Seven hours before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, four senior executives were on-site congratulating the crew for achieving seven years without a lost-time injury. It wasn’t that these leaders ignored risk; it’s that they were systematically blinded to it by a focus on the 'wrong' metrics. In this episode, we break down Andrew Hopkins’ analysis of that final visit to explore the important distinction between personal safety and process safety. We look at why injury measures may be next to useless in preventing major disasters. This isn't a story about incompetent people or 'bad apples', but how well-intentioned leadership behaviours can quietly reinforce organizational risk blindness.Source: Hopkins, A. (2011). Management walk-arounds: Lessons from the Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout. Safety Science, 49(10), 1421-1425.Support the channel at: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinsonMore research at SafetyInsights.OrgOutro music "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com)

Leadership captures the headlines and conference topics worldwide, but what is the role of followers in team and organisational performance?

How can one lead, without those that follow?

Refs:

1. Leung, C., Lucas, A., Brindley, P., Anderson, S., Park, J., Vergis, A., & Gillman, L. M. (2018). Followership: a review of the literature in healthcare and beyond. Journal of critical care, 46, 99-104.

2. Hay-David, A. G. C., Herron, J. B. T., Gilling, P., & Brennan, P. A. (2022). Assertive followership: how to make a team safer. British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, 60(5), 558-562.

More research at SafetyInsights.Org

Intro/Output "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com)

Make sure to subscribe to Safe As on Spotify/Apple, and if you find it useful then please help share the news, and leave a rating and review on your podcast app.

I also have a Safe As LinkedIn group if you want to stay up to date on releases.

How well do Learning Teams compare to RCAs for the number and quality of findings? This study compares the two.

Note: Update and reupload of a previous episode, now in video format.

Ref: Robbins, T., Tipper, S., King, J., Ramachandran, S. K., Pandit, J. J., & Pandit, M. (2021). Evaluation of learning teams versus root cause analysis for incident investigation in a large United Kingdom National Health Service Hospital. Journal of Patient Safety, 17(8), e1800-e1805.

More research at SafetyInsights.Org

Intro/Output "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com)

Make sure to subscribe to Safe As on Spotify/Apple, and if you find it useful then please help share the news, and leave a rating and review on your podcast app.

I also have a Safe As LinkedIn group if you want to stay up to date on releases.

What are the precursor factors that kill people at work? And are our investigations effectively fixing these factors?

Ref: Stockel, L. R. (2023). What Causes Accidents at Work? Workplace Serious Incident & Fatality Investigations: A Study of Precursors.

More research at SafetyInsights.Org

Intro/Output "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com)

Make sure to subscribe to Safe As on Spotify/Apple, and if you find it useful then please help share the news, and leave a rating and review on your podcast app.

I also have a Safe As LinkedIn group if you want to stay up to date on releases.

You saw the sign, and read the words. So, apparently you understand the risk, or do you?Source: Hancock, P. A., Kaplan, A. D., MacArthur, K. R., & Szalma, J. L. (2020). How effective are warnings? A meta-analysis. Safety Science, 130, 104876.Support the channel at: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinsonMore research at SafetyInsights.OrgOutro music "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com)

How can we design better - as in safer, healthier, more productive shift work systems and rosters? Let's find out.

Sources:

QGN 16. Guidance Note for Fatigue Risk Management. Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy

Knauth, P. (1996). Designing better shift systems. Applied ergonomics, 27(1), 39-44.

More research at SafetyInsights.Org

Intro/Output "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com)

Make sure to subscribe to Safe As on Spotify/Apple, and if you find it useful then please help share the news, and leave a rating and review on your podcast app.

I also have a Safe As LinkedIn group if you want to stay up to date on releases.

Are AI models BS'ing you? Do they have such an indifference--a lack of understanding even--about the truth, that their outputs constitute BS?

Note: This is an update and recording of #33, where I rerecord interesting topics for my YouTube channel.

Source: Hicks, M. T., Humphries, J., & Slater, J. (2024). ChatGPT is bullshit. Ethics and Information Technology, 26(2), 1-10.

Support the channel at: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinson

More research at SafetyInsights.Org

Outro music "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com)

Safety indicators, metrics, measures, KPIs...whatever.

Are these indicators used primarily for genuine learning and improvement - or more often misinterpreted and misused?Ref: Oswald, D., Zhang, R. P., Lingard, H., Pirzadeh, P., & Le, T. (2018). The use and abuse of safety indicators in construction. Engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(9), 1188-1209.Support the channel at: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinsonMore research at SafetyInsights.OrgOutro music "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com)

This paper explores how complex systems not only fail, but succeed, and provides 9 ways that we can move beyond simplistic notions of system failure due to 'human error'.

Ref: Woods, D. D., & Cook, R. I. (2002). Nine steps to move forward from error. Cognition, technology & work, 4(2), 137-144.

More research at SafetyInsights.Org

Intro/Output "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com)

Make sure to subscribe to Safe As on Spotify/Apple, and if you find it useful then please help share the news, and leave a rating and review on your podcast app.

I also have a Safe As LinkedIn group if you want to stay up to date on releases.

'Safety Culture' is treated by some as the holy grail of organisational safety concepts: valourised and promoted uncritically.

But should we, or even can we, analyse 'safety culture' in investigations?

More research at SafetyInsights.Org

Intro/Output "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com)

Make sure to subscribe to Safe As on Spotify/Apple, and if you find it useful then please help share the news, and leave a rating and review on your podcast app.

I also have a Safe As LinkedIn group if you want to stay up to date on releases.