Canadian Occupational Safety

14 Canadian Occupational Safety | www.cos-mag.com Intervention must be the norm Despite policies requiring employees to speak up, it doesn't always happen I once had the opportunity to attend a world-class conference on human performance and human factors in safety. There were three researchers and speakers I was especially interested in because they were focusing on the fallibility of humans. I thought I was going to come away from each of those sessions with the magic pill on how to rid the workplace of these human flaws that cause incidents. That was not what I got. Instead, I heard the same conclusion from all three of these experts: "As humans, we are easily distracted and incapable of staying focused 100 per cent of the time." They concluded that these are, in fact, not the flaws of individuals who don't care but rather human characteristics we need to be able to manage. I didn't get my magic pill but what I did come away with was the under- standing that because of this frailty we all possess, we need to ensure we have ways to address those occasions where our minds may drift, where we lose focus or forget a step in a pro- cedure. I contemplated how great it would be if we all looked out for each other. I could be a lot safer if some- one approached me and intervened whenever I inadvertently put myself in danger or was doing something risky — someone who would have my back. Who's got your back? Are others counting on you to watch out for their safety? It is this practice of watching out for each other and fostering a culture where it is acceptable and expected that we will approach others and intervene that will make our workplaces safer. It is humanly impossible for us as indi- viduals to be aware of every risk, and we need approachability and interven- tion to be the norm in our workplaces. Most safety management systems have policies that require employees to speak up and stop at-risk work. It makes good safety sense but it doesn't always happen. Research by the Rad Group identified that workers will step up and intervene only 39 per cent of the time when they see others put- ting themselves at risk. That means 61 per cent of the time, people will do nothing when others are in potential danger. The research identified the influencing factors of why we hesi- tate to approach others and intervene. Being aware of our hardwired inhibi- tors can help us understand and break down these barriers. The first is production bias, which leads to not intervening. Our natural tendency is to complete the task and not disrupt the process; therefore, we are prepared to justify the risk in order to get the job done. Workers need the explicit support, both in words and action, from management that it is OK to stop a job when they see others putting themselves at risk. Confirmation bias means we tend to believe that what we are already doing is right. This can extend to our view of others as well, such as: "She is an experienced worker, so what she is doing must be OK." We allow the at- risk work to continue. Our basic safety tools, like pre-job safety plans, job site assessments, job procedures and last- minute risk assessments can be used to address confirmation bias. These tools can define how the task is supposed to be done and they give us the opportu- nity to step up and stop work when a task is not being done safely. Deference to authority occurs when we believe that the person in charge has the sole responsibility to address at-risk behaviours. Thinking, "It's their job to do something, not mine," is an example of this hardwired inhibitor. We expect the supervisor, the safety person or the team lead to take the action and we refrain from inter- vening on at-risk behaviour. Again, workers need the support from their supervisors and management to know that everyone — no matter their role or position in the company — has the authority to intervene when they identify risky behaviour or conditions. Deference to others, sometimes referred to as the bystander effect, is similar to deference to authority in that we will hesitate to take action if others are already observing the at-risk situa- tion and not doing anything. Workers may be thinking: "If it was really dangerous, wouldn't someone have already said something or done some- thing?" This becomes an issue when that same thought is going through the minds of all the other workers as well. Nobody says anything. A tool like a last-minute risk assessment or stop and think card can provide a commu- nal approach to speaking up. You can create a safety culture where the card becomes a symbol that a team discus- sion is needed on the safety issue. Each of these hardwired inhibi- tors has an underlying companion called social incongruity. It may not be comfortable to approach others and intervene. Your workers may be thinking: "What if they get defensive when I approach them? What if they get angry? Will my actions make a dif- ference at all?" The work by the Rad Group identified that the recipient of the feedback become defensive one out of four times. One out of six times they become angry. When we get these reactions from the person we are trying to help, we may be reluctant to inter- vene again. We must