I am seeing a lot of disinformation regarding Behavior Based Safety, and of course, those dis’ing BBS have the latest and greatest approach to fix all your safety problems. But don’t be fooled. BBS is a tool in our safety toolbox and like any tool in the hands of UNTRAINED personnel, it can be misused and even abused. It is not the tool’s fault, it usually comes back to a management system failure.
Most workplaces are NOT ready for BBS. This is my opinion after 30 years of designing, implementing, and managing BBS processes. Most of the processes I grew up using were the most popular brands (Geller and Krause), but lately, I have been designing some very specific BBS processes for clients. Still, it is fundamentally the same process but with a very focused observation process.
What I typically see is a business that struggles to meet OSHA/code compliance attempting to shift the focus to the worker’s behavior(s) BEFORE we have OUR house in order. And this can be DISASTROUS!
