“An operator’s behavior is strongly influenced by their working situation and the human and organizational factors that characterize the situation. If unsafe behavior is noted, the most effective way to prevent it from happening again is to eliminate the conditions that produced it. This implies that time and thought must to given to an analysis…....
Safety Thought of the Week… Think “situation” before sanction Read More »
“We often hear: “We have to change people’s behavior”. However, behavior is not only the result of an operator’s personality or training. The characteristics of the situations in which a human being is placed make certain types of behavior more likely. Some operating situations can have characteristics that increase the probability of undesirable human behavior…....
Safety Thought of the Week… Situations create behavior Read More »
“The situation that the worker has to manage is always unique. Even if the prescribed operation is habitual, certain factors are specific to this particular time: the weather conditions, the time and the day of the week, the state of the upstream or downstream facilities, the equipment to be used, a maintenance technician nearby, the…...
Safety Thought of the Week… The situation is always unique Read More »
“This view of accident causation suggests that unsafe acts are best reduced by eliminating their psychological precursors rather than the acts themselves. However, it must be accepted that whatever measures are taken, some unsafe acts will still occur. It is therefore necessary to provide a variety of defenses to intervene between the act and its…...
“Very few unsafe acts will result in damage or injury. In a highly protected system, the probability that the consequences of an isolated action will penetrate the various layers of defense is vanishingly small. Several causal factors are required to create a ‘trajectory of opportunity’ through these multiple defenses. Many of the causal contributions will…...
“Several recent accidents in complex, high-risk technologies had their primary origins in a variety of delayed-action human failures committed long before an emergency state could be recognized. These disasters were due to the adverse conjunction of a large number of causal factors, each one necessary but singly insufficient to achieve the catastrophic outcome. Although the…...
Think about the kids who came from abusive homes vs. those who came from supportive homes where they knew they were loved. It isn’t all peaches and cream, but they KNOW when they are loved and supported, and it shows in how they live their lives and in how they make decisions. We hold our…...
Want to know if positive reinforcement is more powerful than negative reinforcement? Read More »
If the phrase “safety culture” has become so toxic in today’s world, is it wrong to use the phrase “culture of safety”? I mean, it is nonsense to claim an organization has no culture. Some can say it over and over, but that does not mean it is right. ALL groups have a culture that…...
“Safety Culture” vs. “Culture of Safety” Read More »
Every time I see the Lifelock commercial with the “security monitor” in the bank being held up I can not help but think about our profession. Replace the security guard with a safety pro and go through the commercial. Too often we are relegated to “accident monitors”., Oh I’m not a safety professional – I’m…...
Safety Professional or Accident Monitor? Read More »
When reading this, think about the “Swiss cheese model” from Reason and the “domino model” from Heinrich. “Disasters are essentially organized events. To occur, they typically require the systemic and prolonged neglect of varying signs and signals of danger, creating deep pockets of organizational ignorance, organizational silence, and organizational blindness. When signals of risk are…...
This is a great synopsis of how serious accidents build within an organization over time because of the lack of a functioning SMS. When reading this, think “swiss cheese model” from Reason and the “domino model” from Heinrich. Disasters are essentially organized events. To occur, they typically require the systemic and prolonged neglect of varying…...
Safety Thought of the Week… incubating accidents Read More »
This is a great synopsis of how serious accidents build within an organization over time because of the lack of a functioning SMS. When reading this, think “swiss cheese model” from Reason and the “domino model” from Heinrich. Disasters are essentially organized events. To occur, they typically require the systemic and prolonged neglect of varying…...
Safety Thought of the Week … Disasters are essentially organized events Read More »
