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The start of any bowtie is the ‘hazard'. A hazard is something in, around or part of the organization which has the potential to cause damage. Working with hazardous substances, driving a car or storing sensitive data are for instance hazardous aspects of an organization while reading this article on your computer is not. The idea of a hazard is to find the things that are part of your organization and could have a negative impact if control over that aspect is lost. They should be formulated as normal aspects of the organization. The rest of the bowtie is devoted to how we keep that normal but hazardous aspect from turning into something unwanted. The first step is always the hardest and this is also the case here. Normally, starting with for instance a HAZID is a good way to get a long list of all possible hazards. Bowties are then done only for those hazards with a high potential to cause extensive harm. Normally, 5 to 10 hazards is a good starting point.
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Once the hazard is chosen, the next step is to define the ‘top event. This is the moment when control is lost over the hazard. There is no damage or negative impact yet, but it is imminent. This means that the top event is chosen just before events start causing actual damage. The top event is a choice though, what is the exact moment that control is lost? This is to a large extent a subjective and pragmatic choice. Often, the top event is reformulated after the rest of the bowtie is finished. Don’t worry too much at the beginning about formulation. You can start with a generic ‘loss of control’ and revisit it a couple of times during the bowtie process to sharpen the formulation.
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