Sidney W. A. Dekker is Professor in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at

Griffith University Griffith University is a public university, public research university in South East Queensland on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of Australia. The university was founded in 1971, but was not officially opened until 1975. Griffith ...

in Brisbane, Australia, where he founded the Safety Science Innovation Lab. He is a trained

mediator Mediation is a structured, voluntary process for resolving disputes, facilitated by a neutral third party known as the mediator. It is a structured, interactive process where an independent third party, the mediator, assists disputing parties ...

and he volunteers as a crisis chaplain. Previously, Dekker was Professor of

human factors Ergonomics, also known as human factors or human factors engineering (HFE), is the application of psychological and physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Primary goals of human factors eng ...

and

system safety The system safety concept calls for a risk management strategy based on identification, analysis of hazards and application of remedial controls using a systems-based approach. This is different from traditional safety strategies which rely on co ...

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

in Sweden, where he founded the Leonardo da Vinci Laboratory for Complexity and Systems Thinking, and flew as First Officer on

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

s for Sterling and later Cimber Airlines out of Copenhagen. He is an avid piano player. Dekker is a high-profile scholar ( ''h''-index = 63) and is known globally for his work in the fields of human factors and safety. He coined the terms Safety Differently and Restorative Just Culture which have since turned into global movements for change. They encourage organisations to declutter their bureaucracy and enhance the capacities in people and processes that make things go well—and to offer compassion, restoration and learning when they don’t. Safety Differently, developed by Sidney Dekker in 2012, represents a fundamental shift from traditional safety management. It sees safety not as the absence of negative events but as the presence of positive capacities in people, teams and processes that make things go well. It challenges conventional safety thinking: People aren't the problem to control; they are the resource to harness. Instead of stopping things from going wrong, organizations can set their people up for success. Restorative Just Culture was developed by Sidney Dekker in 2014, with its first large-scale implementation at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool, UK. The approach integrates principles of restorative justice into organizations' responses to incidents and adverse events, identifying the impacts and meeting the needs created by incidents, and establishing a forward-looking accountability with obligations for making things right, repairing trust and restoring relationships. Safety Differently and Restorative Just Culture have both deeply influenced a number of industries, including healthcare, aviation, resources and heavy industry, leading organizations to fundamentally reconsider their approach to safety management, responses to failure and worker engagement. The concept builds upon theoretical foundations in resilience engineering and complexity theory, while offering practical applications for organizational leadership. Part of the group of founding scientists behind ' Resilience Engineering,' Sidney Dekker's work has inspired the birth of HOP (Human and Organizational Performance), New View Safety, Learning Teams, and more.

Publications

Books

* ''Safety Theater'' (2025) * ''Restorative Just Culture (2025)'' * ''Ten virtues of a positive safety culture (2025)'' * ''Being a Crisis Chaplain'' (2025) * ''Random Noise'' (2024) * ''Stop Blaming'' (2023) * ''Do Safety Differently'' (2022) * ''Compliance Capitalism'' (2021) * ''Foundations of Safety Science: A century of understanding accidents and disasters'' (2019) * ''The Safety Anarchist'' (2017) * ''The End of Heaven'' (2017) * ''Just Culture: Restoring Trust and Accountability in your Organization'' (2016) * ''Safety Differently: Human Factors for a New Era'' (2015) * ''The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error (2014) * ''Second Victim: Error, guilt, trauma and resilience'' (2013) * ''Just Culture: Balancing Safety and Accountability'' (2012) * ''Drift into Failure: From hunting broken components to understanding complex systems'' (2011) * ''Patient Safety: A human factors approach'' (2011) * ''The Field Guide to Human Error Investigations'' (2002)

Documentaries

*''The Complexity of Failure'' — in collaboration with Brisbane-based RideFree Media *''Doing Safety Differently'' — in collaboration with Brisbane-based RideFree Media *''Just Culture'': The Movie — in collaboration with Brisbane-based RideFree Media *''Safety Differently: The Movie'' – in collaboration with Brisbane-based RideFree Media, Sidney directed and presented his debut documentary in 2017.

References

External links

Leonardo da Vinci Laboratory for Complexity and Systems Thinking official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dekker, Sidney 1969 births Living people Dutch aviators Dutch expatriates in Australia Dutch expatriates in Sweden Dutch psychologists Academic staff of Griffith University Academic staff of Lund University