Wednesday, September 30, 2015
What It Takes to Make Behavior-Based Safety Work
Occupational Health & Safety: People tend to respond one of three ways when it comes to Behavior-Based Safety (BBS). There are those who are strong supporters because they have witnessed transformations. Others adamantly despise the process, usually because they either do not understand the intention of the efforts or have had bad experiences due to improper or unethical implementation practices or design choices. Then, there are some who are new to the methodologies and are trying to determine whether it is right for them and their organization.
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6 comments:
I don't really know much at all about "Behavior Based Safety" but by reading the article I am a little more clear. The article however, doesn't really do a good job of explaining when a BBS should be used or why one chooses to use it. It explains ways to make a BBS system succeed and I think a lot of these tips can be attributed to many procedures in life. For example, The article mentions strategies like " Involve people in the decisions and allow them to provide creative input. This helps facilitate internalization" and " Leaders at all levels must behaviorally demonstrate support and cooperation." and I think that with guidelines like these, any system should be given a chance. Again, with my limited knowledge, only going off what the article has said, I think that a BBS system should be approached cautiously and gradually but if you are in need of a new system, is something worth trying.
This is a cool article, I like how it compiles 10 ways to lead a productive team. These points do not just have to relate to safety, but they seem pretty basic about being a good manager. These strategies are, as I said, “cool” because they tell a leader to involve their employees, make them more invested in the process. When I am leading a crew I like to, in the least, ask the group for their opinions or ideas about problem solving. And of course then that can be helpful, listening to other idea because it comes from a fresher set of eyes and it can then lead to a conversation that leads to an idea than the original. Then when an employee, or in this case fellow student is implementing a process that they help come up with they have a much better understanding of the whole picture.
I personally think that having a behavior-based safety survey is an extremely important thing to have. In general safety is something that is very important that tends to be overlooked by everyone at a company for any number of reasons. As a manager it is important to promote, enforce, and create a safe working environment for your employees. Getting the information on how to best do this is a very hard thing. This is because you will talk about ideas forever, but putting them into practice can be difficult. By doing this survey you can get close to getting realistic results. However, that only happens if people are answering truthfully and realistically. What I have seen is that a lot of the time these decisions are made and not really thinking about how practically this will be enforced. It also just shocks me in general how little people tend to care about safety.
This is something that I can get behind. I don't know if anyone reads all my comments but if you did, you would notice a trend in which I have commented on every injury article about how there is a culture in theater of "safety last". This isn't just a group saying we should fix it, they are saying what to do to fix it. If you pay attention to their suggestions it is all about getting employees involved. Its not just buying a safer saw, or putting a barrier up. This is about changing the culture. The problem in theater is not the employer. The problem are he workers who do not care about their health and poke fun at those who do. I would love to see people start to implement this in our industry.
I only have a limited knowledge of the BBS system described in this article, but it appears that these tips are helpful for any new procedure being implemented in the workplace. Being ready for the new procedure, customizing it and making it fit the specifications of the space, and willing participation from everyone involved are some of the most important parts of ensuring that a new way of doing things will become gradually accepted by the people in the space. These guidelines can definitely be applied to many types of issues, both inside and outside theater, as a way to make significant and long-lasting change in how things are done in the workplace.
I'm the author of this article. For those of you with additional questions, consider reading the book, Lean Behavior-Based Safety: BBS For Today's Realities. One article can't answer all the questions, which is why we wrote a book on it.
All the best,
Shawn M. Galloway, President, ProAct Safety
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