Once again I find myself sitting at my computer to compose TBD only to realize that I have forgotten the topic that sprang to mind a few weeks ago. I guess I need to sit down and write them when that happens, rather then waiting for them to mature before setting them to print. Luckily, I ran into an interesting topic while having a cup of tea with my morning Buddhist meditation group. I belong to a small group of people in Davis, California (home of the University of California, Davis) who sit together from 6:00 am to 7:00 am. We then go to a little restaurant for a cup of tea and a little chat. Since it is a university town, several members of the group are PhD students studying various sciences, including the life sciences (microbiology, stem cell research and similar topics). This background leads our discussions off on some pretty wild, and interesting, tangents.
Yesterday one of them brought up that she had used me, and my work, as an example in a microbiology presentation. She kind of giggled and suggested that our work (system safety) is similar to the work of something called “micro-RNA” within cells. Apparently a couple of them in our little group of scientists have been referring to me as “the” micro-RNA!)
She went on to explain that these micro-RNA things are a newly discovered part of the cell. They are different from most of the rest of the RNA because they don’t really “do” anything. The DNA is used as a template to make RNA, which in turn makes many other elements of the cell that do the work – most of the RNA particles manufacture the proteins that are required to make the cell work, but they do so rather blindly. Apparently the RNA gets turned on to produce a product or chemical, without much control. Basically, they just start turning out various types of protein.
The micro-RNA things act as a kind of safety engineer. They monitor the amounts and rates of activities from the “doing” parts and adjust them by telling them to stop, to create other materials, to speed up or slow down – basically they are the “system” guys, looking after the overall health and safety of the cell – while allowing the other parts of the cell to make all that is needed for life. If they fail to work properly, many bad things can happen, including illness, cancer or cell death (or death of the entire organism!). Hence, they are the system safety engineers of the cell world in that they make sure that the cell manufacturing elements don’t produce dangerous or toxic products.
She said that it is turning out that this kind of activity is extremely common in nature at the cell level. The doers just get to doing, but need subtle control to do so safely and effectively. Hence her analogy of our role as the micro-RNA of the industrial world. Apparently this approach of some elements being focused on doing things and making things as fast and furiously as possible extends to the macro-world in the projects that we are working on.
I found this to be kind of humorous, but also enlightening because it gave me a slightly different perspective on our role within a product development team. Over the years, I have noticed a definite lack of respect for the importance of our work by not only the rest of the team, but as a feeling of “self-worth” by the system safety engineer as well. There is a feeling that the value is to be had in being creative in the design. If you don’t design something, then you are just an added cost.
The problem that I have observed is a desire by the system safety professional to “do something.” They want to get involved in the process of creation rather than “merely” being regulators. The problem with this is two fold. First, they tend to become vested in their own design ideas – breaking their position of independence which is so critical to their effectiveness in identifying problems and recognizing good solutions. The second problem is that the attempt to create “good” design ideas tends to create conflicts with the design team – causing jealousy and a barrier between the safety engineer and the design team. The design team usually doesn’t want to share the glory with others.
I rather like the analogy of our work to that of the micro-RNA. We don’t actually “do” much in that we don’t design or build anything. However, without a process such as ours to guide and control the process, the designers are not likely to be successful or the final product safe to make or use. The work of the system safety engineer is necessary to achieve success of the enterprise – just as the work of the micro-RNA is necessary for the success of the cell and ultimately of life. Of course, in many situations that work is performed informally by the designers themselves either by following existing codes and standards, or by using “common sense.”
The problems with the use of these informal approaches are many, not the least of which are that the existing standards usually do not completely cover the scope of the potential hazards and are therefore incomplete, the fact that “common sense” doesn’t seem to be all that common. An additional problem is the fact that the designers are influenced by the same type of vested interest as mentioned above. They become “blind” to glaring safety problems in their designs.
I have always found it to be most satisfactory (and satisfying) to keep my role as an assistant in mind while working on a project. I am there to assist in the identification of potential hazards and potential types of solutions. However, it is not my place to actually do the designing. Of course, sometimes I make suggestions about design solutions if I happen to know of them, realizing that I am treading on thin ice when I do so. I find it best to make sure that others actually do the design, and I provide“behind the scenes” assistance – leading them to a better and safer design, but not doing the designing for them. I freely give my knowledge to the designers to help them to be successful and do not take credit for the design. I make sure that they maintain ownership and credit for the design. That approach prevents the formation of jealousy and other problems where my knowledge is not sought after. As far as I am concerned, they can do the designing and get the glory – I get to do the extremely important work of directing the design toward a safe solution.
