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IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency
Working Practically and Proactively with
Improving Leadership and Culture for
Safety
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IAEA
Paradoxes for Leaders in Nuclear Organizations
PARADOX
1) Routinized Work and Motivating Tasks
2) Abstract and Tangible
3) Administrative Tasks and Visible Leadership
4) Delegation and The Approval Chain
5) Error Free and Report Errors
6) Imitation and Innovation
7) Openness and Public Trust
8) Priorities and Distractions
9) Procedural Adherence and Questioning Attitude
10) Production & Safety
11) Short Term Business Results and Organizational Capacity Building
12) Reactive and Proactive
Source: IAEA Nuclear Energy Series draft Leadership in Nuclear Organizations
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IAEA
The demands a leader needs to manage
Personal interest & identity construct
Situation & time
Bureaucracy
& systems
Normative Framework
x Understanding/Comprehension
Advisors – external &
internal
External factors
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IAEA
Definitions of Leadership
“Leadership is the process of creating clarity and consistency
of direction and making that direction important, exciting, and
worthy to others.”
~ Lawrence M. Miller, USA
“Leadership is not simply a process of acting or behaving, or a
process of manipulating rewards. It is a process of power-
based reality construction and needs to be understood in
these terms.”
~ Mats Alvesson, Sweden
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IAEA
Leadership and Safety Culture
So how can leaders influence safety culture?
“Leadership is not simply a process of acting or behaving, or a process of
manipulating rewards. It is a process of power-based reality construction
and needs to be understood in these terms.”
To answer we need to understand what drives human behaviour on a
individual and collective level
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IAEA
The root of behaviour
Behaviour
Values
Attitudes
Understanding
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IAEA
Leadership and behaviour change
Behaviour
Values
Attitudes
Understanding
Behaviour
Values
Attitudes
Understanding
Leader Worker
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IAEA
Leadership and behaviour change
Behaviour
Values
Attitudes
Understanding
Behaviour
Values
Attitudes
Understanding
Leader Worker
Dialogue
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IAEA
Leadership and Shared Space
Me
Shared space
External space
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IAEA
Leadership and behaviour change
Behaviour
Values
Attitudes
Behaviour
Values
Attitudes
Leader Worker
Shared
Understanding
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IAEA
Behaviours and culture
Behaviour
Values
Attitudes
Understanding
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IAEA
Dialogue as a Leadership tool for cultural change
Behaviour
Values
Attitudes
Understanding
Behaviour
Values
Attitudes
Understanding
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IAEA
To Invite the Organizations
Intelligence into the Shared Space
To tap into the wealth of knowledge,
experience and insight in the
organization, and to build shared
understanding that supports safe
behaviours and good performance.
Me
Shared space
External space
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IAEA
Effective cultural change work
Key considerations:
• Culture change is about self-transformation for
all, not just ‘we will change them’
• Work with realistic ambition – don’t cover
everything
• Endurance counts – no quick fixes
• Don’t start what can’t be followed-up
• Exercise power to keep culture on the agenda
Source Prof. Mats Alvesson 2010
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IAEA
Making it happen
• Clarify the image of what it is all about
• Work with a strong sense of ‘we’ – reduce the
gap between change agents and the rest
• Avoid hyper culture and focus on practices
• Pay careful attention to process and reception –
combine pushing and dialogue
• Avoid n-steps thinking – football game rather
than a relay race
Source Prof. Mats Alvesson 2010
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IAEA
Common SC Improvement practices
• Policy
• Key performance indicators
• Safety management system
• Management in the field
• Safety Campaigns
• Reporting
• Trending
• Training
These alone will not bring about change at the level
of basic assumptions, values and attitudes
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IAEA
Working with Safety Culture
• Safety culture involves three aspects:
• Management for safety – formal framework
• Actions and practices – actual behaviours
• Shared understanding – comprehension of safety
To be successful you need to work with
all three aspects
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IAEA
Management
for Safety Formal Framework
Activities &
Practices Actual Behaviours
Attitudes
Values
Shared
Understanding Comprehension
Addressing the Deeper Levels of SC
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IAEA
Critical success factors
• Clear vision of the desired state
• Management commitment
• Use of behavioral/social science expertise
• Reinforcement by leaders (Words and actions go hand-
in-hand)
• Engagement and involvement of employees
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IAEA
Critical Success Factors (cont’d)
• Application of a systemic ITO* approach to safety as daily
practice and embodied in the Integrated Management System
• Diversity of competence
• A continuous, long-term improvement focus
• Provision of adequate resources
• Ongoing effective communication
• Progress through a learning driven mindset
