In the social media "safety sphere," it is literally impossible to spend five minutes and not be bombarded by all the new approaches to "safety." In many of these new approaches, they will almost unilaterally denounce the traditional approach to safety management and provide case studies to prove their point.  Maybe I am just an old dog and can't learn these new tricks, or I have seen what a formal Safety Management System (SMS) can do for an organization and believe in the SIMPLE approach.

In these studies, where they debate and attempt to convince me of the need for a new approach (name your choice of the many new approaches), they will usually demonstrate the ups and downs of performance using the older traditional methods, such as a formal SMS. We can all nod in unison as we have all lived this turbulent performance (e.g., OSHA-free last year, only to have three recordables already before April!). But here is what I have noticed over three decades of building SMSs...

Very few organizations have a fully functioning SMS, much less a mature SMS.

This observation even applies to many organizations mandated to have an SMS because they call under OSHA/EPA process safety standards.

So, is it a flawed approach, or is it a lack of dedication to a formal and structured SMS?

I had the pleasure of building several SMSs for my VPP Star sites when I was a safety leader during my time in the chemical process and semiconductor industries, and in every situation, there was one (1) key reason why they were as successful as they were:

MANAGEMENT WANTED IT and OWNED IT

It was not "Bryan's process" or the "safety department's process." We were simply the GPS for management within the SMS structure. Call us the SMEs for all the tools embedded in the SMS, but the driver of that vehicle was the facility's senior staff.

All of the SMSs I have built, which were fully embraced by and owned by the highest level of management, achieve at least a 50% reduction in OSHA injuries AND their severity. Some of these systems were not even fully implemented, meaning they had the majority of their elements in place, but not all of them. Many organizations celebrated being a Sub-1 performer, millions of hours without an LTA, etc. In other words, the SMS model works, especially for those who have never had the structure of an SMS to build upon.

So before we denounce a proven approach to safety management, maybe we give it a try and FULLY EMBRACE what it can do for the business and, more importantly, what it can do for the men and women who do the dirty and dangerous work. Declaring the approach does not work when most businesses have never given it a chance to work is quite foolish and usually an expensive decision. However, SMS is simple, highly visible to employees, and can improve both performance and culture.

We just have to embrace and believe in it.