Exploring the controversial term of safety culture, this podcast presents multiple perspectives from experienced professionals. It tackles the confusion surrounding its definition and delves into the stages of safety culture progression. The importance of relationships, soft skills, and a shared understanding of safety are emphasized. It also discusses the impact of culture and peer pressure on behavior and the role of technology in shaping safety policies.
Safety culture should not be viewed as separate from wider organizational culture.
Building a positive safety culture requires establishing relationships, prioritizing trust, and developing core soft skills.
Safety culture can be understood from various perspectives: a mirror, a measure, or a map.
Deep dives
The Confusion and Importance of Defining Safety Culture
The original definition of safety culture emerged following the Chernobyl incident, encompassing behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, values, and priorities. However, this broad definition led to ambiguity and inconsistency in its subsequent application. It is crucial to clarify the concept to achieve consistency in measurement and facilitate progress in the field of safety. Without a clear definition, different perspectives and measures hinder the understanding and improvement of safety culture.
The Integration of Safety and Organizational Culture
Safety culture should not be viewed as separate from wider organizational culture. They are interconnected and influence each other. Safety culture encompasses beliefs, assumptions, values, and behaviors within the organization. It is essential to correct the language and recognize that safety is integrated into the overall company culture. Building a positive safety culture requires establishing relationships, prioritizing trust, and developing core soft skills like empathy, influence, and rapport.
The Role of Psychological Safety and Trust
Psychological safety plays a critical role in safety culture. It involves creating an environment where individuals feel safe to raise concerns or stop work in the face of uncertainty without fear of reprisal. Establishing trust and psychological safety helps foster collaboration, encourages participation, and improves overall safety. Safety professionals should express gratitude for workers' actions, follow up on concerns, and involve employees in safety decision-making to increase trust and enhance psychological safety.
Culture as the Foundation of Safety
Culture is foundational to safety because it shapes behaviors, priorities, and values within the organization. Safety culture is not a separate entity but a reflection of the broader organizational culture. It is crucial to align organizational culture with safety objectives by emphasizing process stability, authentic leadership, and psychological health. Developing an inclusive and open culture allows for effective safety management and continuous improvement. Authentic leadership, as well as male allies promoting diversity and inclusion, are essential for creating a safe and supportive workplace for all employees.
Different Perspectives of Safety Culture
Safety culture can be understood from various perspectives: a mirror, a measure, or a map. The mirror analogy refers to reflecting on the organization's deep beliefs, values, and assumptions to encourage self-reflection. The measure perspective focuses on tangible aspects like policies, procedures, and practices that reflect the organization's safety priorities and climate. Finally, the map perspective involves using maturity models and cultural assessment tools to gauge the organization's safety culture and guide its progression. Utilizing these three perspectives can lead to a shared understanding of safety culture and its relationship with the broader organizational culture.
In this episode, we’re conducting a thorough investigation of ‘safety culture’ to help HSE practitioners bring some clarity to this controversial term.
We've compiled a collection of thoughts, opinions and ideas about safety culture from 15 of our previous guests discussing various aspects of this nebulous subject.
The main dispute is whether safety culture actually exists, but even when we get past this, people rarely agree on its definition, measurement and implementation.
This safety culture special presents multiple perspectives on these crucial questions from experienced HSE professionals, consultants, authors and academics. We can’t promise definitive answers, but it will help you come to your own conclusions about safety culture - and what it means for your practice.
