Mike Legatt is the CEO and founder of ResilientGrid, Inc., whose mission is to grow resilient infrastructures by optimizing the human side of the infrastructure management, including situational awareness, decision making support and collaboration tools in normal and emergency operations, and in fostering the kinds of organizational culture (high reliability, just culture) that empower humans to work more efficiently and effectively, lowering human error rates. Dr. Legatt has been a programmer for over 25 years, and worked in the energy, financial, medical, neuroscience research and educational sectors. He has M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in clinical health psychology/neuropsychology from the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in energy systems engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and is a Certified Performance Technologist.

Prior to founding ResilientGrid, Michael spent ten years as the principal human factors engineer for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the flow of electricity to over 24 million Texas customers, about 90% of Texas’ load. There, his development of the Macomber Map® has been featured in the New York Times, National Public Radio, T&D World, and Forbes. The Macomber Map was credited as being instrumental in helping ERCOT operators maintain grid reliability during several record-setting wind generation levels since 2010, and through several severe weather events since 2009.

As an amateur (ham) radio operator, he received a commendation for helping to provide emergency communications during the 2003 blackout in the northeastern United States, which sparked his interest in the psychology of energy management. He works to support the growth of the industry’s high-reliability organizational culture, and to reduce human error by helping to optimize human-computer interactions, supporting improved situation awareness, decision support, processing speed, and stress management. At ERCOT, his development of the Macomber Map® has been featured in The New York Times, National Public Radio, Forbes, and T&D World. The Macomber Map was credited as being instrumental in helping ERCOT operators maintain grid reliability during several record-setting wind generation levels since 2010, and through several severe weather events since 2009.

Five key lessons covered in this course are:

• What is human error? How do we understand different types of human error, and understand different types of risky behaviors? How do organizations’ typical responses to human errors increase the chances errors will happen again?

• Organizational culture and human error: How does the makeup of an organization determine how likely human errors will occur? How do we incorporate the latest lessons in positive psychology to build better organizational approaches – both reducing error risk and improving productivity? How do we take shortcuts in thinking that increase our own chances of making errors, and how do we resist those tendencies?

• Social dynamics, situation awareness, and human error: How do we increase the chances that we’ll continue to behave in ways that reduce error? This unit focuses on how the ways we understand our social world and process information affect the propensity for human errors.

• Fatigue, diet, exercise, and human error: This unit covers all the ways “you are what you eat” – the relationship between our food and our bodies, and how human errors are affected by fatigue, social contact with others, and attempts to multitask.

• High-Reliability Organization (HRO) practices in reducing human error: This unit covers the ways that organizations and individuals can follow proven techniques for drastically reducing both the chances and the severity of human errors. These tools have been quite successful in aviation, space travel, healthcare, nuclear power, electricity, fire fighting, and a variety of other sectors.

Location: UT Austin
Upcoming Course(s): March 28, 2024
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Continuing Education Units (CEUs): 0.6 CEUs will be awarded upon completion of this program (six hours of instruction)
Registration Deadline: March 25, 2024

One-Day Seminar Pricing:

Registration fee includes all course materials, catering (lunch and refreshments), WiFi access, and parking.

• Standard Registration: $1,000
• UT System Staff/Alumni Registration: $750
• Educator, Nonprofit, Government, Military Registration: $750

Get employer support! We’ve gathered resources to help you make the case for your employer to support your HDO education.

If you have questions prior to registering, please see our Professional Training FAQ or contact or contact Andrew M. Vasquez, HDO’s Enrollment & Success Coordinator at hdo-pro@austin.utexas.edu.

The majority of participants in our Seminars and Certificate Programs are mid- and upper-level professionals working in the business, nonprofit, government, or military sectors; however, professionals at all levels of experience are welcome to participate. There are no prerequisites for enrolling in an HDO Professional Seminar.

While all HDO Seminars are developed with wide-ranging applicability in mind, the following individuals and groups will likely find Risky Business: Human Error & Organizational Resiliency most directly relevant to their work:

• Senior/Executive Leadership
• Managers and Directors
• Team Leaders & Supervisors
• New or First-Time Managers
• Team Leaders & Supervisors
• Human Resources/Recruiting Directors & Managers
• Quality Assurance and Risk Management Professionals