Mike Behm - East Caroline University & National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health -...

How can WHS be truly innova.ve and crea.ve?

Michael Behm, PhD CSP East Carolina University

Barriers • Working at the sharp end •  Fear of failure and risk and the goal of zero

• A “we know best” a:tude •  Safety I

Enablers • Working upstream • A Learning OrganizaAon

•  Including folks who do the work •  Safety II (inspiring workers to think differently)

• CreaAvity and innovaAon at work are the process, outcomes, and products of aIempts to develop and introduce new and improved ways of doing things.

• CreaAvity = idea generaAon • InnovaAon = implemenAng ideas

Three major components contribu.ng to crea.ve poten.al

• ExperAse (beware of cogniAve entrenchment) • CreaAve-‐thinking skill • Intrinsic moAvaAon

Are you suffering from cogni.ve entrenchment?

• As one acquires domain experAse, one loses flexibility with regard to problem solving, adaptaAon, and creaAve idea generaAon.

Crea.ve thinking

• Disrupt logical thought and arrive at the soluAon from another angle (Lateral thinking)

• With mulA-‐disciplinary teams • ALWAYS include the people who do the work

• Think about long-‐term soluAons

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ASSE Scope and Func.ons

• An>cipate, idenAfy and evaluate hazardous condiAons and pracAces.

• It is easy to “idenAfy” • AnAcipate = Safety is integrated in to the project and decision making at its earliest possible Ame.

10 Source: Culvenor, J. (2006)

NOT the Hierarchy of Controls

• Remove the word “control” from your vocabulary

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Abi

lity

to u

tiliz

e

the

hier

arch

y of

idea

s

Schedule

Conceptual

Detailed Engineering

Procurement

Construction

Start-up

Start End

Low

High

Schedule

Ability to Influence Safety Ability to Identify Hazards and Risk

Conceptual

Detailed Engineering / Design

Procurement

Construction

Start-up

Start Date End Date

Low Ability

High Ability

What’s your view?

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TALK WITH THESE WORKERS ABOUT THEIR IDEAS FOR

CHANGE!!!

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Another way to think about the people on the ladders is they are trying to overcome problems created by other people.

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Schedule

Ability to Influence Safety Conceptual

Detailed Engineering / Design

Procurement

Construction

Start-up

Start Date End Date

Low Ability

High Ability

Innova.on = Implemen.ng Ideas

• Radical innova>ons involve a greater proporAon of experimentaAon, and require more flexibility and learning.

• Incremental innova>ons are extensions to exisAng knowledge, refinements or modificaAons of established designs.

Turner’s Ladder Last Ini.a.ve

• Ladder use on Turner ConstrucAon projects will be allowed only when it has been determined by Project Manager and Turner Safety Director that it is unfeasible to use all other opAons to complete the task.

Barrier to Innova.on – Not AdmiMng Failure

•  In the business context, if no one admits to mistakes, there will be no correcAons and the objecAve will be missed.

•  If the mistake is only found out at the end, there will typically not be enough Ame to fix the problem.

•  Thus, admi:ng to a small mistake, with management accepAng these mistakes as a normal part of determining the best course for the business, is far superior.

•  If everyone in the organizaAon is afraid to admit failures when they are smaller, then there will be few correcAons unAl the problem is much worse, and a far higher likelihood that the objecAve will not be reached.

Three possible responses to a “failure”

• cover up the failure and refuse to acknowledge it; • acknowledge the failure and assign blame; or • acknowledge the failure, make every effort to learn from it, and share the learning broadly.

• It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. -‐ Bill Gates

• The United States (US) House of RepresentaAves (2008) reported that as much as 69 percent of injuries and illnesses may never make it into the Bureau of Labor StaAsAcs (BLS) annual Survey of OccupaAonal Injuries and Illnesses.

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Creamer Media’s Engineering News South Africa

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Rail construcAon project west of London

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New Zealand

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• Supervisors were obsessed with avoiding LTIs -‐ lost Ame injuries -‐ which were all-‐important when tendering for lucraAve new contracts.

• Supervisors and managers would regularly say at "toolbox" meeAngs that if minor accidents occurred on the job that required medical aIenAon, workers were to say they happened at home or playing sport.

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Safety, Incen.ves, and the Repor.ng of Work-‐Related Injuries among Union Carpenters: ‘You’re PreXy Much Screwed If You Get Hurt at Work’.

• American Journal of Industrial Medicine • They find mulAple reasons and layers of disincenAves for the underreporAng of construcAon injuries, but the focus is on incen>ve programs.

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How Can Safety Fail?

• We are risk adverse!

• "People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.“

-‐-‐ Peter Drucker

Is this creaAve? Is this innovaAve?

Is this ‘safe’?

Zero Harm = Zero PPE

hIp://www.lhsfna.org/index.cfm/lifelines/august-‐2014/zero-‐ppe-‐the-‐future-‐of-‐safety-‐in-‐construcAon/

• By challenging ourselves to focus on zero PPE as a goal, we could make the industry safer as a whole and make safety easier for millions of construcAon workers.

• It may sound unrealisAc, but it can happen if we unhook ourselves from our aIachment to PPE.

• There’s no doubt that PPE helps keeps workers safe, but it may not be the best soluAon and certainly shouldn’t be the only soluAon.

An Innova.on that Posi.vely Affects Safety

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But the original design did not include the railing. Safety became an innovator!

An Innova.on Driven by Safety

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The other benefits

How Ignoring Safety is Unimagina.ve

~ 2m

Horizontal lifeline affixed to wall

2m

500mm

A bit of research (if we have .me) ECU Alumnus Ronan McAleenan

Results

Answer Responses Percentage

PosiAve 74 81

NegaAve 17 19

Do you feel that safe design has a posiAve or negaAve influence on innovaAon and design creaAvity?

Results


PosiAve 51 84

NegaAve 10 16

• United Kingdom designers

Results

• Australian designers


PosiAve 23 77

NegaAve 7 23

Results

• Civil Engineers


PosiAve 56 90

NegaAve 6 10

Results

• Architects


PosiAve 18 62

NegaAve 11 38

How do designers react to safe design?

• Do they react with thoughts of ‘possibility’ or ‘pain’?

• Is their mindset that “I beIer do that or I’ll be in trouble”, or is it that “I can be great at this”.

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Safety I / II

• Educate workers’ around the hierarchy of ideas for creaAve soluAons

• Inspire them to think creaAvely • Your job is to be the conduit to management to invesAgate implementaAon

Steps to building crea.ve and innova.ve WHS

• Work upstream • Try new ideas – don’t be afraid of failure and risk •  It’s not about compliance – create long term soluAons with mulAdisciplinary teams!

• At the sharp end – Pecha Kucha • Resource Based View • Design Thinking • Biomimicry • Work with researchers to document innovaAons – Inspire others

• Thank you – please stay in touch

• [email protected]

Mike Behm - East Caroline University & National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health -...

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