Fast, slow, and pause: Understanding error management via a temporal lens

Abstract

When an error occurs, in the race to act, people may decide to quickly handle things on their own. However, although thesquick fixes seem to work well, and even create a sense of gratification for having swiftly solved a problem, they can preclude performance improvement over time by impeding operational and structural changes that would prevent the same errors and failures from happening again. Still, fast action should not necessarily be discouraged. Rather, we should be alerted to the side effects of emphasizing speed over analysis. In the heat of the moment, it is hard to know the proper way to make sense of information and regain control. In fact, when hyperdynamic interactions of error signs and interruptions create an interlude, people may experience a blank, a freezing moment that calls into question the orderliness of a structure, a task, or a protocol. As a result, understanding and sensemaking collapse, and fast actions can be ill-conceived. When it comes to high-reliability organizations, we may even see paradoxes: Actions and responses happen at a rapid pace, yet people need to pause, reflect, explore various concerns, and come up with analyses and solutions. Understanding error management via a temporal lens raises quantitative and methodological questions, and it promotes dialogues concerning behavioral options in organizational practice. Although the element of time has always been in the background of the theory and research on errors and error reporting, it has yet to be-and should be-brought to the foreground of observation.