My take on “Work as imagined” vs. “Work as done”
This single image captures all we need to recognize about “real-world safety.” The straight black line represents “work as imagined”; this means the work done “by the book” every time. Anyone who believes humans follow all the rules 100% of the time is living in a fantasy land. We are wired to find the easy,
Safety is a privilege
Safety is a privilege to protect our teams. But you better F’ing respect that privilege and honor it. There is no higher calling than what we get to do day in and day out. If this is a job for you – get the hell out of our way and find something else to spend
Understanding Dr. Reasons Vulnerable System Syndrome (VSS)
Investigations of accidents in a number of hazardous domains suggest that a cluster of organizational pathologies—the “vulnerable system syndrome” (VSS)—render some systems more liable to adverse events. This syndrome has three (3) interacting and self-perpetuating elements: Blaming front-line individuals, Denying the existence of systemic error provoking weaknesses and Blinkered pursuit of productive and financial indicators
Workplace Trust and Safety Benefits
I found another ppt from years ago, dusted it off, and updated it for a client. This is based on many of the HOP/HPI/Resiliency talks we hear these days. But know this, without trust, NOTHING will work in our effort to improve the worker’s safety. My favorite saying on trust is from Dr. Clive Lloyd:
The Scales of Safety
After the month I have witnessed, this image came to me this weekend as I reflected on the state of safety in the USA. I have mentioned before, has the compliance model done more harm than good? I mean, OSHA has made a huge impact on workplace safety. Still, once a business achieves “compliance” (and
Dr. Lloyd’s Five (5) Principles of building Trust and Credibility
If you have not yet read Clive Lloyd’s “Compliance to Care”, it is a must-read. Here are my five (5) favorite points he makes:
HOP/HPI Presentation (Updated 2022)
I enjoy the engineering side of safety more than the cultural piece, but both play a critical role in achieving world-class performance. After spending 18 years consulting and do more technical consulting than cultural, it has been fun working with a single client on culture this year. It allowed me to dust off a lot
Analyzing Errors and Developing Solutions for Active and Latent Errors Using the Systems Approach
The systems approach provides a framework for the analysis of errors and efforts to improve safety. Many specific techniques can be used to analyze errors, including retrospective methods such as root cause analysis and prospective methods such as failure modes effect analysis. Failure modes effect analysis (FMEA) attempts to prospectively identify error-prone situations, or failure
Assessing personal contributions to the enhancement of safety culture
This post contains a series of questions, that members of an organization might use – from the boardroom to the shop floor – to help them consider their personal contributions to safety culture. The questions are not intended to be exhaustive. We encourage operating organizations to use these questions as a basis for discussion and
Which path is your culture on?
In this post, I am using two recognized and widely used models to assess the “culture” of a facility. To be honest, as far as I know, these two models were never intended to be used next to each other. But the fit is amazing. I am calling these: Path of Progress and Path of
Ten Traits of a World-Class Safety Culture – #10 Work Processes
The process of planning and controlling work activities is implemented to maintain safety. Work management is a deliberate process in which work is identified, selected, planned, scheduled, executed, closed, and critiqued. The entire organization is involved in and fully supports the process. Attributes: Work Management: The organization implements a process of planning, controlling,