Safety Management System

The good old “safety incentive program” has been around since man walked upright and has been misleading management since its conception.  The concept is valid, based on the old “carrot and the stick” model.  There has always been one fatal flaw in these programs… they usually incentivize the WRONG things!  The traditional safety incentive programs,…...

Let’s talk about DE-incentivising businesses to properly manage Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), even at the most basic level. OSHA now requires businesses to report their injury and illness logs, which they will use to identify workplaces needing a compliance inspection. They are doing this due to their lack of adequate resources, and they want…...

I may be biased, but you would be hard-pressed to find a bigger fan and believer in TapRoot®. I love TapRoot®, but I reserve it for significant incidents. 5-Why’s is an excellent tool for less mature safety management systems (SMS). As I like to say, don’t blame the tool – look to the user for…...

As I prepare to implement a Behavior-Based Observation Process (BBOP) for a client, I am dusting off some of my old training content and postings.  I had used this material since 1994 when I implemented Actively Caring as my first BBOP, and it is still my favorite model today.  Although we have blended some other…...

Some years ago, a colleague asked me to help coach a management team at one of her locations that was trying hard in safety, but she feared they were going down a path that we had experienced decades earlier when we worked together; her as a Chem Ops unit manager and me as the site…...

To improve safety performance, coherent action is required in three (3) areas: 1) technical aspects, 2) safety management, and 3) human and organizational factors These different “pillars” all influence the safety culture. It should be emphasized that, in any given company, safety priorities have undergone several phases of chronological development, with each new area of…...

Safe and reliable performance is a process to be guided, not an outcome to be managed. Safety is wisdom. We create safety, or more importantly, we co-create safety in the RELATIONSHIP between workers, planners, managers, and the tasks being accomplished in real-time. None of those components mentioned above involves the scoring and tracking of work…...

Many organizations had a great 2023 in terms of their safety performance.  And while I am a huge advocate for celebrating our successes in safety, my support is contingent on one factor… KNOW HOW we achieved our success.  Celebrating blind luck is dangerous! Organizations often celebrate sheer luck in safety performance, which sends the wrong…...

I know this can be a sensitive topic, even though I am not a fan of the “Zero Harm” approach, but when it was presented like this, I have to say I support all seven (7) of these functions within a Safety Management System (SMS). VISION ZERO – 7 Golden Rules – for zero accidents…...

“People are actually very reliable, but there are many opportunities for error in the course of a day’s work, and when handling hazardous materials, we can tolerate only very low error rates (and equipment failure rates), lower than it may be possible to achieve. We may be able to keep up a tip-top performance for…...