Developing these habits will help create a safety culture in which it is safe for employees to fail.
The Eight Habits
The first three habits are: 1) Stop Making Safety a Priority—it should be a value; 2) Make it Safe to Raise Concerns; and 3) Make Safety a Responsibility of Operations. These habits are designed to create a just safety culture that then enables you to truly focus on leading indicators and stop accidents before they happen.
That’s where the fourth habit—Focus Left of Zero—comes in. In a just culture, you can track and trend the information you get from the field. When these first four habits are done in conjunction, we can actually see an accident before it happens and implement measures to stop it.
Stop Managing People is habit five. This habit focuses on leadership principles that are essential in creating a culture that is sustainable in every environment. The only constant in life is that things will change. Be prepared to lead your team no matter what comes your way.
Habit six is Stop Trying to Fix the Worker and Fix the Work, and habit seven is Find the STCKY (stuff that can kill you) and Stop the SIF (serious injuries and fatalities). When I originally wrote the eight habits, these two were based on BBS and using Heinrich’s Triangle Theory to stop unsafe acts/behaviors, thereby reducing the number of significant injuries and fatalities. While BBS has helped reduce overall incident rates, it has done little to reduce the number of fatalities we have each year on job sites around the country. So, developing these two habits is going to take quite a shift in the way we view and do safety.
The final habit—Stop Trying to Influence Everyone—is one that will help you implement the first seven. When you try to influence everyone, you end up influencing no one.
Human Performance Principles
I want to mention here that all safety programs should be built on the principles of human performance. I use these five principles designed by safety expert and author Todd Conklin:
Error is normal. Even the best people make mistakes.
Blame fixes nothing.
Learning and improving are vital. Learning is deliberate.
How you respond to failure matters. How leaders act and respond counts.
Context influences behavior. Systems drive outcomes.
You, however, can select as many or as few principles as you’d like. Choose the ones that fit your organization. In my book, I list a total of 25 principles called “The Incomplete List” because I’m sure there are others; it all depends on your organization and what it is you are trying to accomplish.
Final Thoughts
During the process of writing the book, I had quite a few “aha” moments and learned so much from all of you in the safety industry. Here are a few final takeaways for you to consider.
Workers aren’t the problem; workers are the problem solvers.