Does ‘safety’ work? What is the evidence supporting the stuff we do? This mini-compendium collects several meta-analyses and systematic reviews surrounding the evidence of safety interventions on performance measures. Focus is primarily on incident/injury rather than health; nor psychosocial, safety climate & culture, HF/E, or leadership (those will be covered another time). Also haven’t focused… Continue reading Compendium: Evidence For Safety Interventions (meta-analyses, systematic reviews)
Methane events not HPIs and ventilation systems not seen as critical controls – Grosvenor Board of Inquiry
Started reading the Anglo American Grosvenor board of inquiry on the weekend. Will post some extracts over time: · Within Glencore at the time, the seriousness of the potential outcome drove which investigation and reporting level was used · A 5 point potential consequence rating, ranging from 1 (negligible) to 5 (catastrophic) was used · The inquiry notes,… Continue reading Methane events not HPIs and ventilation systems not seen as critical controls – Grosvenor Board of Inquiry
Effectiveness of Toolbox Talks as a Workplace Safety Intervention in the United States: A Scoping Review
This scoping review evaluated research on the effectiveness of toolbox talks (TBTs) as a safety intervention. Just 14 studies met inclusion. They used adult learning theory as the framework to assess the research. The following measures of effectiveness were used: Results: Following TBTs interventions: · Six studies found statistically significant improvements in workers’ safety knowledge,… Continue reading Effectiveness of Toolbox Talks as a Workplace Safety Intervention in the United States: A Scoping Review
Ed Schein talking about cultures, psychological safety, and humble inquiry.
Ed Schein talking about cultures, psychological safety, and humble inquiry (link at end of post) Extracts: · “culture [is] multidimensional– we have many cultures. We don’t just have a culture” · “if we don’t become aware of how much our thinking is culturally determined, culturally at the level of nation– you all come from different countries and different ethnicities; that’s a big… Continue reading Ed Schein talking about cultures, psychological safety, and humble inquiry.
Systems thinking, culture of reliability and safety
Fantastic read from Nick Pidgeon on how systems approaches, Turner’s MMD, sensemaking, failure and learning intersect to create or mask ‘safety’. Can’t do it justice, so just a few extracts: · “By 1990, it was clear that the .. intellectual focus was less on analysing how past accidents had occurred .. and more towards .. how… Continue reading Systems thinking, culture of reliability and safety
How complex systems (don’t) fail: YT video from late Richard Cook
A banger YT presentation from the late, great Richard Cook. He discusses ‘how complex systems fail’. Video link below. Some extracts: · “The surprise is not that there are so many accidents … The surprise is that there are so few” · “The normal world is not well-behaved … Even so, a lot of operational settings achieve… Continue reading How complex systems (don’t) fail: YT video from late Richard Cook
Safety incidents associated with extended working hours. A systematic review and meta-analysis
This meta-analysis evaluated whether extended working hours is associated with work injury (either during or after work). 22 studies were included. This study didn’t find significant evidence for all of the expected links found in other studies (e.g. weak or no association between working overtime on incidents), and this is likely a result of their… Continue reading Safety incidents associated with extended working hours. A systematic review and meta-analysis
Compendiums, new members and donation function
I’ve had a surge of new members lately – mostly from the US. If you’ve not yet noticed or clicked it then you can access 16 research compendiums from the left sidebar: The next two compendium topics is a collection of meta-analyses & systematic reviews on the evidence of safety interventions, and then a compendium… Continue reading Compendiums, new members and donation function
Organizational structure and safety culture: Conceptual and practical challenges
Organizational structure and safety culture: Conceptual and practical challenges A banger read (as Schulman’s work often is) exploring some links and challenges about safety culture and organising/structuring for culture. Not a summary as I can’t do it justice, so just read the paper (full link below). This comes from an upcoming mini-compendium on safety culture… Continue reading Organizational structure and safety culture: Conceptual and practical challenges
Missing focus on Human Factors – organizational and cognitive ergonomics – in the safety management for the petroleum industry
This article explored the application of HF/E in Norwegian petroleum industry (as of 2017). Some of the results were pretty interesting, and representative of elsewhere. Findings: · “results revealed an immature focus and organization of Human Factors” · “Expertise on organizational ergonomics and cognitive ergonomics are missing from companies and safety authorities and are poorly prioritized during… Continue reading Missing focus on Human Factors – organizational and cognitive ergonomics – in the safety management for the petroleum industry
SafetyInsights.org 