Am I trying to rush to an answer?

Getting to a quick resolution can be an unwritten (or even written) goal of an investigative process, however this adds time pressures which can lead to mistakes and poor data collection. Working under pressure and to strict deadlines can enhance biases in the process. Biases are the natural result of needing to think quickly in certain situations, but incident investigations should not necessarily be one of them.

Suggested actions:

For Interviewers

• Be mindful of any pressure on the process and be more wary of bias that could result as a consequence throughout the process.
• Include information in the investigation report that notes any avenues of inquiry that could not be followed up on due to time pressures or other constraints.

For Managers

• Appreciate that incident investigation processes take time to do properly.
• Allow the investigator(s) to work methodically and without unnecessary pressure – they want to get to the right conclusions as well.
• Don’t include timescales for incident investigation completion in your KPIs or make other promises that set unnecessary parameters on the process.
• Be aware that the investigation will take as long as it needs to in order to secure the high quality information for optimum organizational learning from the incident

Find out more about the different biases that can affect you when you’re tired here.