Root Cause Analysis Public Speaking
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C. Robert (Bob) Nelms is available for Keynote,
After Dinner, Society Meeting, Company Meeting, and
almost any other forum where people are interested in learning from things
that go wrong.
Most people appreciate Bob's passion for this subject, the
humor that he brings to the subject, and his candid, blunt style.
You will leave the room thinking about what he said, whether you agree or
not.
Bob founded Failsafe Network, Inc. in 1985. His
career highlights include:
- Meeting and working with people around the world,
learning that we all encounter the same issues in life, no matter what
country we live in, or what our economic circumstances, what industry or
company we find ourselves.
- Being able to hear people say "I wish I would have
thought about these things a long, long time ago -- it would have made a
big difference in my life."
- Understanding that I am part of my own problems, as
well as part of everyone else's problems. It's not you, it's me.
- Being able to work with a handful of "affiliates,"
together trying our best to take "learning from things that go wrong" to
another plateau. It is not easy!
B.S. Aerospace Engineering, Texas A&M University, 1970
Please
send Bob an email if you'd like to have him talk to your group!
If you'd like Bob to develop something special, please let him know! |
Standard Talks Include |
 The
Lessons of the Challenger Explosion
(60-90 minutes):
This talk will cause you to think about progress, its consequences, and its
costs.... a look at what we, humanity, must do if we hope to
avoid these kinds of incidents... and will hopefully give you a
renewed appreciation of the value of your CONSCIENCE.
Things that go wrong in our lives are capable
of teaching us things nothing else can teach us. In fact, many say that
failure is not what we think it is -- that it is life's ONLY means of
teaching us what we need to learn. But is it necessary to sacrifice precious
human life to learn our lessons?
The Challenger explosion could have been prevented. Interestingly, however,
you will learn that ALL true failure can be prevented if we would all simply
do what we OUGHT to do, rather than what is convenient for our selves at
that "moment of decision."
This talk will place you into the shoes of the people who made the decisions
to launch the Challenger on January 28th, 1986. Once there, you'll be
shocked to learn you might have done the same thing.
For any audience, technical or non-technical, adult or adolescent. |
 The Revelations of Asphaliah
(60-120 minutes): A look at the concepts of
"safety" and risk through the eyes of different cultures yields some
thought-provoking surprises. You won't understand until you experience this
presentation, but when it gets right down to it, "human beings really do
not want to be safe!"
The human tendency to "get away with it" is at the root of all human
progress, and all human failure. What is this thing we call "risk?" Where
did the concept come from? Has it always been part of our thoughts? The
answers might disturb you. This talk was derived from the book entitled
"Against the Gods -- the Remarkable Story of Risk," by Peter L. Bernstein.
Controversial, enlightening, humorous, and thought-provoking.
For any audience, technical or non-technical, adult or adolescent.
note: a paper is also available on this subject. |
 Are You Willing to Hear what Failure Is Trying to Tell You?
(60 minutes) "Failure" is the only phenomena of life that is capable
of prying us away from the grasp of our own objectives, desires and goals to
force us to look at the most important facets of life. Failure is
life's teacher, and it is arguably the only thing capable of enabling
true learning. But are we willing to listen to its voice?
This talk will challenge you to reconsider the question "what
is failure?" learn now or later. Eventually, we will all learn
what we need to learn -- guaranteed. The only choice we seem to have
is when we will learn.
For any audience, technical or non-technical, adult or adolescent. |
 The Problem with
"Root Cause" Analysis
(60 minutes) Millions of
people all over the world are doing "root cause analyses," and they're all
doing something different -- none of them addressing the true "root cause."
The causes of everything that goes right, as well as
everything that goes wrong can be traced all the way back to the beginning
of time. This is what makes "root cause analysis" difficult, if not
impossible. The root causes of everything that goes wrong can be
traced to human beings. We either do things we should not have
done or don't do things we should have done.
However, instead of blaming one another for our problems,
each of us should be looking at ourselves, asking "What is about the way
I am that contributes to my problems, and what am I willing to do about it?"
For any audience, technical or non-technical, adult or adolescent. |
 New
Century, Same Humanity
(60 minutes) Human beings
have created technologies that are marvelous. It's hard to imagine
living without them. It seems that each year brings new technologies,
along with our typical ooo's and aaa's.
In 1950, the famous psychoanalyst Car Jung suggested
that things were very much out of balance. Jung said that if we
did not focus more on people, we would be endangering our very selves.
The theme of this talk focuses on Jung's concerns. Have we, as people,
changed? Is it possible to change our nature?
This talk begins with a "card trick" to capture everyone's
attention -- to help people understand how fallible we are on one hand, but
how much we depend on our infallibility on the other hand.
For any audience, technical or non-technical, adult or adolescent. |
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