To paraphrase James Reason
(‘Safety Culture and Safety Management,’ RAeS Lecture 21 May):-
- A ‘good’ (working) SMS should reflect that human factors dominate risk – the SMS is a well informed system.
- SMS is a top down management process, but requires a complementary bottom up error management process – check that error management is in place and being used.
- Check what distinguishes your organisation from other organisations; both those who have high incident rates and those who do not.
- Everyone in the organisation is worried when there are no serious incidents or accidents – good organisational safety culture.
- The organisational culture driving the SMS (as above) should be ‘CEO proof’.
- The CEO must ‘not forget to be afraid’ – always being aware of the risk and consequences of serious incidents and accidents, i.e. the CEO is continuously reminded by the output of the SMS – not just by the presence/absence of ‘ring binders’ on the shelf.