*ITO – The interactions between the Individuals,
Technology and the Organization
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IAEA
Systematic improvement activities
1. Ongoing/Generic improvement activities
Addresses the whole organisation with certain periodicity
• Training
• Seminars/workshops
• Safety culture assessment – communication of results
2. Integrated improvement activities
Built into day-to-day activities
• Reflection
• Dialogue
3. Specific improvement activities
Response to assessments, experience feedback, observations,
events, or trends
• Coaching
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IAEA
Performance
• Depends on the ability and willingness of
individuals to continuously think, engage,
and demonstrate safe behaviours
• Shaped by:
• Personal motivation
• Shared space
Me
Shared space
External space
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IAEA
Safety Performance
• Safety understanding and safety conscious
actions and practices drive safety performance
moment-to-moment
• Depends on the ability and willingness of
individuals to continually think, engage, and
collaborate
• Shared space is an important determinant of
achieving shared understanding and
collaboration
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IAEA
Respect, Recognition and Inclusion
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Examples of
Safety Improvement Practices
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IAEA
Policy
• A clear policy defining behavioural
expectations (not values)
• Expectations are communicated and followed up
by management
• Expectations are integrated into all training
programmes
• The expectations are realistic (limited in
numbers) and applicable to everybody (make
sense)
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IAEA
Integrated Management System
• Continual improvement of the integrated
management system
• Include and create ownership
• Cooperation between operational and
administrative personnel
• Standardization of procedures
• Categorization of procedures
• Development of checklists
• Keep it simple & alive
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IAEA
Key Performance Indicators
• Lagging indicators
• Leading indicators
• Linked to organizational goals
• Safety KPI linked to bonus programme
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IAEA
Visibility
• Making safety visible
• Frequent communication of safety priorities by
management
• Training to develop understanding of safety
issues
• Refresher training
• Make sense and use the safety policy
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IAEA
Leadership
• Shared Space
• Active follow-up of activities by management
• Task observation
• Risk analysis
• Safety coaching
• Leading by example
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IAEA
Learning from Events
• Simple and accessible report system
• Honour reporting
• Systematic registration and follow-up of accidents,
incidents and near misses
• Trend analysis
• ITO analysis
• Corrective Actions shall address the root causes
• Share lessons learned openly as part of the
organizational learning
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IAEA
Just Culture
• Clear expectation on behaviours
• Create a fair system for handling violations
and deviations from requested behaviours
• Clearly communicate the process, confirm
understanding, and apply it consistently
• Position compliance as both an individual
and organizational responsibility
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IAEA
Means of Engagement
• Language as a tool for cultural change
• Appreciative inquiry
• Dialogue and cross-group meetings
• Meeting tune-ins and tune-outs
• Dialogue, reflection, and reflecting teams
• Guided inquiry
• World café or open space large group techniques
• Storytelling and safety culture role plays
Committing to this approach means
letting go of control and working with what is
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IAEA
Good Practices: Shared space
• Manage power dynamics
• Bridge groups, departments, and issues
• Model and invite openness and willingness
to listen and learn
• Demonstrate and encourage respect,
recognition and inclusion
• Facilitate dialogue
• Visibly value diversity
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IAEA
Good Practices: Mindful communication
• Dialogue not discussion or debate
• Avoid jargon and propaganda
• Build public speaking and conversation skills
• Tailor messages to the audience
• Be concise and precise
• Use active reflection and active listening
skills
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IAEA
Good Practices: Involvement
• Actively involve personnel in all activities,
including generating ideas for improvement
• Delegate ownership of processes and
procedures
• Initiate two-way feedback
• Encourage inquiring attitude
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IAEA
Good Practices: Just culture
• Clear expectation on behaviours
• Position compliance as both an individual
and organizational responsibility
• Create a fair system for handling violations
and deviations from requested behaviours
• Clearly communicate the process, confirm
understanding, and apply it consistently
37
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IAEA
Summary
• Culture change requires systematic and
continuous effort to shape understanding
• Conventional approaches such as a safety policy,
indicators, and field observations will not bring
about changes in basic assumptions, values and
attitudes
• Leadership, mindful communication, engagement
and attention on creating a conducive working
environment are important to achieving receptivity
and learning
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…Thank you for your attention