Behavior-Based Safety Archives

Aug 13, 2020

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

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, organizations scrambled to understand the risks and develop comprehensive prevention strategies. Today, most organizations have implemented safeguards at every level of the hierarchy of controls. No matter how good a job management has done to eliminate, substitute, engineer and administer away the hazards, we remain dependent on leadership decision making and human behavior to prevent transmission of the virus. Critical behaviors like handwashing, maintaining physical distance, using a mask, and self-quarantining require high levels of behavioral reliability in order to be effective. We know that leadership decisions directly influence these critical behaviors. In the graphic...

ABC Analysis

Kristen Bell

Aug 13, 2020

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

Here's a 5-step method for an ABC analysis, with an example. Step 1 Pinpoint a single action that you want to change. Be extremely specific. Think of a specific person, at a specific point in time, in a specific situation. Step 2 Identify as many antecedents that were present in that specific situation. Antecedents are signals, events, and cues that triggered the person to do what they did. Reminders, email, conversations, signs, training and rules are all common attempts to trigger behavior in organizations. Step 3 Identify as many consequences that were in play in that specific situation. A consequence...

7 Insights into COVID-19 Prevention

David Libby

Mark Pellegrini

Jun 11, 2020

Categorized under: Behavior-Based Safety, Safe Decision Making™ Articles, Safety Culture, Safety Leadership, Serious Injuries & Fatalities

Long before COVID-19 upended life as we know it, there were organizations demonstrating exceptional safety leadership. We are proud to have worked with countless safety professionals and leaders, from small companies and major global organizations alike, who ‘Get It’ when it comes to safety. We even wrote a book about what distinguishes a leader who is very successful in safety from one who struggles, called the 7 Insights into Safety Leadership[1]. Then came COVID -19 which threatened us all and changed everything. Every leader and every worker, in every company we knew, turned their full attention to maintaining business continuity,...

Do Your Leaders Understand How Safe Decisions and Safe Behaviors Work Together? COVID-19 as an SIF Issue

Tom Krause

Apr 23, 2020

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

Tagged as: Insight 7

Within the network of causal factors underlying incident causation are two points of intersection: the safety related decisions that are made, and the safe behaviors performed. This applies across levels, from the board of directors to the front-line worker, but the dynamics change depending on level and role. In order to craft and execute optimal SIF prevention strategies, including COVID-19, our leaders need to understand the dynamic relationship between decision making and behavior, at all levels. For example, as we face COVID-19 uncertainty, how should leaders be thinking about where to focus attention? Our clients tell us there are two...

The BBS Dilemma Part 4

Tom Krause

Oct 6, 2019

Categorized under: Behavior-Based Safety

Tagged as: Insight 6

What’s wrong with BBS… and is it possible to fix it? This is the fourth in a series of four segments about the shortcomings of Behavior Based Safety (BBS), and decision options for leaders to consider from various starting points. The goal of this series is to inform leaders of optimal strategies for getting the most out of whatever “behavior based or human performance” safety improvement approach is being considered. Part 1 is an overview addressing how to think about BBS and its relationship to Human and Organizational Performance (HOP). Part 2 is about how BBS processes get killed, and...

The BBS Dilemma Part 3

Tom Krause

Sep 29, 2019

Categorized under: Behavior-Based Safety

Tagged as: Insight 6

What’s wrong with BBS… and is it possible to fix it? This is the third in a series of four segments about the shortcomings of Behavior Based Safety (BBS), and decision options for leaders to consider from various starting points. The goal of this series is to inform leaders of optimal strategies for getting the most out of whatever “behavior based or human performance” safety improvement approach is being considered. Part 1 is an overview addressing how to think about BBS and its relationship to Human and Organizational Performance (HOP). Part 2 is about how BBS processes get killed, and...

The BBS Dilemma Part 2

Tom Krause

Sep 22, 2019

Categorized under: Behavior-Based Safety

Tagged as: Insight 6

What’s wrong with BBS… and is it possible to fix it? This is the second in a series of four segments about the shortcomings of Behavior Based Safety (BBS), and decision options for leaders to consider from various starting points. The goal of this series is to inform leaders of optimal strategies for getting the most out of whatever “behavior based or human performance” safety improvement approach is being considered. Part 1 is an overview addressing how to think about BBS and its relationship to Human and Organizational Performance (HOP). Part 2 is about how BBS processes get killed, and...

The BBS Dilemma Part 1

Tom Krause

Sep 15, 2019

Categorized under: Behavior-Based Safety

Tagged as: Insight 6

What’s wrong with BBS … and is it possible to fix it? This is the first in a series of four segments about the shortcomings of Behavior Based Safety (BBS), and decision options for leaders to consider from various starting points. The goal of this series is to inform leaders of optimal strategies for getting the most out of whatever “behavior based or human performance” safety improvement approach is being considered. Part 1 How to think about BBS: The Dilemma If you think BBS is all good or all bad you are wrong. If you think Human and Organizational Performance...

“Fixing Stupid” Starts with Personal Reflection

David Libby

Apr 9, 2019

Categorized under: Behavior-Based Safety, Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 6

Over my many years of helping organizations improve safety and overall business results, I’ve heard countless managers and even front-line employees say (usually after an incident), “You can’t fix stupid!” This statement bothers me on many levels and, in my opinion, reflects the very mental model that keeps organizations from improving and advancing their safety culture. Sometimes the comment is made by the injured employee as a self-deprecating explanation of something they knew better than to do. Much more often it is a degrading comment made by a supervisor, manager or executive, one I’m sure the speaker wouldn’t want the...

Why Mindfulness will not Improve your Safety Performance

Filip Coumans

Jan 12, 2019

Categorized under: Behavior-Based Safety, Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 6

When people talk about how safety performance has improved over time, they typically focus on three phases: Technical – improvements in machine and equipment safety; Organizational – a concerted effort to improve the safety of all systems and procedures employed in the workplace; and Behavioral – a specific focus on the behaviors of frontline employees. Each of these phases was initially characterized by a marked improvement in safety performance. These improvements were then followed by the hitting of a plateau, whereby any further gains became marginal. Many safety leaders have the feeling that we have reached another plateau with the...