Organizations typically go through several phases in developing and strengthening safety culture. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) identifies three (3) stages:… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...
Which phase is your workplace safety culture in? Read More »
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:… Membership Required...
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… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...
What’s more culturally dangerous and which would you rather have? Read More »
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…...
Employee engagement/participation and “warm fuzzies” Read More »
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…...
Bill Corcoran ruffled a few feathers, but damn he was always spot on! Read More »
Whenever I think about Routine and Situational violations, my mind goes back to my childhood days when Life cereal came out. The commercial involved two older kids talking about the cereal, and neither wanted to try it. And there sat little Mikey, so they pushed the bowl over to Mikey and said, “let’s get Mikey…...
Does your workplace have a “Mikey” Read More »
Think about it… Here are the ten (10) elements of your SMS. Of course, we want all 10 to perform in the bulls-eye, but we know safety is a continuous improvement project that takes years. Which process (Target A or Target B) is more advanced, more capable of achieving the desired results, and the one…...
Which SMS is better? Read More »
In our profession, we live and sadly die by rules. Whether they are government regulations or company rules, unfortunately, our profession and our approach to safety were based on compliance with these rules. Luckily, by the time I came around in the early 1990s, we saw a serious shift in the chemical process industry with…...
Rules, Rules, everywhere there are Rules Read More »
A professional life lesson in our safety profession, from Dr. E Scott Geller… Dance with those who want to dance! Probably the best bit of advice I have ever received from a mentor. Some folks are not on board with real safety management principles; most of the time, we know who is with…...
Dance with those who want to dance Read More »
In almost all of the accident investigations I have been asked to participate in, the local management team was very quick to blame “active failures”. This almost always involves some blame being placed on the human; after all, they were directly involved, and had they “not made the mistakes,” the accident would not have occurred. …...
Understand Active and Latent Failures Read More »
Accident causation models were originally developed in order to assist people who had to investigate occupational accidents so that such accidents could be investigated effectively. Knowing how accidents are caused is also useful in a proactive sense in order to identify what types of failures or errors generally cause accidents. So action can be taken…...
Comparing the Domino and the ILCI causation models Read More »
Often people tend to think that using electronics or technology automatically falls into the realm of an “engineering control” rather than an administrative control. Today’s local news story is a perfect example of this. We have this overpass in Cincinnati that is notorious for catching trucks. I have a local client that I would spend…...
Real world difference between engineering controls and administrative controls Read More »
