Historically, the job of a manager has consisted of planning, doing, checking, and acting – the famous PDCA cycle taught in management schools. But tomove towards an integrated safety culture, the role of managers now extends beyond this cycle: they influence and inspire safer behaviors from theirteams. The involvement of managers is essential since they […]
We hear a lot about the significant role trust and credibility play in a safety effort within an organization looking for a step-change in safety performance and culture. I agree with this; however, I take a different view of how this all plays out. If an organization is struggling with trust and credibility in safety,
Building trust and credibility in safety does not require some special effort. It just requires a constant message that is backed up with constantly reinforced behaviors from management/leadership. Some may call this “Walking the Talk”; but we have to ensure the TALK is correct before we walk it! There are two (2) big pieces to
Here Heinrich speaks to the critical role employees play in THEIR safety process. This is where he speaks to keeping interest in safety high and how businesses should go about doing this. He points to employee participation as the critical piece of this effort. “Of course, keeping guards in place is but one of the
After seeing all the complaints online about the referees in this weekend’s NCAA Women’s Championship game I was reminded of how too many safety pros take on the role of “referee” rather than a “coach” at their facility. It is a mistake made by many younger safety pros who do not have a mentor in
“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
The LinkedIn groups are at it again and again I will defend their latest outrage. This time it is “safety metrics”. So let’s recap; so far they have attacked the safety management system, root cause analysis, and risk matrices, and now we move to safety metrics. And like the times before, their rhetoric is way
There are three (3) recognized models upon which Safety Management Systems are built. These models were identified via Dr. James Reason’s research and still hold true today, 30 years later. Safety professionals have to be sure as to not allow their biases to influence which one is best for the organization, as all three have
A highly resilient organization is a LEARNING organization. Learning organizations exhibit five (5) main characteristics: system thinking, personal mastery, mental models, a shared vision, and team learning
Highly reliable organizations use a portfolio of programs to maintain the continual improvement of system designs, procedures, and policies. This continuous improvement process allows the organization to RECOGNIZE OPERATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION EARLY and TO DEVELOP CORRECTIVE ACTIONS TO BRING THE SYSTEM BACK TO STABILITY The goal of this continuous improvement process is to: PREVENT
Risk management strategies can be categorized into four (4) fundamental approaches. They are: Inherent, Passive, Active, and Procedural Let’s discuss what they mean and the order in which we should utilize them. Think along the lines of Hierarchical Control Schemes.
Several years ago I was asked by a client to throw my name into the ring for a senior-level job at a large chemical company. They were a great client so I obliged and although I had no desire to give up SAFTENG, the interview process was so refreshing. It had such an impact on
