Blog Posts | Krause Bell Group

The Power of Context: How Leaders Create Context and How Context Influences Behavior

Mar 11, 2016

Categorized under: Behavior-Based Safety, Safe Decision Making™ Articles, Safety Leadership

A shocking situation In a small California town, 1,000 gallons of unknown chemicals exploded and sent 3 firefighters and several workers to a hospital. The investigation after the incident discovered that text messages were sent to managers of the wastewater treatment facility where the chemicals had been stored. The text messages warned managers of upcoming inspections and added obscurely, “...we just have a few things to do.” Those “few things” referred to moving bio-hazards and illicit chemicals away from the plant prior to the inspection. At least 7 employees of the company, including the CEO and a vice president were...

Time to Rethink Behavior-Based Safety

Tom Krause

Mar 11, 2016

Categorized under: Behavior-Based Safety

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 6

Behavior-based safety is one of the most important and controversial approaches to safety improvement in the last 35 years. Some companies swear by it and some think it is time to move on. Labor organizations have never accepted behavior-based safety, especially at the national level. There are good people on both sides and good reasons for their views. As one of the founders of behavior-based safety who went on to studying safety leadership, and then to serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs), I have a perspective on it that may be different from many. I think it may well be time...

On Transformational Listening

Kristen Bell

Mar 4, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Meaningful Safety Conversations

On Transformational Listening I have met dozens of excellent Environment, Health, and Safety professionals over the years, and some stand out to me as truly extraordinary leaders. One of the skills that make them stand out is their ability to listen. Some safety leaders listen so well that they lift people up, encourage them, and help them bring their very best thinking to the table. I call this transformational listening. I think about my client Jim. When I met Jim, he was Vice President of Safety, Health & Environment at a mid-sized energy company. Without saying a word, Jim could...

How to Accelerate Safety Performance Improvement

Tom Krause

Mar 4, 2016

Categorized under: Serious Injuries & Fatalities

Tagged as: Behavior, Safety Leadership, Systems-Based Approach to Safety

Most of us know there is no off-the-shelf game-changer that will “fix safety." It can be seductive to think otherwise, and of course there is no shortage of consultants out there who have all the answers. But the reality is that any single solution generally addresses only a sliver of the real issue. Safety performance improvement can be accelerated, but creative, innovative, hard won battles have to be fought in order to make lasting, sustainable gains. So, how to approach it? Do we work from the inside out or the outside in? Do we gather internal resources or look for...

Raising the Bar for Leading Indicators

Kristen Bell

Feb 26, 2016

Categorized under: Other

Tagged as: leading indicators

Over the past several years many safety organizations have focused in on leading indicators. The idea is that OSHA rates are too far down the pipe to guide preventative action, so metrics reflecting earlier activity are needed to guide safety action. In concept this makes sense, but in actual practice can be flawed. A panel of experts convened by the National Safety Council’s Campbell Institute recently surveyed a group of companies asking them how they approach the development of leading indicators. Much good work has been done by these organizations and it is helpful to see it summarized. But it...

Prevention of Serious Injuries and Fatalities Must Start with Leadership

Kristen Bell

Jan 8, 2016

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Serious Injuries & Fatalities

Effective safety leadership sets up sustainable improvement in culture, systems, facilities, and reduces worker exposure. We need all those advances to reduce serious injuries and fatalities. We start with leadership, because it secures a foundation on which we can continue to build.

Scorecard Needed

Tom Krause

Dec 11, 2015

Categorized under: Patient Safety

Tagged as: Innovation, Measurement, SIF prevention

You've see the astounding numbers: hundreds of thousands of Americans die each year due to medical treatment errors. Indeed, the median credible estimate is 350,000, more than U.S. combat deaths in all of World War II. If you measure the “value of life” the way economists and federal agencies do it – that is, by observing how much individuals voluntarily pay in daily life to reduce the risk of accidental death – those 350,000 lives represent a loss exceeding $3 trillion, or one-sixth of GDP. But when decades pass and little seems to change, even these figures lose their power...

What is “Organizational Safety”?

Tom Krause

Dec 4, 2015

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 3

The field of “organizational safety” has emerged over the past 20 years or so, mainly from the work of James Reason. The name “organizational safety” recognizes a central insight of relevance to those who want to understand and accelerate safety performance improvement. The insight is that getting safety right means getting the organization right. Safety excellence follows from organizational excellence. What that means is that safety performance excellence isn’t about any one thing: behavior, culture, systems, awareness, design… all are important. But no one thing gets at the central issue: how the organization accomplishes the objective of making the workplace...

Krause Bell Group Formed to Provide Innovative Performance Improvements

Kristen Bell

Jun 1, 2015

Categorized under: Press Releases

Tagged as: Behavior

PRESS RELEASE Dr. Tom Krause and Kristen Bell have joined forces to form the Krause Bell Group. Dr. Krause is a pioneer in organizational safety and thought leader in the development of new methods for organizational performance improvement. Kristen Bell is an expert in human and organizational performance with a background in research, innovation, and business management. The Krause Bell Group (www.krausebellgroup.com) works with US and multi-national organizations to build capability for accelerating performance improvement. Major corporations in oil & gas, metals, healthcare, mining, manufacturing and transportation are already working with Krause Bell Group and each other to mine experience...