[SystemSafety] Safety Culture redux

Wed Jan 17 02:36:07 CET 2018

A slightly different take on organisational culture related to safety can be found on the US Chemical Safety Board's website in a paper commissioned by the CSB http://www.csb.gov/assets/1/19/Wilkinson_-_Values_and_Practices_FINAL.pdf

Regards
Pete w

Peter Wilkinson
General Manager - Risk | Noetic Group

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From: systemsafety [mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of Les Chambers
Sent: Wednesday, 17 January 2018 10:31 AM
To: systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
Subject: [SystemSafety] Safety Culture redux

Hi
Given the recent interest in human factors and safety culture there is an excellent article in the January-February 2018 edition of the Harvard Business Review entitled, The Leader's Guide to Corporate Culture. It summarises decades of thinking on the subject. It resonated with me because I've lived through some of these highly practical initiatives and seen them work on me and others.
I sense a degree of helplessness in  "... You can say it over and over again for three decades ...". But the reality is we aren't helpless, we just need to try harder. Human factors need to be embodied into the engineering education and then reinforced in the workplace. It needs to be embodied in the engineering culture not characterised as someone else's responsibility. This article is a good starting point. After reading it I jotted down my thoughts on culture - relating to safety. Firstly what is it? See below. The how-to comes next. I'm giving it some thought.
Cheers
Les
------------------------------------ on safety culture ------------------------
A safety checklist is a useless object if the person performing the work is not motivated to use it.
A safety checklist is one outcome of a safety management strategy but without the other essential outcome: motivation, it will not make you safe.
Motivation is an outcome of a strong culture. All effective safety programs pour energy into aligning organisational culture with safety strategy. Everyone's heart must be in it. From top to bottom. Without cultural acceptance, a safety program will have no energy and no outcome.
What is culture?
Culture is the social order of things in any society. It manifests in generally accepted attitudes, belief systems and behaviours. It determines what is encouraged and what is discouraged.
A belief, an attitude or a behaviour is part of a culture if it is:
Shared. It is accepted by everyone. It is not valued by one or a small group within an organisation.
You enter a restricted area without the required personal protective equipment. You are turned back by the first person you see (be they ever so humble) without regard to your standing in the organisation.
Pervasive. It is present either explicitly or implicitly in collective behaviours, physical environments, rituals, symbols, stories and legends.
Everyone in the organisation attends a safety meeting once a week. Safety incidents are analysed in detail regardless of how trivial they may seem.
Enduring. It influences thought and action in the long term. It remains fundamentally intact through changes in technology, organisation structure, political and regulatory environment, wars and pestilence. It endures through like-minded people grouping together. Refer the attraction - selection - attrition model first introduced by organisational psychologist Benjamin Schneider. People are naturally attracted to a community that shares their values. People in a community naturally welcome like-minded people. People who join a community only to find their belief systems do not align, typically leave.
I spent the first 10 years of my engineering career in a strong safety culture were unsafe acts were a clear and present danger to life and property. As a consultant I don't back off on safety issues. It makes me unpopular and has cost me consulting income. I am happy with that.
Reinforced. It is actively reinforced by the elders in a community.
A manager has explicit responsibility for safety. There is an active safety program. The program's effectiveness is regularly evaluated.
Embodied. Behaviours are often instinctive. Responses are conditioned. The trigger for a thought process becomes subliminal.
I descend an air bridge into an aircraft. I smell hydrocarbon, I hear a turbine winding up, I instinctively reach for my safety helmet.

-------------------------------------------------
Les Chambers
Director
Chambers & Associates Pty Ltd
www.chambers.com.au<http://www.chambers.com.au>
Blog: www.systemsengineeringblog.com<http://www.systemsengineeringblog.com/>
Twitter: @ChambersLes<http://www.twitter.com/chambersles>
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