VIDEO: How Safety-Related Decision Making is Influenced by Cognitive Bias

There is a growing body of knowledge which shows that human thinking tends to be flawed, in predictable ways. Cognitive bias can cause even good leaders to make poor safety decisions. This is the second part of a 2-part video. Watch Part 1 here Learn more about our approach to behavior based safety

|

Safety Leadership: This CEO Had One Core Mission

Paul O’Neill was the CEO of Alcoa from 1987 to 2000. Under his leadership, Alcoa’s market value increased from $3 billion in 1986 to $27.53 billion in 2000, while net income increased from $200 million to $1.48 billion. O’Neill began his first speech to Alcoa shareholders in 1987 by saying, “I want to talk to…

VIDEO: Do you know how to make safe decisions?

Most safety leaders and most operations leaders think they know how to assess risk effectively. Ineffective safety decisions happen at the front line employee level, but we leaders know better. This turns out to be false. A growing body of knowledge on cognitive bias shows that human thinking in general tends to be flawed, in…

How to Undermine the Credibility of Safety Leadership in Your Organization

Organizational leaders are always in the process of seeking out and developing talented people who can take on responsibilities and attain objectives. The higher up you get the more important this becomes. If you could just find five people who could do what you can do, or what your top leader is doing, life would…

These Three Criteria Determine the Value of a Safety Culture Survey

Most leading organizations today use a culture survey of one kind or another. Some are directly related to safety and some indirectly. Often they are given annually. How worthwhile are these instruments and how should they be used? Whether your survey is designed to measure organizational culture in general, safety culture in particular, or both,…

Platitudes about Safety Culture Degrade Performance

Organizational leaders recognize the importance of getting the culture right in order to enhance safety performance. A positive work environment is essential. But all too often they approach the safety culture issue with worn out platitudes. I once coached an inexperienced leader in his first job of supervising three manufacturing plants. He came up through…