Individuals avoid complacency and continuously challenge existing conditions and activities to identify hazards and discrepancies that might result in error or inappropriate action. All employees are watchful for assumptions, anomalies, values, conditions, or activities that can adversely affect safety. Attributes: Safety is Recognized as Special and Unique: Individuals understand that humans are complex and […]
This is from the IAEA but can be applied to any high-risk operation. As safety professionals, we have seen all five of these phases, and many of us have lived through almost all of them! Knowing the challenges before allows us to formulate a better improvement plan. Knowing which phase your facility(s) is in is
If an organization stops searching for improvements and new ideas through benchmarking and seeking out best practices, it is in danger of no longer improving safety performance and culture. A learning organization will tap into the ideas, energy, and concerns of personnel at all levels of the organization and benchmark competitors and industries.
Organizations with good safety cultures consider failures and “near misses” as lessons that can be used to avoid more serious events. There is thus a strong drive to ensure that all events which have the potential to be instructive are reported and investigated to discover the root causes and that timely feedback is given on
Well-tested systems relying on in-depth defenses and supported by procedural requirements will protect employees and the public from OSH hazards. It is easy, therefore, for the workforce to develop the attitude that safe conditions are provided for them by others and that events at other plants are exceptional and isolated and could not occur at
Management systems require clearly written procedures that are fit for their purpose of controlling all aspects of safety. However, there is a great difference between having excellent procedures on paper and having procedures that are understood and applied consistently and conscientiously by all staff. There is a need for balance in the number and extent
To perform a safety culture survey, a business does not need to spend tens of thousands of dollars on some external consulting company. Here are just seven (7) questions that need to be asked and discussed at the highest levels of the organization. Get ready, as these will generate a lot of emotions as senior
Organizations typically go through several phases in developing and strengthening safety culture. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) identifies three (3) stages:
Transactional Analysis is a valuable approach to the understanding of human behavior and action. Developed by Dr. Eric Berne, author of the book, “Games people play” While we communicate with others, we share not only facts & information, but also emotions, values, benefits & traditions. So the starting point of all engagements is:
What’s more culturally dangerous? A manager/Supervisor who is unable to identify at-risk behavior A manager/Supervisor who can identify at-risk behavior but turns a blind eye to it
I was first exposed to the “The Warm Fuzzy Tale” by Claude M. Steiner (1969) in my first organizational psychology course at Murray State Univesity in 1990. At the time, with zero actual field experience in safety, I thought it was hyperbole, academic nonsense, etc. But once I got into fieldwork, beginning with my first
One of my favorite safety sayings came from Dr. William (Bill) Corcoran from the USA’s Nuclear Safety Program. He firmly believed that latent failures were more to blame for accidents than human errors. And he proved this over a distinguished career of 50+ years in nuclear engineering with a major slant towards nuclear safety through
