Life right now, but always, has uncertainty. Yet, if we get only caught in fear and uncertainty will be suffer and be imbalanced. A way to balance uncertainty and fear is through finding what is reliable. Mary Oliver explains it best. Enjoy this short but sweet and potent podcast. 

Episode 191: Fear and Uncertainty

On this week’s Happy Biotech, hosts Suus and Micah sit down with Dr. Nathaniel Katz, whose career has been devoted to improving pain management. Nat breaks down how subjective reporting, flawed protocols, and groupthink can undermine trial reliability—and outlines patient-centered, rigorously calibrated strategies to ensure that new therapies truly work.

Are Clinical Trials Reliable?  Happy Biotech interview with Dr. Nathaniel Katz

This podcast presents Terrence O’Hanlon’s "Ten Strategic Enablers for Reliability Success," outlining fundamental principles for achieving operational reliability within an organization. It begins with the original human-created ideas, which emphasize the importance of execution, vision, leadership, and specific functions like asset management, reliability, and maintenance. Following this, an AI-assisted response from "Charles, the AI Reliability Leader" elaborates on each enabler, providing more detailed explanations of how ideas translate to impact, vision guides strategy, and leadership fosters a reliability culture. Finally, the document includes a checklist for self-assessment or implementation, allowing organizations to evaluate their progress in applying these strategic enablers to build a tailored Center of Excellence and enhance their reliability.

Ten Strategic Enablers for Reliability Success

Terrence O'Hanlon's text introduces his upcoming paper, "ISO 55001 & Uptime Elements Alignment: A Management System Guide," which explores the relationship between the ISO 55001 standard for asset management and the Uptime Elements Reliability Framework. O'Hanlon, who contributed to the development of the ISO 55000 series, notes the low adoption rate of ISO 55001 compared to the more widely implemented Uptime Elements. He proposes the Uptime Elements Management System (UEMS) as an alternative or complementary framework, aligned with ISO's High-Level Structure, to help organizations integrate asset management within existing management systems like ISO 9001 or ISO 14001. The author seeks feedback on this alignment and provides actionable steps and questions for organizations considering formal management system approaches for reliability and asset management.

Beyond Boring: Unlocking Asset Management Excellence with_Uptime Elements & ISO Standards

Terrence O'Hanlon: Reliability Leadership and Asset Management

The  discussion introduces Terrence O'Hanlon's philosophy of Reliability Leadership, defining it as a transformative approach focused on "creating a future that wasn't going to happen anyway" rather than merely preserving the status quo. Central to this philosophy is the O'Hanlon Reliability Leadership Compass, which outlines six guiding aspects: serving others, embodying integrity, leading without formal authority, balancing technical and human factors, integrating sustainability and UN Sustainable Development Goals, and aligning actions with values (Aim). O'Hanlon's work, including the Uptime® Elements Reliability Framework and Reliabilityweb.com, positions him as a key figure in asset management who advocates for a servant-leader model combining engineering principles with human-centered leadership to foster a more sustainable and reliable future. Ultimately, the sources detail how his framework extends beyond technical proficiency to encompass a holistic, values-driven approach to organizational and societal well-being.

From Firefighting to Future-Making: Terrence OHanlons Path to Proactive Reliability Leadership

Danceability, Happiness, Reliability, 136BPM

Rising Up

Deep Dive: Paul Barringer’s Economic Approach to Maintenance and Reliability - The discussion source is an excerpt from a 2025 article by Terrence O’Hanlon detailing Paul Barringer’s approach to maintenance and reliability, emphasizing an economic and tactical perspective. Barringer makes a clear distinction, asserting that maintenance is a reactive process focused on quickly restoring function and minimizing costs and downtime, while reliability is the strategic, proactive effort to prevent failures altogether. His views are heavily supported by data indicating that the majority of failures stem from people and procedural errors (around 72%) rather than equipment issues (28%). Consequently, Barringer advocated for viewing all maintenance and reliability actions through an economic lens, prioritizing work based on Pareto analysis and the most urgent risk assessments.

The_Economics_of_Failure

This audio brief on Terrence O'Hanlon introduction of the Uptime® Elements Maturity Matrix, a framework designed to guide organizations from reactive maintenance to achieving a state of high reliability. This roadmap outlines four levels of progress, starting from the costly, uncontrolled "Reactive" phase and progressing to the data-driven, continuous learning environment of a "High-Reliability Organization" that leverages AI and integrated asset management. The author stresses that reliability is fundamentally a leadership and cultural journey, requiring cross-functional collaboration and alignment with ISO standards rather than merely being a departmental checklist. The overall goal of adopting this maturity model is to boost safety, reduce operational costs, and secure sustainable business performance.

Stop-Fighting_Fires__The_Reliability_Roadmap

Roles for transformational reliability based on Uptime Elements Reliability Framework and Asset Management System.

Uptime Elements Maintenance and Reliability Showdown

An Introduction to Designing Reliable Assets: Getting It Right from the Start

 The High Cost of "Not Quite Right"

How many times has a major project ended with the frustrated criticism, "This is NOT what we wanted!"? This common sentiment often signals deeper issues than simply missed expectations. It can be a symptom of vague requirements, uncontrolled scope creep, budget constraints, or poor cost estimates. 

While these problems are frustrating on any project, when it comes to designing and building physical assets, the consequences can be far more severe.

For example, the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger was traced back to the failure of rubber O-rings that were not designed for the cold temperatures on launch day. Similarly, the 2013 battery fire that grounded the entire Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet was caused by inadequate design and testing. These high-profile failures underscore a critical lesson: poor design choices made at the very beginning can have serious and costly consequences down the line.

This deep dive podcast will demystify the core principles of designing assets correctly from the start, empowering you to move beyond simply reacting to problems and instead build a foundation of reliability that delivers value for years to come.

Stopping the Capex to Opex Value Bleed Using the 10 Rights of Asset Management

Kimberly Johnson was mentored by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She loves sharing her experience of working through the tough things that come her way in life. She hopes you enjoy these vulnerable and honest accounts of life and dealing with life. If you want to reach Kimberly you can @ kimberlyallysejohnson@gmail.com

Reliability Leadership and Asset Management

New tracks tagged #Reliability