Reinvigorating Your BBS Program Part 1: Setting the Table

June 22, 2022

By Josh Williams, Ph. D.

Is your BBS process stale?

Do these symptoms of a flailing program sound familiar?

Overemphasis on quotas
Pencil whipped forms
Focus on quantity but NOT quality
Overly long checklists
No open-ended questions on card; few meaningful comments provided
No conversations following observations
Observations only being done by a select group
Weak analyses of observation data and comments
Cards going into a “black hole” with little feedback share back to employees
Few improvements based on observation feedback
Low interest from employees and supervisors

If this sounds like your program, it’s time to level up with BBS 2.0.

BBS 2.0 focuses on the quality of conversations with observations and making tangible improvements based on employee feedback. The focus is NOT on card completion. With BBS 2.0, a shortened card is used with key behaviors which also includes open-ended questions (e.g., What do you need to stay safe? How would you improve the job?). The emphasis with BBS 2.0 is on conversations over cards and people over paper.

Propulo can help you reinvigorate your behavioral safety process by:

Providing interesting and interactive training on BBS 2.0 with an emphasis on powerful conversations, taking action, and “what’s in it for me”
Shortening and redesigning your card to promote better safety conversations and to address identified problems
Involving employees in process design to increase discretionary effort
Simplifying how cards are managed and analyzed; increasing focus on SIF potential
Creating or rebooting a steering team to effectively manage the process
Establishing operational leadership accountability to ensure process success
Developing key mechanisms for improving system deficiencies identified from observations
Creating more robust means to advertise improvements from observations
Establishing ongoing check-ins to ensure BBS 2.0 stays on track

Unlike traditional safety training, behavioral safety has natural embedding tools for long-term sustainment. If you’re struggling with your BBS program, don’t abandon it entirely. Like old software, your program simply needs an upgrade. Let us help you revamp your process with BBS 2.0! You’ll see increased employee engagement, richer safety conversations, more actions taken to shore up system deficiencies, decreased SIF potential, and improved safety culture and morale.

So take action today and make your behavioral safety program a key driver for safety success!

At Propulo, we work with leaders to reboot BBS to improve safety culture and prevent serious injuries and fatalities.

Read more from this blog series: REINVIGORATING YOUR BBS PROGRAM PART 2: MAINTENANCE