The podcast discusses safety clutter, identifying duplication and over-specification as common forms. The hosts highlight the consequences of safety clutter on safety management and workforce engagement. They explore the challenges and negative effects of inflexible safety rules and permit processes. The podcast suggests reversing the burden of proof in safety management as a solution to reduce safety clutter. It also emphasizes the importance of redefining the role of safety professionals to create meaningful safety outcomes.
Safety clutter can be characterized by duplication and generalization of safety activities and processes.
Addressing safety clutter is crucial as it reduces employee ownership, limits adaptability, erodes trust, and creates a trade-off between safety and productivity.
Strategies for addressing safety clutter include creating an evidence-based mindset, redesigning safety activities, removing low-value tasks, reversing the burden of proof, and redefining the role of safety professionals.
Deep dives
Characterizing Safety Clutter
Safety clutter can be characterized by two main categories: duplication and generalization. Duplication refers to the presence of redundant safety activities or processes, such as multiple permits or forms for the same task. This can occur due to inter-organizational duplication, multiple relationship duplication, within-system duplication, or industry standardization efforts. Generalization, on the other hand, involves applying safety activities and processes to low-risk situations or expanding safety requirements beyond what is necessary. This can result in a conservative or symbolic application of safety measures, attempted simplification that leads to broader applicability, or the frustration of adaptability and flexibility in response to changing work conditions.
Effects of Safety Clutter
Addressing safety clutter is crucial, as it can have several negative effects on organizational safety. Firstly, safety clutter reduces employee ownership and engagement in safety initiatives, as workers may perceive the excessive activities as ineffective or burdensome. Secondly, safety clutter hampers adaptability by limiting the time and flexibility needed to respond to changing work conditions. Thirdly, safety clutter erodes trust between workers, frontline supervision, and management, as it can create a culture of surveillance and blame. Lastly, safety clutter creates a trade-off between safety and productivity, as the time and attention dedicated to safety activities can impede operational work and role performance.
The Need to Address Safety Clutter
The presence of safety clutter should be a concern for organizations, as it can lead to reduced employee ownership, limited adaptability, eroded trust, and a trade-off between safety and productivity. By identifying and addressing safety clutter, organizations can foster a culture of effective safety practices, empower workers, enhance adaptability, and build trust between all levels of the organization. Through the elimination or streamlining of redundant or unnecessary safety activities, organizations can allocate their resources more effectively towards impactful safety measures, ensuring that safety efforts align with operational goals and contribute positively to overall organizational success.
The Ratchet Effect and Safety Clutter
The podcast discusses the ratchet effect as the underlying cause of safety clutter in organizations. The ratchet effect refers to the asymmetry of adding safety measures being easier than removing them. It is harder to remove safety measures once they have been implemented due to the need for more evidence, higher authority involvement, and the psychological resistance to stopping something in the name of safety. This causes safety activities and regulations to accumulate over time, leading to safety clutter. The podcast highlights the challenge of undoing safety clutter and the potential for the same ratchet effect in COVID-19 safety measures.
Dealing with Safety Clutter
The podcast provides strategies for addressing safety clutter in organizations. The first strategy is to create an evidence-based mindset, encouraging open conversations to question the value of safety activities. The second strategy focuses on identifying the original purpose of safety activities and redesigning them based on that purpose. The third strategy suggests taking action by removing low-value safety activities, starting small and creating momentum for further improvements. The fourth strategy suggests reversing the burden of proof by requiring evidence for adding new safety activities, just like removing them. The last strategy involves redefining the role of safety professionals, emphasizing their support for work processes and impact on safety outcomes. These strategies aim to reduce safety clutter and improve the effectiveness of safety initiatives.
The paper we reference today is our own research paper published in 2018 named; Safety clutter: the accumulation and persistence of ‘safety’ work that does not contribute to operational safety. So we have done ample research when it comes to this particular topic and we’re excited to share this knowledge with you. Hopefully you will take away from this episode a better understanding of where to start looking for (and clear out) clutter in your own workplace.
Topics:
What is safety clutter?
The three C’s
Contribution
Confidence
Consensus
The paper - Safety clutter: the accumulation and persistence of ‘safety’ work that does not contribute to operational safety
Types of duplication in safety tasks
Generalization of safety tasks
Symbolic application of safety tasks
Attempted simplification
Least common denominator
Overspecification
The causes of safety clutter
Why reduce safety clutter?
Ways to deal with safety clutter
Quotes:
“Clutter by duplication - when you literally have two activities that perform the same function, then you know that at least one out of the two is going to be unnecessary. - Drew Rae
“They ended up having to create a hazard on the work site for the manager who was doing the critical controls inspection to check that they had properly managed the hazard.” Drew Rae
“I found a 28 page work page work instruction on how to spray weeds on a concrete pathway with a weedspray that was biodegradable and commercially available at any supermarket.” - David Provan
“It’s harder to remove anything that is there for safety than it is to add something that’s there for safety.” - Drew Rae
“Did you know that some of the things we do in this organization, specifically for safety, may make our organization less safe. - David Provan
