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Reducing SIFs

By Martin Royal Serious incidents rarely occur because people “don’t care about safety.” They occur because decisions are made in contexts that differ sharply from the conditions under which safety policies, procedures, and commitments were designed. This gap between intention and action, planning and execution, is best understood as the Emotion–Context Disconnect. For senior leaders, this is not a frontline issue. It is a governance, system design, and leadership challenge that directly affects operational reliability, workforce trust, and enterprise risk. Safety Risk Is a Leadership Problem, Not a Compliance Problem Modern organizations operate in environments defined by competing priorities: productivity, cost control, customer demand, regulatory

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By Martin Royal Many organizations require executives to complete a set number of field visits or safety observations. While well-intentioned, using the frequency of these visits as a metric misses the real point. Effective executive safety leadership is measured not by how often leaders go to the field, but by how precisely they observe, engage, and reinforce the behaviors that prevent serious injuries and fatalities. When an executive enters an operational area, every interaction sends a signal that either strengthens or erodes the safety culture. The question is not whether leaders should conduct field visits, but whether those visits are purposefully

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Previous blogs have focused on core leadership competencies to fuel felt leadership and drive safety excellence. There are also key actions and programs that leaders should implement to improve safety culture and reduce the potential for serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs). Part 1 of the blog focused on tightening up current processes you likely already have to improve safety. Part 2 will (hopefully) provide some new ideas to demonstrate leadership commitment to safety. 1. Optimize performance management with more proactive focus on safety. To do this, develop and use Critical Leadership Observable Actions with behavioral anchors to measure

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. Previous blogs have focused on core leadership competencies to fuel felt leadership and drive safety excellence. There are also key actions and programs that leaders should implement to improve safety culture and reduce the potential for serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs). Part 1 of the blog focuses on tightening up current processes you likely already have. Part 2 will (hopefully) provide some new ideas demonstrating leadership commitment to safety. Here are some guidelines for activities you’re likely already doing:   1. Improve near miss reporting. Many organizations struggle with getting close call information from the field. This often

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By Josh Williams, Ph.D. For more than 25 years, I’ve heard senior leaders speak passionately about having zero incidents. This is often done with heartfelt messages and personal commitments to make it happen. This is a good thing in many ways: It’s aspirational to strive for zero incidents. This fosters a mindset of internal control and taking charge of your own destiny, which should be reinforced by leadership. This often leads to the development of leading indicators like leader time in the field and action items completed (from worker feedback) to prevent incidents. Incidents typically drop if proper actions are taken on the front end. However,

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By Josh Williams, Ph. D. Much of the focus on improving organizational safety today focuses on influencing safety behaviors (e.g., Behavior-Based Safety) and improving organizational systems to reduce human error (e.g., Human Performance). These are both critically important to advance safety culture and prevent serious incidents and fatalities. But what about employee safety attitudes? During training sessions, I’ve often asked employees to tell me which of the following is most important with their coworkers: experience, intelligence, or attitude. Initially, I expected that most employees, especially those with more tenure, would tell me “experience.” However, employees have overwhelmingly said “attitude” regardless of their

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