Behavior Archives - Krause Bell Group

What Is a Safety Improvement Strategy: Part 1

Jun 1, 2019

Categorized under: Improvement Strategy, Safe Decision Making™ Articles, Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Behavior, SIF prevention, Strategy

What Is a Safety Improvement Strategy and Why Do you Need One? It always surprises me when I see leading organizations who value safety lacking a comprehensive strategy to attain their objectives. The situation is usually something like this: “We are doing a lot to improve safety performance. Our leaders are serious about preventing Serious Injuries and Fatalities, and (we think) we’ve done the things thought leaders have recommended. We’re doing a long list of things aimed at safety performance improvement in general, in fact, our people sometimes tell us they suffer from ‘initiative fatigue’. In spite of all this...

Portrait of an Effective Safety Leader

Tom Krause

May 2, 2019

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Behavior, Leadership Attributes

You know it when you see it. But it isn’t always easy to articulate clearly, especially to those who don’t understand it to start with. What does effective safety leadership really look like? Here is a start: I know that safety is good for our business; for quality, productivity, culture, and profit. My most important priority within safety is the prevention of serious injuries and fatalities. To achieve safety excellence I must assure that I and the leaders around me are excellent safety leaders, extending to the shop floor through every level. I recognize my role in creating the culture we...

“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...

Preventing Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs) Requires Organizational Learning

Tom Krause

Feb 26, 2019

Categorized under: Serious Injuries & Fatalities

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 2

About ten years ago a global client asked why SIFs weren’t declining at the same rate that recordable injuries were. That led to a study drawing on the data of six large organizations. The answers were revealing in many ways. We found that SIFs were structurally different than smaller injuries, precursors were identifiable, and effective prevention required a new strategy. As is often the case with original research, we confirmed an insight we already had, and we also found a new one. We confirmed that studying incidents as a series yields understandings that are not apparent in single events. We...

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...

How and Why Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) Must Evolve

Tom Krause

Dec 20, 2018

Categorized under: Behavior-Based Safety

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 6, SIF prevention

The problem with a complex issue is that you have to think about it a little. It’s easy to say “Here are five reasons behavior-based safety is terrific” or “Here are five reasons why it is terrible.” But neither of these tell the whole story. The truth is that behavior-based safety (BBS) is a mixed bag. Understanding what is in the bag is crucial to using the method successfully, not using it all, or most importantly, guiding the natural evolution of BBS to its next form. Don’t respond to this thinking, “BBS used to be the greatest and now it...

Safety Management

David Libby

Jun 7, 2018

Categorized under: Safety Culture, Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 1, Safety Management System

Putting a solid safety management process in place, in any organization—much less sustaining it—can be difficult to wrap your arms around. One thing I think we can all agree on, however, is that you must start with a desire and commitment to having one. A case in point: not long ago, a prospective client (that subsequently became a client), reached out to me for help. He expressed concern that his organization had a recordable injury rate significantly higher than the industry average. He wanted to know what we might be able to do to address their safety management process, so...

Which Comes First – Great Leadership or Great Safety Leadership?

David Libby

May 29, 2018

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 3

Like the great debate of which came first – the chicken or the egg – so too is the topic of what comes first – great leadership or great safety leadership. Let’s start by looking at what great leaders do. When you think about the most influential leader you’ve ever followed, what were the characteristics, attributes and behaviors of that person? I’ve asked this question in literally hundreds of workshops and the most common answers are… She really listened to me. He was open to my feedback and ideas, often using them when he made decisions. She was interested in...

Safety Leadership

Tom Krause

Kristen Bell

David Libby

May 29, 2018

Categorized under: Safety Leadership

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 3

Improving the quality of safety leadership is the single most important change an organization can make to increase the effectiveness of their safety programs. While it’s not surprising that strong safety leadership results in effective safety efforts, our experience and research show us that in many organizations where safety is a critical concern, even highly effective leaders have a knowledge gap when it comes to safety leadership. This gap can directly impact the overall quality of the safety effort and, ultimately, the safety of people within the organization. So, how do we bridge the knowledge gap and improve the effectiveness...

Rethinking Behavior-Based Safety

Tom Krause

May 29, 2018

Categorized under: Behavior-Based Safety

Tagged as: Behavior, Insight 6, SIF prevention

The problem with a complex issue is that you have to think about it a little. It’s easy to say, “Here are five reasons that Behavior Based Safety (BBS) is terrific” or “Here are five reasons why BBS is terrible.” But neither of these tell the whole story. The truth is that BBS is a mixed bag. Understanding what is in the bag is crucial to using the method successfully, not using it all, or most importantly, guiding the natural evolution of BBS to its next form. Don’t respond to this thinking, “BBS used to be the greatest and now...

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