create a workplace culture where intervention is viewed as positive. Someone cared enough about your safety to say something and that truly is a gift. Defensiveness, resistance and anger need to be replaced with "Thank you." We are human and we will occa- sionally lose focus or miss a step in the procedure. We need to create a safety culture where we are looking out for each other, where we get past the hardwired inhibitors. Creating an environment of openness needs the explicit support of management and supervisors and the involvement of all workers. Formal behaviour obser- vation programs can be the platform from which we build this culture and simple tools like a stop and think card may provide additional support. Yes, it really would be an ideal workplace when we can get past these barriers and know that someone has our back when we are being normal fallible human beings. Dave Fennell is an independent safety consultant and motivational speaker based in Cochrane, Alta. He is an expert in risk tolerance, human factors and behaviour based safety. He can be reached at djfsafe1@telus.net or visit www.davefennellsafety.com for more information. DAVE FENNELL SAFETY CULTURE Congratulations to the following OHS professionals who have recently been granted the Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP) ® Professionnel en sécurité agréé du Canada (PSAC) ® designation. The BCRSP is a self-regulating, self-governing organization accredited by the Standards Council of Canada to ISO 17024 and certified by BSI Management Systems to ISO 9001. Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals/Conseil canadien des professionnels en sécurité agréés 6700 Century Avenue, Suite 100, Mississauga, ON L5N 6A4 905-567-7198, 1-888-279-2777, www.bcrsp.ca Khalid Abdullah CRSP Karina Abe CRSP Jennifer Abrantes CRSP Muhammad Afzal CRSP Comfort Eyojo Agada-Kiboigo CRSP Robert Ahimbisibwe CRSP Lars Asak CRSP Kristopher Bailey CRSP Tigran Bajgoric CRSP Arun Balbahadur CRSP Nicole Barnes CRSP Jeremy Beal CRSP Kristi Beck CRSP Patrick Bellemare CRSP Michael Bennett CRSP Christopher Betsill CRSP Jeffrey Blanchard CRSP Jeremy Bondy CRSP Lauren Bradshaw CRSP Iqbal Brar CRSP Kegan Briffa CRSP Simon Brown CRSP Stephen Bruchet CRSP Michelle Buckley CRSP Corey Buffett CRSP Daniel Burg CRSP Ivan Burton CRSP Victoria Campbell CRSP Denise Castle CRSP Stephane Charron CRSP Melanie Charuk CRSP Hong Chen CRSP Carole-Anne Chung CRSP Paula Collins CRSP Matthew Cook CRSP Kristy Cork CRSP Hugo Coulombe CRSP Brittany Cross CRSP Timothy Dale CRSP Stewart Day CRSP Bradley DeBoer CRSP John-Allan Dodd CRSP David Domingue CRSP Lorelei Dumonceaux CRSP Heidi Dunn CRSP Peter Anthony Durrad CRSP Ana Maria Duta CRSP Adam Edwards CRSP Devon Eggers CRSP Grant Elligsen CRSP Jesse Evanshen CRSP Umukoro Ewhrudjakpor CRSP James Flannery CRSP Kevin Fortnum CRSP Theresa Fralic CRSP Pamela Frizzell CRSP Jean-Pierre Fry CRSP Francis Garcia CRSP Danny Gauthier CRSP Reg Gilmore CRSP Trevor Goshko CRSP Caitlin Gould CRSP Qifu Gui CRSP Deidra Helmig CRSP Richard Hilton CRSP Jennifer Hirschman CRSP Jennifer Hopkin CRSP Cameron Huxley CRSP Nicolina Iannucci CRSP Mohammadreza Joodaki CRSP Sarah Josefson CRSP Simon Kaplansky CRSP Colin Kasa CRSP Craig Kennedy CRSP Renata Kennedy CRSP Samy Kessi CRSP Shari Lamarche-Lomon CRSP Jacson Lau CRSP Cheuk Lam Sharen Lee CRSP Richard Lethbridge CRSP Taylor Chase Linssen CRSP Joanna Lotocka CRSP Stephanie Lovricevic CRSP Daryl Lowey CRSP Oleg Lurye CRSP Georgios Lymperopoulos CRSP Peter Lyon CRSP George Michael MacDonald CRSP Ian MacDonald CRSP Kristin Malowski CRSP Adelia Marchese CRSP Susan McCarthy CRSP Megan McDonald CRSP Lori-Lee McGrath CRSP David Meadus CRSP Melissa Michaud CRSP Thomas Miller CRSP Allen Monk CRSP Somenath Mukherjee CRSP Dean Murphy CRSP Pamela Nernberg CRSP Amber Newton CRSP Jinell Nixon CRSP Robert O'Brien CRSP Gerald Oliver CRSP Ken Omokhua CRSP Colin O'Neill CRSP Sean O'Neill CRSP Siang Ong CRSP Adam Palmer CRSP Abby Parsons CRSP Chris Patterson CRSP David Patterson CRSP Tracey Pelly CRSP Zachary Perrier CRSP Alan Peterson CRSP Richard Poirier CRSP Clancy Tim Power CRSP Christopher Price CRSP Vicki Priest CRSP Erin Rakestraw CRSP Mohanad Raslan CRSP Penny Ratushniak CRSP Ghazi Reda CRSP Timothy Reteff CRSP Candice Robertson-Shattler CRSP Brent Rossington CRSP Russell Rowe CRSP Patrick Roy CRSP John Russell CRSP Anna Rybczynski CRSP John Sagert CRSP Youssef Sahraoui CRSP Warren Sandham CRSP Jared Saunders CRSP Stacey Sedgwick CRSP Kelly Shanks CRSP Jaspal Singh CRSP Mark Skinner CRSP Michael Sloan CRSP Paige Sorochan CRSP Holly Squires CRSP Djamal Stadnyk CRSP Kelani Stam CRSP Paul Stephens CRSP Rose Stevens CRSP Cheryl Tallas CRSP Leonard Tarling CRSP Ashley Teister CRSP Claudine Tremblay CRSP Christopher Tronsgard CRSP Lauren van Lith CRSP Morgan VanDerHoeven CRSP Levi Vann CRSP James Walker CRSP Blair Weber CRSP Joshua Wilson CRSP Nicole Wintonyk CRSP Jason Wong CRSP Amanda Woytenko CRSP Benjamin Wright CRSP Haojiang Wu CRSP Amber Yaskiw CRSP Clara Yim CRSP Kevin Zhang CRSP Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals BCRSP_NewCRSPAnnouncment_February2018Examination_COS Magazine.indd 1 4/26/2018 12:35:28 PM

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