MANAGEMENT
Dr Conklin’s initial work with Contact saw the implementation of learning teams and leaders giving support to staff rather than requiring information immediately after an incident
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the training are also the ‘go-to people’ for responding to events such as power outages,” says Palmer. “So people can become fatigued and stressed, which affects health and safety.”
The learning teams are making an impact and there is a growing confidence that the more holistic approach, and willingness of management to explore how they might contribute, will result in the right
Contact is starting to understand the power of conditions over consequences. Identifying conditions that lead to failure, managing conditions in a preventative way, reducing the frequency and severity… Ultimately
Addressing such issues involves more talking; more encouragement to empower people to own responsibility for their actions and then understand how what they’ve done is better, worse or has stayed the same.
learning outcomes and action. “The conversations around safety have changed across workers to leaders, and leaders to business contractors,” Palmer believes. “When people get this excited about getting better it’s remarkable.
it’s about understanding and managing conditions.” What advice would Contact give to organisations looking to shift from traditional behavioural centric safety to an organisational/cultural view? “Be brave in conversations, and
April 2016
if you hit resistance, you’re onto something, so don’t stop there; get curious and keep talking,” says Palmer. “And emphasise the ability to micro-experiment, playing with very small changes. It requires courage, but lots of small, incremental change delivers big results and builds bravery on the back of small wins and small losses. You also gather great data but with low resource costs.”