Swiss Cheese Model
Used widely for safety and risk management
- Steps
- 4
- Last edited
- Jul 8, 2025
- Created by
- Nova
About this process
🧀 This model is used widely in healthcare, aviation, and safety management — but it’s incredibly useful for leadership and business, too. The idea is this: every process or defense you put in place is like a slice of Swiss cheese — strong in parts, but with holes (weak spots). A major failure occurs when the holes in multiple slices align, allowing a risk to pass through all defenses.
The process in detail
4 steps- 1
🧀 Swiss Cheese Model
- 2
The holes (weak spots). 🕳🕳🕳
- 3
Map out the layers... 🧀 🧀 🧀 🧀 🧀 🧀
- 4
Additional notes, changes and decisions.
Read the full text
1. 🧀 Swiss Cheese Model
🧀 This model is used widely in healthcare, aviation, and safety management — but it’s incredibly useful for leadership and business, too.
The idea is this: every process or defense you put in place is like a slice of Swiss cheese — strong in parts, but with holes (weak spots). A major failure occurs when the holes in multiple slices align, allowing a risk to pass through all defenses.
How to use it:
For any critical process (e.g., onboarding, product launch, compliance), map out the layers of control you have:
Then identify where the weak spots are. Ask:
This model helps you build redundancy and resilience — instead of expecting one process to be flawless, you design multiple, overlapping systems to catch and contain issues.
- Option 1
- Option 2
2. The holes (weak spots). 🕳🕳🕳
A major failure occurs when the holes in multiple slices align, allowing a risk to pass through all defenses. 🕳🕳🕳
Add one per sticky note👇
3. Map out the layers... 🧀 🧀 🧀 🧀 🧀 🧀
🧀 Map out the layers of control, improvements and mitigation plans you need: Training, Checklists, Approvals, Reviews
Create an implementation list. These are the layers of control you are willing to implement.