Page 66 - Serious Incident Prevention How to Achieve and Sustain Accident-Free Operations in Your Plant or Company

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44 Serious Incident Prevention

Accurate feedback is needed to keep management informed on the de-
ployment of safety initiatives throughout the organization. Deployment
should not be assumed as a given. Unfortunately, performance of work to
prevent incidents may be perceived as deferrable by line managers feeling
the squeeze of time and funding constraints. Further, many managers depend
upon exception reports—customer complaints, production at less than target
rates, costs over budget, injury frequency higher than goal—to allocate time
and resources. “Red flag” indicators of upstream deficiencies in the serious
incident prevention process are often visible only to personnel at the operat-
ing point of control. However, with the severe consequences of performance
failures, an effective measurement and feedback system is needed to capture,
communicate, and evaluate upstream indicators of potential safety problems.
Sustaining incident-free operations is dependent upon it.

Reinforcement of Performance

Effective leadership requires an understanding of effective reinforce-
ment principles. Specific actions and results that support achievement of or-
ganizational goals and objectives must be positively reinforced if we expect
these actions to be sustained. However, management must diligently guard
against the potential for unwanted side effects resulting from misguided re-
inforcement efforts. Unwanted side effects can occur when reinforcement re-
ceived for supporting some objectives overpowers the perceived value of
reinforcement for actions required to meet other objectives.
The experience of a national pizza chain with their heavily advertised
goal of delivering all pizzas within 30 minutes after receipt of the order pro-
vides an excellent case study. Performance consistent with this high visibil-
ity objective was clearly a priority for all employees—from store managers
through the delivery drivers. The requirement to refund customers for late
delivery provided a strong incentive to rush if necessary to meet the dead-
line. Reinforcement for safe driving was perhaps perceived as weak com-
pared to the “punishment” for late delivery. From a behavioral perspective,
it’s not surprising that company drivers became involved in a number of se-
rious accidents. Following a $78 million award for one accident, involving
a delivery driver who reportedly ran a red light, the company eliminated the
guarantee on delivery time. 8

Decisions Consistent with Objectives

Much is asked of supervisors—often more than they or anyone else can
actually deliver. How do these individuals cope with unrealistic expectations?