan.

The 3-Level Focus Framework

This is where my background in Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) becomes useful. When we teach SCTA, we emphasize breaking down high-level goals into progressively more specific subtasks until you reach executable steps. The same principle applies to organisational Human Factors goals.

Consider three levels of specificity:

Too Vague to Execute:

  • “We’ll do Human Factors”
  • “We need better safety”
  • “We should build community”

Getting Warmer:

  • “We’ll implement SCTA”
  • “We’ll improve our procedures”
  • “We’ll create a practitioner network”

Specific and Actionable:

  • “We’ll complete SCTA on the three tasks linked to last year’s worst near-miss by end of Q2”
  • “We’ll rewrite procedures for our top five critical tasks using the risk-informed approach from our recent SCTA by September”
  • “We’ll grow our practitioner hub to 100 members by December through a four-phase rollout”

Notice the difference? The first level sounds impressive in a strategy document but gives you nowhere to start. The second level points you in a direction but leaves too many questions unanswered. The third level? You could start tomorrow. You’d know if you’d succeeded. You could explain it to someone else in one sentence.

The work isn’t choosing “one thing.” The work is decomposing your aspirations until you reach something executable.

But specificity alone isn’t enough. Your “one thing” also needs to be realistic given your actual situation. That’s where Performance Influencing Factors come in – those contextual factors that shape what you can actually achieve. Do you have budget? Authority? Time? Knowledge? Senior support? Are you firefighting constantly, or do you have space for proactive work?

“The work isn’t choosing ‘one thing.’ The work is decomposing your aspirations until you reach something executable.” 

Context drives behaviour, including organisational behaviour.

Five Scenarios: Finding Your Specific Thing

Let me share five common situations we’ve encountered from experience. Maybe you’ll recognise yourself in one of them. Notice how each scenario addresses both dimensions: getting specific enough to act, AND realistic enough given the actual constraints.

Scenario 1: The Constrained Champion

  • Your context: You’re convinced your organisation needs systematic Human Factors risk assessment, but you face sceptical leadership, limited authority, and no designated budget.
  • Your PIFs: No budget, no senior sponsorship, time pressure, limited authority.
  • Wrong level: “I need to convince leadership about Human Factors.”
  • Right level: “I’ll complete lightweight SCTA on Task X (last month’s near-miss) using the free mini-course. Present findings and recommendations to my manager by March with tangible ROI data.”
  • Why this works: Evidence beats theory. One well-executed example demonstrating cost savings or risk reduction gets you budget for ten projects. Start small, prove value, scale up.

Scenario 2: The Compliance-Driven Site

  • Your context: HSE or FDA has flagged Human Factors gaps. You have regulatory pressure and tight deadlines, but risk superficial “tick-box” compliance.
  • Your PIFs: External pressure, tight timelines, potentially shallow motivation from leadership.
  • Wrong level: “We need to meet all Human Factors Delivery Guide requirements.”
  • Right level: “Achieve ‘Good’ rating on Topic 1.1 (proactive HF risk assessment) by completing SCTA on our five most critical tasks by Q3. Full task analysis, failure analysis, PIF assessment.”
  • Why this works: Deep expertise in one topic beats superficial coverage of all six. Use regulatory pressure to build real capability. Once you’ve demonstrated competence in one area, expanding becomes straightforward. Turn compliance into competitive advantage.

Scenario 3: The Resource-Limited Practitioner

  • Your context: You’re passionate about Human Factors but you’re essentially a lone voice. No budget, limited time, somewhat isolated. You need to build the business case first.
  • Your PIFs: No budget, enthusiasm without organisational backing, isolated position.
  • Wrong level: “I need to get better at Human Factors.”
  • Right level: “Complete the HF_PLC course in March*. Identify three quick wins using free tools. Document before/after results. Present business case for one SCTA project to line manager by June with cost-benefit analysis.”
  • Why this works: You’re building both capability and evidence simultaneously. Quick wins prove you’re serious and that this approach delivers results. Documentation creates your business case. Three small successes position you to request one properly-resourced project.

