why is safety so unpopular? - charles shoesmith (psychalogica) - safety and health expo 2014
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Why is safety so unpopular?TRANSCRIPT
Why is safety so unpopular?Charles Shoesmith
PsychaLogica Ltd
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Engagement?
In a survey 8 / 10 people said they would rather go to the dentist than attend a safety meeting.
Why?
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Safety InductionRoom
• 75% admitted that they did not fully
listen
• 25% said that they could have fallen
asleep
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Copenhagen
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Everyone wants to stay safe …
So why is safety so unpopular?
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A Historical View
NowThen Future
Prediction: in the future we will approach safety differently
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Is safety a bit stuck?
YES or NO?
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Inci
dent
rate
More of the same is likely to result in … more of the same
Year on year performance
The Safety Plateau
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Are we as good as we can get?
or
Do we need some new thinking, new challenge,
fresh ideas?
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“… you will need to shift your
paradigm if you want to make
real progress on safety …”
Woods et al (2010) Beyond Human Error
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A heated debate broke out in a management meeting on the subject “All accidents are preventable”
50% argued it was true – 50% disagreed.Who was right?
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Fatalities
Serious incidents
Minor incidents
Near misses
Unsafe acts
Technology, infrastructur
e etcSystems,
processes, controls
Behaviour
Bird / Heinrich / Bradley
Importance of behaviour
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Fatalities
Serious incidents
Minor incidents
Near misses
Unsafe acts
Bird / Heinrich
Has served to reinforce focus on unsafe acts
But … a serious omission?
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Bradley Curve
Technology, infrastructure
etc
Systems, processes,
controlsBehaviour
Focus on behaviour not lived up to expectations?Need for an integrated approach!
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We have to do more than just change the label
Behavioural Safety
Human Factors
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How we think about the safety problem …
is part of the problem!
The Number 1 Human Factor
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StrategyOur conclusionsOur
thinkingOur
model
A need for new thinking!
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Moving our thinking on
From Chris Argyris
Current thinking
Deeper thinking, challenging the
assumptions upon which our theories
are based
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StrategyOur conclusionsOur
thinkingOur
model
Beliefs Assumptions
A need for new thinking!
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Validity?
The world is flat!
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What are the key assumptions on which your
safety strategy is built?
Are these known?Are these shared?Are these valid?
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Technology, infrastructur
e etcSystems,
processes, controls
Behaviour
What has the focus on
behaviour delivered?
• Behaviour at the front line the key problem
• Workers who don’t care enough• Workers who lose focus• Workers who lack risk awareness
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Human Failure?
Not a cause but a symptom
“Blaming” people …
•Impedes learning•Increases defensiveness•Deflects from the real issues•Leads to over-confidence•Leads to a dead-end
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Safety Survey 1Which are you?
1 I have sado-masochistic tendencies – love pain, enjoy getting hurt, get a kick out of inflicting it on others
2 I think a bit of pain and minor injury is tolerable, a bit of blood is acceptable, but I think it is really important to do all I can to avoid serious incidents
3 I don’t want to get hurt or injured in any way if I can help it – or to be responsible for someone else getting hurt
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Safety Survey 2Which are you?
1 I am a safety liability – make lots of mistakes, take all sorts of risks, think rules are to be broken, I’m not interested in how others behave
2 I am fairly normal, make occasional mistakes, can be tempted to take some short cuts, may not always challenge unsafe behaviour
3 I am perfect – never make mistakes, never tempted to take short cuts, always follows the rules, always challenge unsafe behaviour
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Safety Survey Result
2 I am fairly normal, make occasional mistakes, can be tempted to take some short cuts, may not always challenge unsafe behaviour
3 I don’t want to get hurt or injured in any way if I can help it – or to be responsible for someone else getting hurt
Explain?
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We are all fundamentally the same
The workforce behavioural problem is a convenient
management construction
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Assumption 1
The workforce are not as focused on safety as us managers and are the prime source of failure that causes incidents
Assumption 2
The workforce are as focused on safety as us managers – they work hard to keep the organisation safe but the complexity of the challenge sometimes defeats them
The second assumption leads to a different approach!
Heroes or Villains?
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McGregor 1960
Theory X
“Inherently lazy”
Theory Y
“Inherently motivated”
Assumption 1 Assumption 2
Theory X is alive and well in the safety world and is the source of worker DISENGAGEMENT!
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Heroesnot villains!
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“Progress on safety does not come from hunting down those who err. Instead progress
on safety comes from finding out what lies behind attributions of error …”
• The complexity of cognitive systems
• The messiness of organisational life
• The part that you and everyone else plays in what goes wrong – and in what goes right
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So what?
• Surface, challenge and be prepared to change our assumptions
• Change the starting point
• Remove sources of disengagement
• Re-evaluate the “behavioural” emphasis
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So why is safety so unpopular?
Patronising?Boring?
Blaming?Controlling?
Lack of honesty?
Maybe it’s not safety that is unpopular but how we
manage it
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Thank youPsychaLogica Seminar Programme
•September 26th 2014 Behavioural safety: a Mickey Mouse solution for an Einstein problem
•November 6th 2014Safety leadership: Theory X or Theory Y
Come and talk to us on Stand O 2620
www.psychalogica.com