Presentation - Cracking The Safety Code

Duration: 60-90 mins

Overview

‘Cracking the Safety Code’ answers the question ‘do you think that the reason why people are still getting injured is because we haven’t had enough incidents? Or is it that perhaps we are not asking the right questions?’ It assesses how well management systems, behaviour based safety, safety leadership and a human error reduction program deal with the prevention of incidents. It outlines what options organisations have to achieve zero harm, which one is the most cost effective and why so many organisations have fallen short of the zero harm goal.

Summary

Do you think that the reason why people are still getting injured is because we haven’t had enough incidents? Or is it that perhaps we are not asking the right questions when incidents take place?’

Your organisation has a great safety program. Hazards have been engineered out where possible, your safe operating procedures are up to date and your employees and contractors are well trained. So, you’re not having any incidents, right? Unlikely.

In 1931, Heindrick postulates that 90% of incidents are caused by unsafe acts. Since then, the majority of the effort to manage safety has been targeted towards the implementation of management systems primarily, as well as behaviour based safety and safety leadership. But even organisations that have completed programs with all three approaches still have incidents. And, more importantly, how much effort has it taken? Not an insignificant amount.

This presentation assesses how well management systems, behaviour based safety and safety leadership deal with the prevention of incidents. It also offers an additional piece to the puzzle that these three approaches don’t deal with very well – preventing human error.

The research on how people make errors, mistakes, miscalculations and misjudgments – mostly unintentionally, without meaning to, not on purpose – identifies a basic behavioural patterns that cause over 90% of incidents.
These patterns not only apply at work, but at home and on the road as well. They are very simple to understand and people agree with them instinctively. The research also identified techniques to teach people how to make many less errors, thereby making them more responsible for their own safety.

Until we start dealing with human error as a preventable initiator to incidents, we will continue to have incidents that would not have been prevented by management system, behaviour based safety and/or safety leadership.