Live From Safety 2014: Keep the Discussion About Risk Alive

Dr. Sidney Dekker took to the stage today at ASSE's Safety 2014. During his keynote address, he shared his belief that success is the enemy of safety and that the current obsession with zero is an "erosion of safety." Dekker sees a big difference between the commitment to zero and efforts to make it a goal to achieve statistically--or what Dekker called the LGI--the looking good indicator.

According to Dekker, to take the next step in safety performance, OSH professionals need to let go of the ideas that have brought safety to this point in its history. "The more we seem to do the less we seem to yield," he explained. "Those ideas are keeping us here, but won't lead to something fundamentally different."

Dekker also implored attendees to recognize one key truth: "One best method only works in a world that doesn't change, that has no variables." In the real world, workers often have to finish designs to get the job done safely. These workarounds aren't ever captured as incidents because they are perceived as normal. That's why, when things go wrong, the first thought shouldn't be figuring out who to blame but rather why did it make sense for that worker to do what he did in that circumstance.

"Murphy was wrong," Dekker said. "Everything that can go wrong usually goes right, and then we draw the wrong conclusion. . . . The enemy of safety is success."

So how can OSH professionals keep the discussion about risk alive?

1. Discuss threats before work proceeds.
2. Bring in fresh viewpoints.
3. Have the capacity to say no.

Before concluding, Dekker advised attendees not to think about leading workers to safety every day: "Lead workers into risk every day and make them risk competent not risk averse. You can set expectations or you can create possibilities."