Safety Management System

We hear the phrase “safety culture” being tossed around in today’s management like it is some measurable object or goal.  This, in its own right, shows the vast lack of understanding of what a safety culture is.  My first boss, who I will always praise, was all about his employees.  He wanted the very best…...

Excellence in human performance is more likely if front-line workers, support staff, and managers embrace the following underlying truths or principles that provide the bases for the behaviors. Integrating these principles into management and leadership practices, worker practices, and the organization’s processes and values will help guide the development of a philosophy and strategy for…...

After 25 years of being in the industrial safety profession, I have heard the debate about “culture” to the point it has become ridiculous. I was very fortunate to work for two of the finest plant managers early in my career and both of these men were strong leaders and the safety of those in…...

Most managers honestly do not want to see anyone get injured, but most of them have never seen what a fully functioning “safety management system” actually looks like and what it actually takes to have some level of assurance that injury prevention efforts are real. Both “Claude” and “Dale” opened my eyes up to a…...

With the sad revelations coming out of the Slag Tank catastrophe and having spent time with my Dad a couple of weekends ago A thought just popped in my head…   as a child my parents were constantly saying “I don’t care what Johnny is doing” and “if Johnny jumped off a bridge would you?”…...

Westrum (1991, 2004) proposed a description of three (3) levels of safety culture advancement. Hudson (1999), and later Parker, Lawrie & Hudson (2006), built on these and developed five (5) levels of safety culture advancement.  Depending on its level of maturity, safety culture is either characterized as Pathological Reactive Calculative Proactive, or Generative This classification…...

As safety professionals we need to use terms from our profession CORRECTLY.  For example, “risk” is NOT the same as “hazard”.  I think we can all agree that flying in an airplane at 30,000 feet at 500 mph, with 50,000 pounds of jet fuel is hazardous!  But these days on a commercial airliner it is…...

The basis for conducting any event investigation is to understand the organizational, cultural, or technical factors that, left unattended, could result in future accidents. Guiding concepts may be summarized as follows:… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

The Sequence of Events Model This is a simple, linear cause and effect model where accidents are seen as the natural culmination of a series of events or circumstances that occur in a specific and recognizable order. A chain often represents the model with a weak link or a series of falling dominos. This model…...

Pride:  “Don’t insult my intelligence.” Heroic: “I’ll get it done, by hook or by crook.” Invulnerable: “That can’t happen to me.” Fatalistic:  “What’s the use?” Bald Tire:  “Gone 60K miles without a flat yet.” Summit Fever:  “We’re almost done.” Pollyanna:  “Nothing bad will happen.”… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View...

Workers look for familiar patterns and apply well-tried solutions to a problem. There is the temptation to settle for satisfactory solutions rather than continue seeking a better solutions. The mental biases, or shortcuts, often used to reduce mental effort and expedite decision-making include:… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership...