"Human error," the authors of this book argue, is an inherently misleading term.  Drawing on the field of complexity science, the authors contend that viewing error as a definable and measurable entity fails to account for the complex social and organizational dynamics that allow errors to occur. In this viewpoint, approaches to improving patient safety that focus on measuring adverse events and limiting variability are inherently limited, as they only measure practitioners' behaviors and do not account for the organizational characteristics and influences that establish a culture of safety. The book uses insights from high-reliability organizations and the field of human factors engineering to establish a new paradigm for analyzing safety across a variety of industries.