Why is safety so unpopular?Charles Shoesmith

PsychaLogica Ltd

2

Engagement?

In a survey 8 / 10 people said they would rather go to the dentist than attend a safety meeting.

Why?

3

Safety InductionRoom

• 75% admitted that they did not fully

listen

• 25% said that they could have fallen

asleep

4

Copenhagen

5

Everyone wants to stay safe …

So why is safety so unpopular?

6

A Historical View

NowThen Future

Prediction: in the future we will approach safety differently

7

Is safety a bit stuck?

YES or NO?

8

Inci

dent

rate

More of the same is likely to result in … more of the same

Year on year performance

The Safety Plateau

8

9

Are we as good as we can get?

or

Do we need some new thinking, new challenge,

fresh ideas?

10

“… you will need to shift your

paradigm if you want to make

real progress on safety …”

Woods et al (2010) Beyond Human Error

11

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?

12

Fatalities

Serious incidents

Minor incidents

Near misses

Unsafe acts

Technology, infrastructur

e etcSystems,

processes, controls

Behaviour

Bird / Heinrich / Bradley

Importance of behaviour

13

Fatalities

Serious incidents

Minor incidents

Near misses

Unsafe acts

Bird / Heinrich

Has served to reinforce focus on unsafe acts

But … a serious omission?

14

Bradley Curve

Technology, infrastructure

etc

Systems, processes,

controlsBehaviour

Focus on behaviour not lived up to expectations?Need for an integrated approach!

15

We have to do more than just change the label

Behavioural Safety

Human Factors

16

How we think about the safety problem …

is part of the problem!

The Number 1 Human Factor

17

StrategyOur conclusionsOur

thinkingOur

model

A need for new thinking!

18

Moving our thinking on

From Chris Argyris

Current thinking

Deeper thinking, challenging the

assumptions upon which our theories

are based

19

StrategyOur conclusionsOur

thinkingOur

model

Beliefs Assumptions

A need for new thinking!

20

Validity?

The world is flat!

21

What are the key assumptions on which your

safety strategy is built?

Are these known?Are these shared?Are these valid?

22

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

23

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

24

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

25

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

26

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?

27

We are all fundamentally the same

The workforce behavioural problem is a convenient

management construction

28

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?

29

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!

30

Heroesnot villains!

31

“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

32

So what?

• Surface, challenge and be prepared to change our assumptions

• Change the starting point

• Remove sources of disengagement

• Re-evaluate the “behavioural” emphasis

33

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

34

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