Total Safety Culture change

Safety authority is the total influence, rights, and ability of the position to conunand and demand safety actions. Management has ultimate safety authority, and therefore is the only echelon that can effectively initiate, implement, and maintain an effective SMS and create safety culture changes. Leadership has the authority to implement and maintain safety, and also the authority to take necessary remedial measures if there are deviations from accepted safety practices and norms. 

Systems thinkers understand the link between behavior and attitude. A small change in behavior can result in a beneficial change in attitude, followed by more behavior change and then more attitude change—eventually resulting in total commitment. So behavior-based safety sets the stage for systems thinking and interdependent teamwork, and this can lead ultimately to a Total Safety Culture. 

Taken alone, the behavior-based approach is more cost effective than the person-based approach in affecting large-scale change. But it cannot be effective unless the work culture believes in the behavior-based principles and willingly applies them to achieve the mutual safety mission. This involves a person-based approach. Therefore, to achieve a Total Safety Culture we need to integrate person-based and behavior-based psychology. This text shows you how to meet this challenge. 

The third new E word essential to achieving a Total Safety Culture is evaluation. Without appropriate feedback or evaluation, practice does nof make perfect. Thus, we need the right kind of evaluation processes. Lafer in fhis book, especially Chapter 15,1 detail procedures for conducting fhe righf kind of comprehensive evaluation. Right now, what is important to understand is that some traditional methods of evaluation actually decrease or stifle empowermenf. This calls for changing some safefy measurement paradigms. 

The aim of this chapter is not to dissect the meaning of paradigm nor to debate whether one or more paradigm shifts have occurred in industrial safety. Instead, I want to define ten basic changes in belief, attitude, or perception that are needed to develop the ultimate Total Safety Culture. These shifts require new principles, approaches, or procedures, and will... 

The shift in how paradigm is commonly defined does contain an important lesson. When we adopt and use new definitions, our mindset or perception changes. In other words, as I indicated in the previous chapter, we act ourselves into a new way of thinking or perceiving. This is a primary theme of this book. When employees get involved in more effective procedures to control safety, they develop a more constructive and optimistic attitude toward safety and the achievement of a Total Safety Culture. Let us consider the shifts in principles, procedures, beliefs, attitudes, or perceptions needed for the three new Es—ergonomics, empowerment, and evaluation—and for achieving a Total Safety Culture. 

Two of these system variables involve human factors. Each generally receives less attention than the environment, mostly because it is more difficult to visibly measure the outcomes of efforts to change the human factors. Some human factors programs focus on behaviors (as in behavior-based safety) others focus on attitudes (as in a person-based approach). A Total Safety Culture integrates these two approaches. 

We must realize that perceptions of risk vary dramatically among individuals. And we cannot improve safety unless people increase their perception of, and reduce their tolerance for, risk. Changes in risk perception and acceptance will occur when individuals get involved in achieving a Total Safety Culture with the principles and procedures discussed in this Handbook. 

To achieve a Total Safety Culture, we need to integrate behavior-based and person-based psychology and effect large-scale culture changes. The five chapters in Section 3 explain principles and proce-dures founded cm behavioral research which can be applied successfully to change behaviors and attitudes throughcmt organizations and communities. This chapter describes the primary characteristics of the behavior-based approach to the prevention and treatment of human problems and shows their special relevance to occupational safety. The three basic ways we learn are reviewed and related to the development of safe vs. at-risk behaviors and attitudes. 

Because at-risk behaviors contribute to most if not all injuries, a Total Safety Culture requires a decrease in at-risk behaviors. Organizations have attempted to do this by targeting at-risk acts, exclusive of safe acts, and using corrective feedback, reprimands, or disciplinary action to motivate behavior change. This approach is useful, but less proactive and less apt to be widely accepted than a behavior-based approach that emphasizes... 

Remember that planting certain words in self-talk and conversations with others can improve your self-image and confidence as a facilitator of beneficial change. Tell others of your increased commitment to facilitate more effective safety conversations. Then, tell yourself the strategies you will use to improve interpersonal conversation and commend yourself when you do. In this way, intra- and interpersonal conversations work together to help achieve a Total Safety Culture. 

A Total Safety Culture, then, requires us to balance how we measure and manage both organizational performance and individual behavior. The challenge is to accurately attribute change in safety performance. Is it due to individual behavior, groups, or the system Individuals should only be held directly responsible for their own safety performance teams should be held accountable for outcomes directly related to their team performance. 

Behavior analysis" is the term used by researchers and scholars in this area of applied psychology. This implies that behavior is analyzed first (Chapter 9) and, if change is called for, an intervention process is developed with input from the clients (Chapters 11 to 13). Civen that "analysis" can sound cold or bring to mind Freud, I have recommended the label "behavior-based approach" for several years. This contrasts nicely with the "person-based approach" that focuses on attitudes, feelings, and expectancies. As I have repeatedly emphasized, a Total Safety Culture requires us to consider both behavior-based and person-based psychology. 

This chapter began with a list of guidelines to initiate and sustain a culture-change process aimed at achieving a Total Safety Culture. Critical challenges include... 

Involvement is key to so many aspects of building a Total Safety Culture and it can be increased many ways. Start by gethng into the habit of using more positive safety language. Focus less attention on the active resisters. There are five levels of involvemenf in any change effort that you should recognize... 

Obviously, building a Total Safety Culture requires a long-term continuous improvement process. It involves cultivating constructive change in both the behaviors and attitudes of everyone in the culture. This book provides you with principles and procedmes to make this happen. Applying what you read here might not result in a Total Safety Culture. However, it is sure to make a beneficial difference in your own safety and health, and in the safety and health of others you choose to help. 

Gary L. Winn, in an article titled Total Quality The New Paradigm Seems Out of Reach for Safety Managers, commented on the abandonment of quality programs by some American companies and then addressed the difficulty of achieving a culture change. 

A common factor in all accredited safety management systems (SMS) is an element that calls for management leadership and commitment to the safety and health process. It is almost guaranteed that any attempt to change or improve the safety culture at any workplace will fail if there is not total commitment, leadership, and management involvement from the executive right down to and including frontline supervision. 

The most effective folks in the safety arena aim at creating and sustaining a culture that embeds a total commitment to workplace safety as a core value of the culture, shared and acted upon by all — a Positive Safety Culture , to quote the title of this series. If the personality of their organization does not now include such a visible, systemic commitment to safe work, the most effective safety professionals aim to drive just such a positive change, challenging and changing the existing culture. 

Sociotechnical approach (control of error through changes in management policy and culture) Occupational/process safety Effects of organizational factors on safety Policy aspects Culture Interviews Surveys Organizational redesign Total Quality Management More frequent in recent years... 

Visionary companies subscribe to a totally different operational mindset, termed the Wisdom of And. Examples include Safety AND productivity an extremely tight culture AND an ability to change and adapt a visionary, futuristic focus AND great daily execution. This mentality does not seek a mere balance — balance implies a 50-50 or a mid-point perspective. 

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