There is one trait that we will all see and feel when were are in a facility that has figured out world-class safety; that is, they have figured out that a well-managed safety management system will not produce the desired results if the facility’s culture does not support it. As I have said, world-class safety has two sides: Performance and Culture. And the approach to mastering both sides can be quite different. But many have learned the hard way; too much of one makes the other suffer. So a balance, and it is rarely a 50-50 balance, is necessary for a successful path to world-class results. Sometimes the balance may be a 70:30 split to more of the performance (SMS) and then flip 12 months later to 70:30 cultural. This ability to know the balance separates those truly world-class and those in a constant struggle to make safety matter.
So one of my early mentors in safety always used the analogy that safety is like idiot mittens…
