Safety knowledge - beyond code knowledge

[Mark]

Here is my question:

Having been involved with safety from the perspective of corporate, consultant, field manager, worker and researcher, I am curious as to other professional's experience and what "you" think the next level is - how do you intend to improve, get better at, break new ground in safety?

What is the direction of elevating safety continuously?

What to you is the most important component of your process - code knowledge (which I believe to be the baseline competency though an external brain can do that for you (computer, etc.)? Vigilance? People skills? Leading personalities? and how is that going for you?

What are the challenges to you in your safety practice?

What are the "new" aspects you see emerging, if any?

Where do you get the best results from your practice? Why?

[Hazardman]

Great topic Mark,

From my persective, the biggest issues today are Behavioural Safety and the Human Factor. I'll illustrate my point:

I have a few close friends who are in the Aviation Safety industry. No matter what the media blows up, it is one of the safest, well regulated, tightly run safety industries in the world. Airliner design, Airline System Redundencies/Contingencies, Maintenance etc. have been worked through extremely well over time.

Most airline accidents (and there are extremely few in the workld today) come down to pilot error, or the direct human factor. My friend has been contracted to an Asian airline, to help train in Pilot Behaviour. In asian culture, it can be seen as rude for the 1st officer to 'point out the obvious' to the captain, even though it is his job to do so. In an emergency situation, the 10 seconds when he thinks 'should I' or 'shouldn't I point that out to the captain' is enough to cause an incident.

So to bring this back to Workplace Safety what i'm saying is that the airline industry is a premium example of a well run safety program, and their 'final frontier' is definately in behavioural issues. I think the same for the workplace.

[jburzynski]

I would definitly rank people skills #1. It doesn't benefit anyone if you can't get your message delivered in a way the workers understand the reason why the task they have been doing for 20+ years needs to be done differently (safer).

Being approachable is also key. I have people come to me with safety ideas and concerns, unsolicited, and to me that is huge. Sometimes just being there to listen is all it takes for people to see that you are there to make them safe, not just to make thier jobs harder.

[Safety Barista]

Being approachable is also key. I have people come to me with safety ideas and concerns, unsolicited, and to me that is huge.

I agree with you here