Healthy Safety Culture: A Fighters Pilots Perspective

As a USAF fighter pilot, air show pilot, and international airline pilot I have seen what it means to have a healthy safety culture in the workplace.

Having personally worked with many Fortune 100 and 500 companies on safety, I have seen a wide range of behavior based safety cultures. Companies that do better than their peers in safety have what is known as a healthy safety culture, which I define in two parts as:

1) Company leadership establishes the frameworks and set expectations that give SAFETY the level of attention warranted by its level of importance and consequence, in turn… 2) Each employee believes in, takes personal ownership, and will monitor work performance to behave within the safety norms and values created by company leadership.

This dense definition of what I believe to be a healthy safety culture can be broken down into easier language.

Getting to that next level in safety involves two basic components – Setting Expectations and Monitoring Performance. Leadership hierarchy is responsible for creating the framework of the safety culture. Over time, the individuals will respond and work within the norms of the framework created by leadership. Creating this “culture of safety” is easier said than done, but in order to rise to the top, it must be done.

Setting Expections

To achieve safety excellence, one must pursue safety perfection! Expect ZERO accidents and incidents every day.

– State your expectations and believe it, live it, breathe it. – Create a system of recognition and rewards for safety. What gets measured gets done. – Raise competence and skill levels of employees by providing more training and education. – Keep equipment updated and repaired. -Clearly define employee roles and responsibilities by formal descriptions of duties and assignments. Advocate them to BE accountable, not HELD accountable.

It is up to managers, leaders, and employees at all levels to monitor the work behavior of their peers and themselves. It’s an attitude. Attitudes influence behaviors. Companies must monitor the overall safety performance of employee groups, however the real traction in safety performance is the worker themselves.

– Develop a healthy questioning attitude. – Speak up! – Stop the work. Listen to and respect each other’s questioning attitude. – Hold a thorough job safety briefing. It sets the tone. Listen to others thoughts, comments, and suggestions when discussing work procedures and hazards. – Take opportunities to coach and mentor which teaches “this is how we do it around here.” – Lead by example. Be careful not to unwittingly or purposely show “how to break the rules and still live.” – Encourage near miss reporting. If it happened to you, it probably happened to someone else.

Because we are human, we will make mistakes. At times, we will take short cuts, assume, get complacent, fail to communicate the hazards, get distracted, lose mental focus, overlook procedures, or sidestep company policy.

A healthy safety culture can be summarized as having individuals who collectively believe that safety is a core value by instilling a

– Healthy Questioning Attitude – Diligent and Informed work ethic – Open Communication

A Healthy Questioning Attitude is paramount to safety excellence. Often, many accidents were avoided because someone asked a question. Thus the question we ask might be the answer we are looking for. Asking questions on the job (or in the cockpit) can be difficult for many reasons, especially if we have a “know-it-all” or overbearing supervisor. We may be unsure, or can’t quite put our finger on it. We don’t want to appear stupid. We might assume everything is OK because no one else is saying anything. Supervisors must encourage everyone to ask themselves:

Do I understand the job and my role?
What are my responsibilities and how do I relate to others?
Do I have the necessary equipment and tools to continue?
Are there any unusual circumstances?
Do I need help?
What is the worst logical conclusion of my error, shortcut, or omission?
What is my action if a problem occurs?

A Diligent and Informed work ethic for the most part means understanding and complying with the rules, policies and procedures set forth in company training and manuals. Be diligent. Understand your role and your job. Stay in the books! Be alert for policy changes. Plan for contingencies and always proceed with deliberate care.

Open Communication is the final yet essential ingredient to safety. This involves soliciting feedback and information from others; transmitting lessons learned to others; report and document results of work, suggest new ideas safety initiatives and work practices. Allow others to feel comfortable speaking up, to say what needs to be said. Take time to debrief each job. Reflect inward. Listen to others; repeat back their concerns. Ask, “is there more?” Do something about it. Follow up.

I firmly believe that any road to perfection requires much inward reflection. When we reflect inward, others will do the same. Start with yourself. Instill an individual attitude of process improvement with safety being a core value. Companies with the best safety record are companies whose individual employees behave by doing it right even when no one is looking over their shoulder!