Page 188 - Serious Incident Prevention How to Achieve and Sustain Accident-Free Operations in Your Plant or Company

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Improving and Updating the Process 157

dition for sustaining the level of workplace enthusiasm required for an or-
5
ganization to excel. Communication upwards, downwards, and sideways is
the norm in organizations that effectively involve employees.
Managers in learning organizations understand the importance not only
of employee involvement, but of employee leadership as well. Employees at
all levels of the organization are given the opportunity for leadership roles
in the serious incident prevention process. Management further supports
employee involvement by providing the training, nurturing, and resources to
help ensure success.

Transforming Concepts to Actions

Maintaining a shared vision, organizational learning, and employee in-
volvement are keys to sustaining an organization’s commitment to contin-
ual improvement. However, such concepts must be transformed into the
specific actions required for success. A strategy for effectively improving
and updating the process should include an ongoing action plan to:

Review and update the serious incident prevention process as part of
the organization’s annual planning process
Review the need for updating as a specific step in the facility’s man-
agement-of-change process
Review the need for updating as part of each hazards analysis
Review the need for updating as part of each accident, near miss, or
other “red flag” investigation
Promote user groups to share information among teams responsible
for implementing and maintaining incident-prevention processes
Nurture and support individuals willing to step forward as process
champions
Reinforce individual and team actions to update and improve the
process
Learn from others and apply the learning
Train and actively involve new employees in all aspects of the seri-
ous-incident prevention process to perpetuate ownership at the point-
of-control level
Maintain effective “Plan-Do-Check-Act” management control systems

Updating and improving the serious incident prevention process over
the long-term requires leadership and commitment. An organization having