The safety culture vulture
Posted on | December 11, 2009 | No Comments
What do we mean by a safety culture? Immediately we descend into long words and hypothetical situations, spiced, perhaps, with a bit of cod-sociology. Peter Mason is a consultant in risk management , whose company Lloydmasters numbers oil companies and shipbuilders among his maritime industry clients, although he operates chiefly in other sectors. He answered this killer question in what seemed to be the most perfect fashion.
“Safety culture? – It’s the way we do things around here when nobody else is watching”.
Think about it. It is compliance with safety norms and practices, because you know it makes sense, and because you want to, not because you know that you will get the sack if you are found wanting. You do the right thing, because you know it is right, because you have bought into the process, and you agree with its conclusions.
When things go wrong, Peter Mason tends to blame systems rather than individuals. He suggests that almost all accidents have certain shared characteristics, whether it is the latent conditions, the degradation of norms, flawed thinking or decision making. There will invariably be cultural problems and a lack of leadership, along with an inability to hear the “soft signals” emanating from the shop floor, because the management isn’t listening, or is too high and mighty to open its big ears.
How people behave, he says, is about choice, and personal leadership influences that choice. It is not about reacting to a problem with a deluge of paper and a dozen different checklists, borne by a detached safety officer with a nasty smile on his face. There are certain attributes of a positive safety culture. It is mindful and aware of the realities; it is informed and listening to the workforce, not remote and detached. It is “learning” – which is a social activity requiring a human touch, not merely “sending stuff around”! It is about fairness and balance and respectful of the individual. Is it working? You may tell everyone that “my door is always open” – but does anyone freely approach it bearing bad news? Ask yourself!
We think that we know what a “safety culture” is, but it could be that it is just a lot of fierce instructions, based on ignorance. Here, infers Mason, who was speaking to the Nautical Institute and colleagues in London recently, it is necessary to test one’s attitudes. Do you tolerate unacceptable practices? Do you discourage or encourage the bypassing of procedures in the name of expediency? And, hand on heart, do you read about somebody else’s misfortune and think “it couldn’t possibly happen to me”?
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