A tenet that I have (indeed is on the office wall) is a quote from Peter Drucker, the American Economist.......
"The first duty of a business is to survive, and the guiding principle of business economics, is not the maximisation of profit......It is the avoidance of loss"
If you delete "Busines economics" and insert "Safety", it makes a whole lot of sense.
Loss is something tangible that everyone can understand, and the list is almost endles, obvious examples being, loss of a Hull, loss of man hours (through injury) loss of time (caused by someones elses actions) etc etc.
By looking at those areas that are causing you loss (Recently in our case - ground incidents) then you can be objective in how you tackle a particular area.
(Giving all my tricks away here)
Another one up the sleeve.
Just deal with the top 20% of whatever is giving you grief. (Ol Pareto was right). Focus yours (and others) energies into just dealing with a short list.
My experience is that it has a depressive/suppressive effect on the other "stuff" that is going on. (Co-lateral effect)
You will never solve the world as a safety manager/safety dept. Just accept that s**t happens, but reduce the amount to an acceptable level.
ok, no more clues
Back to the day job
BS