We see a lot of talk about “written procedures” and how they should be minimized in length/detail and in some cases done away with altogether. I call this rubbish – when done well they can be the cornerstone of a well-executed SMS. And yes, I subscribe to the practice that some of these procedures will […]
Reviewing safety performance takes a ‘big picture’ overview of the patterns of evidence arising from all forms of monitoring, investigation, and audit to decide whether the overall approach, policies, resources, priorities, improvement targets, and the SMS remain relevant and appropriate in pursuing the safety vision and strategy and cultural development. Taking from the “Five Themes
I am a huge proponent of building a safety process, formally called a Safety Management System, that establishes some critical indicators of how well the process functions. This is done in the same spirit as how a business measures its production, quality, costs, etc. But as we all know, anything that gets measured WITHOUT VALIDATION
“Accident-prevention engineers must know why and how accidents occur; they must know the causes of accidents and direct their attack to the removal of those causes, instead of selecting a remedy blindly or arbitrarily.
Improving the safety culture requires an integrated approach to safety through coherent actions in three (3) areas:
To help organizations understand how SIF can complement their current OSH efforts I am making these posts and powerpoints FREE through Sunday.
Earlier I shared a quote from Hippocrates in 450 B.C. and in that post, I mentioned that management’s reliance on incident rates is a sickness. That got me a lot of texts and a few phone calls. So I figured I would explain what I meant by that. Reliance on lagging indicators to measure the
“A supervisor or a foreman stands upon the first rung of the executive ladder. Because of certain valuable personal qualities, he has been selected to direct the work of other employees. Unfortunately, in the average case, he enters upon this phase of work uninstructed in the art of executive leadership—and works into it so gradually
Playing on what Hippocrates said centuries ago, I’ll offer this advice to safety pros who are exploring their next gig… Before you can heal [an organization], ask [them] if [they’re] willing to give up the things that make [them] sick. Hippocrates, 450 B.C.
The significance (or severity) of an event depends upon the consequences suffered and not on the error that initiates it. The error that triggers a serious accident … and the error that is one of the hundreds with no consequences… can be the same error. Human Error, James Reason, Department of Psychology University of
Management’s responsibility for controlling the unsafe acts of employees exists chiefly because these unsafe acts occur in the course of employment that management creates and then directs. Management selects the persons upon whom it depends to carry out industrial work. It may, if it so elects, choose persons who are experienced, capable of, and willing
Do parents have safety metrics for their children’s safety? Do we put up banners to demonstrate the significance of our children’s safety? I am betting not on both. It is not needed as we naturally VALUE the safety of our children. We may never have the same level of VALUE of safety towards other adults
