Safety Culture Excellence

Guten Tag! Recording on the road this week in Basel, Switzerland. We have assessed and worked with all major methodologies of Behavior-Based Safety (Behaviour-Based Safety, BBS, Behavioral Safety, etc). Regardless of the effectiveness of the methodology, it is easy for processes to lose the drive for results, and fall into the process orientation. What I’m referring to is cranking the process, requiring more and more observations without measuring the impact on results. There is a principle in performance management that says “be careful what you measure, because people will work towards the measurements”.

If the only thing you measure in a Behavior-Based Safety process is the number of observations, then it is likely that you will get your numberes, but will they be quality observations; and will those numbers improve safety, or just crank a process? So years ago this brought us to start asking the question “What Triggers an Observation in Behavior-Based Safety?” We often find that the answer to this question provides insight to whether the initiative is focused on a results or a process orientation. I hope this topic gets you thinking about what you are measuring in Behavior-Based Safety. Moreover I hope it gives you some ideas to remind people this is just a tool in our safety toolbox. It is not the magic cure for all safety ails. This tool should be used to focus on understanding what influences behavior and overall culture. Certainly performing the observations will help, but remember the observations are not the end goal. Ensuring people are not at risk is what we should be after. So let’s get started with the conversation…

Have a great week,

Shawn Galloway

ProAct Safety

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