    * See end of blog for Early Bird pricing

Scenario 4: The Well-Resourced Leader

  • Your context: You have budget and senior buy-in. The challenge isn’t resources – it’s knowing where to focus them. There’s temptation to implement all six topics simultaneously.
  • Your PIFs: Budget available, potentially unrealistic expectations, risk of spreading too thin.
  • Wrong level: “We’re implementing a comprehensive Human Factors programme.”
  • Right level: “Commission a benchmarking exercise from one of HRA’s senior consultants to review what you’re doing well and priority areas for HF improvement over the next 3-5years in Q2. Goal being a successful and sustainable HF programme across all 6 key topic areas.”
  • Why this works: Realistic about progression – you can’t jump from maturity Level 1 to Level 5 or cover all topic areas at once. Mature implementation of core practices beats superficial coverage of everything. You’re building sustainable capability, not creating initiative fatigue.

Scenario 5: The Firefighting Organisation

  • Your context: Constant reactive mode. Deviations, investigations, CAPAs. Every day is firefighting with no space for proactive work. But you know the cycle must break.
  • Your PIFs: Constant reactive pressures, no protected time, exhausted staff.
  • Wrong level: “We need to be more proactive.”
  • Right level: “Shift 20% of one team member’s time – protected and non-negotiable – to complete proactive SCTA on the three tasks generating most frequent deviations last quarter. Starting Q1. This person will not be pulled into reactive work during allocated SCTA time. Expect deviation reduction by Q4.”
  • Why this works: Breaking the cycle requires specific, protected investment. You’re focusing on tasks causing the most pain, so ROI is measurable. The time allocation is realistic – not “everyone spend half their time on this.” Protected time is non-negotiable. Investment now prevents fires later. Track deviation frequency as your success metric.

My Own Granularity Challenge

So what about me? What’s my ONE thing for 2026?

After 200 weeks of building capability – courses, software, methodology development, content creation – I’ve recognised that people need more than training. They need ongoing support. A place to ask questions, share challenges, learn from each other’s experiences. They need community.

My first instinct was to say: “My ONE thing for 2026 is community.”

But that’s too vague. Community could mean anything. A monthly newsletter? An annual conference? A LinkedIn group? All of the above? That’s not one thing; that’s twenty things wearing a trench coat.

Getting more specific: The Human Reliability Hub. A membership platform bringing together Human Factors practitioners who use our tools, attend our training, and are serious about implementing systematic risk management in their organisations.

But even that’s not specific enough to execute. So here’s my actual, measurable, time-bound ONE thing for 2026:

Grow the Human Reliability Hub to 100 members by December 2026 through a four phased rollout to different groups. I have more detailed plans for this but won’t share them here now  – we’ll leave that for a future newsletter or blog.

This plan is executable. I know what success looks like. I could tell you in three months whether I’m on track.

And yes, there’s irony in the fact that even this “ONE thing” has four phases and will require considerable work. I’m still learning about focus. But it’s specific enough to actually do, which is the point.

Your Turn: Do the Work of Getting Specific

So here’s my challenge to you: What’s YOUR one thing for 2026?

Not six things from the Human Factors Delivery Guide. Not even one vague aspiration. One specific, executable, measurable commitment.

“You certainly can’t do everything at once, and focusing on everything means you’re doing nothing.” 

Do the work of decomposition:

Start with the area: Which of the six topics matters most to your organisation right now (Managing Human Performance, HF in Process Design, Critical Communications, Procedures, Competence Management, or Organisational Factors)? Or is there another priority that keeps you up at night?

Get more specific: Which subtopic? Which tasks? Which team? What does “good” look like?

Make it executable: By when? Measured how? Involving whom? With what resources?

Check your PIFs: What’s actually constraining you? Budget? Authority? Knowledge? Time? Your ONE thing needs to be realistic given your constraints.

It should feel slightly uncomfortable. “Is this too small? Shouldn’t we be more ambitious?” If you’re feeling that, you’re probably at the right level of specificity. Big aspirations are easy. Specific commitments are hard.

But here’s the liberation: once you’ve done this work, you know exactly what success looks like. You can start tomorrow. You can tell if you’re making progress. You can say “no” to other things that would distract from this.

You don’t have 4,000 weeks to perfect your Human Factors programme. But you do have 2026 to make measurable progress on one specific thing that matters.

What will it be?

Your 5-Minute Exercise 

Right now, before this tab closes: 

  1. Write down your vague goal (30 seconds) 
    1. List your top 3 constraints – time, budget, authority, knowledge? (1 minute) 
    1. Decompose your goal into ONE executable thing (2 minutes) 
    1. Set a date to review progress (30 seconds) 

Share it with me: info@humanreliability.com – we read every one.

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