V1.2

DR. MARK FLEMING

CN PROFESSOR OF SAFETY CULTURE

SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY

MARK.FLEMING@SMU.CA

A LEADER’S GUIDE TO

SAFETY CULTURE

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Outline

Background

Safety culture overview

Analysis of major incidents

Safety culture improvement

Measuring what matters

Conclusions

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Cross industry collaboration

Piper Alpha

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“Safety culture is the product of individual

and group values, attitudes,

competencies and patterns of behaviour

that determine the commitment to, and

the style and proficiency of an

organization’s health and safety

programmes.” (Advisory Committee for Safety in

Nuclear Installations, 1993; p. 23)

Safety Culture Definition

Safety culture typology Safe

Unsafe

Strong Weak

Safety culture threats

Graphic courtesy of the NEB

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Safety culture and disasters

Reviewed 17 offshore disasters to identify

cultural causal factors

14 disasters contained cultural causes

– Tolerance of inadequate systems and resources

(identified 10 times)

– Normalization of deviance, (identified 9 times)

– Complacency, (identified 8 times)

– Work pressure/ cost (identified 4 times)

Graphic courtesy of the NEB

Safety culture protection

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Safety culture improvement system

Safety culture vision

Responsibilities

Plans and actions

Assessment

Review and refine

Audit

Dr. Mark Fleming Saint Mary’s University

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Safety improvement?

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Change in rate of fatalities and recordable injuries (IOGP data)

FAR

TRIR

Lineær (FAR)

Lineær (TRIR)

V1.2 Dangers of over reliance on

injury rate statistics

Questionable assumptions

The causes of minor injuries are the same

as those of more serious events.

– Focus safety effort on investigating and

preventing minor injuries

Absence of minor injuries equals safety

– Use individual injuries as primary/ sole

safety performance measure

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Good indicators

Accurate

– Direct relationship with system status

– Difficult to manipulate

Predictive

– Related to future system states and

performance

Current

– Real time information

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Safety culture metrics

Designed to gain more insight into the

health of the safety culture on a ongoing

basis

Based on the logic that if safety culture is

meaningful then there should be evidence of

the health of the culture

The metrics focus on the quality of activities

rather than quantity

20 metrics have been developed

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Safety culture metrics

Number Dimension Metric criteria Metric data collection Rating

Dis-

improvement No

change Improvement

Metric

score

1 Leadership

The amount and degree of

integration of safety discussion

in operational meetings is a

reflection of leader priority for

safety. Ideally safety will be

discussed as a part of every

item on the agenda.

Review minutes/ notes/

action items from daily

operational meetings. Select

10 meetings at random and

review the minutes or notes

and compare to previous

reporting period.

Less discussion

of safety No

change

More

integrated

discussion of

safety

Presence of safety in daily meetings -1 -1.00

9 Empowerment

and

Accountability

The degree of compliance to

safety rules and procedures is

a reflection of employee

commitment to safety. The

higher the degree of

compliance the better.

Review records of

management inspections

and count the number of

observed procedural

noncompliance during the

reporting period and

compare to previous

reporting period.

Less

compliance

(greater

number of

observed non

compliance)

No

change

Increased

compliance

(fewer

observations

of non

compliance)

Compliance with rules and procedures 0 0.00

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Summary statistics

Total dis-improved Total no change Total improved Average

Total 7 9 4 -0.15

Leadership 2 2 2 0.00

Empowerment and accountability

0 4 0 0.00

Resiliency 4 1 2 -0.29

Vigilance 1 2 0 -0.33

Bankruptcy

Catastrophe

Increased

investment

in protection

Better defences

converted to

increased

production

Protection

Production From Reason 1997

Forgetting to be afraid!

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It won’t happen to me....

When anyone asks me how I can best describe my

experiences of nearly forty years at sea, I merely say

uneventful. I have never been in an accident of any sort

worth speaking about....I never saw a wreck and have

never been wrecked, nor was I ever in any predicament

that threatened to end in disaster of any sort."

Edward J. Smith

(Captain of the Titanic)