Over my career, the most profound advancement in safety management was the recognition and shift away from lagging indicators (i.e., injury rates) to leading indicators within our safety management system (SMS). But as this approach to safety metrics became more widespread, we have seen even leading indicators become a “number game” that gets manipulated as […]
If you think safety metrics is old fashion and leads to “manipulating behaviors”, go out to your car and disconnect your dashboard/pull fuses so that you get no analytical feedback data on how well you are staying within your safe operating envelope of yours and the car’s performance. Then tell me metrics are not needed
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
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
A movement within the safety community, primarily online banter, somehow finds fault with a WRITTEN safety management system (SMS). There are even books published on the topic that are being pushed, decrying written programs as a bureaucratic waste of time, too controlling, no value added, etc. I find this very sad, but they do have
I am sure we have all heard this reference about safety and common sense. Unfortunately there are a lot of businesses with senior management that believe this. I find even those businesses that struggle with minimum compliance requirements will typically have this mindset about safety. But those businesses who are going beyond the traditional OSHA
I am aware of all the on-line chatter about the “bureaucracy” of a written safety and health program. Although I do not subscribe to this way of thinking and I know of maybe two facilities that are mature enough to manage safety without a lot of the traditional documentation; this SMS documentation is WAY BEYOND
To some, there may not be much difference between leadership and management; however, there is a big difference between them.
Our investigation process is purely reactive to undesired consequences, but our corrective action(s) process can turn it into a PROACTIVE activity. It takes a level of safety maturity to move in this direction. It will come naturally once that maturity level is reached and the workplace strongly desires (and respects) to be a LEARNING culture.
Safety is not the absence of Accidents. Safety is the presence of Defenses and Capacity. Dr. Todd Conklin
We can learn a lot from Aviation Safety! I came across this 2017 presentation on Runway Safety Trends and Runway Incursion Analysis and just loved how they analyzed their data to identify the trends, causes, and contributing factors. Some of the data may be alarming, but that is not my intent. This is how we
