Through our collective experience working with many different methodologies, we have integrated the best approaches into Safety Masters. Through our posts, we will introduce some of these methodologies to help evolve an understanding of the Safety Masters framework.
The word resilience is derived from Latin and means “leaping back”. In common usage it refers to something that is “able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions”.
Understanding and improving operational and safety performance may be enhanced by applying systems thinking. This approach seeks to understand the interactions between the various parts of the system (e.g., technical, human, social, organizational, commercial). As such, safety is treated as an intrinsic element of the work system, not something that occurs in isolation or from outside of the system.
A whitepaper [1] published by the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) describes ten principles of systems thinking for safety, which exemplify what has been referred to as the “New View of Safety” or “Safety 2.0”.
This evolving view of safety shifts the focus from ensuring “as few things as possible go wrong” to enabling“as many things as possible to go right”. It recognizes that the reason things go right (which is the majority of the time) relates to the system’s capacity to adapt to varying conditions. Frontline personnel are viewed as a necessary resource in providing the system flexibility and resilience.
Effective engagement of frontline personnel is necessary to understand how the system actually works, and to ensure the system is resilient. This represents a challenge for many businesses and is not unique to the air traffic control industry.
The first three principles address how people are viewed within systems of work. The fourth and fifth principles concern the operational conditions and context that affect the work. Principles six, seven and eight address the behaviour of the system. The final two principles concern systems outcomes.
The Safety Masters Maturity Model is aligned to these principles. In future posts will examine the role of the individual principles in understanding and improving operational and safety culture and performance. We will also introduce other methodologies that integrate well with these principles.
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