Transform Your Summer: Top Leadership Tips for High Reliability and Safety
High Reliability Group LLC
Helping our clients develop great leadership and culture
In June’s edition, we share valuable insights and practical tips to help you navigate the complexities of process safety and operational excellence in high-risk industries. Please feel free to share these tips with your colleagues and across the industry!
Enhancing Process Safety and High Reliability
Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) Principles:
Focus on Human Error Understand that human error is inevitable and design systems to be resilient to these errors.
Learning and Adaptation Emphasize continuous learning from incidents and near-misses to improve systems.
Building a Safety Culture Promote a culture of shared responsibility for safety, encouraging open communication and error reporting.
Understanding Human Performance Optimize human-system interaction by considering factors affecting human performance.
High Reliability Organization (HRO) Principles:
Preoccupation with Failure Maintain constant vigilance towards potential failures to prevent complacency.
Reluctance to Simplify Avoid oversimplified explanations for failures to understand operational complexity.
Sensitivity to Operations Keep high situational awareness to detect and respond to issues quickly.
Commitment to Resilience Develop robust response mechanisms to handle unexpected situations.
Deference to Expertise Value the insights and decision-making of those with the most relevant knowledge.
One Simple Tip for the Summer Season
Verify, Don’t Assume
An experience observing a pre-commissioning checklist highlighted the danger of assumptions. Responses like, “Yes, we should be all set,” without proper verification can lead to significant oversights. Always move from assumptions to knowing by verifying requirements with Objective Quality Evidence (OQE).
Practical Takeaways for Executives
1. Ask Probing Questions Encourage your team to delve deeper and avoid assumptions.
2. Follow Through on Incomplete Answers Ensure all responses are thorough and backed by evidence.
3. Verify Information with OQE Confirm that all requirements are met with objective evidence.
4. Be Wary of “Should” Treat the word “should” as a red flag and push for concrete verification.
5. Be Preoccupied with Failure, but Do Not Fear It Face potential failures head-on and organize to respond to problems when they are small before they grow.
6. Keep the Main Thing, THE Main Thing Focus your team on critical tasks without distracting them with unnecessary administration.
7. Encourage Speaking Up Lead with courage by speaking up yourself and encourage your team to address mistakes openly.
8. Practice Humility Question what you know and defer to experts rather than the highest-ranking individuals.
9. Encourage Dissenting Opinions Foster an environment where honest dissent is valued to avoid groupthink and arrive at optimal solutions.
10. Get Real and Follow Through Promote organizational honesty and ensure that change is met with the necessary competence and character.
11. Rely on Numbers and Completed Staff Work Ensure decisions are backed by thorough research and avoid relying solely on opinions or tribal knowledge.
12. Prioritize Problem Solving and Continuous Improvement Encourage addressing problems at the lowest levels to maintain system stability and prevent systemic issues.
By implementing these behaviors, you can significantly enhance your organization's safety and reliability, ensuring a successful and safe summer season.
Share Your Insights
We encourage you to share these tips and insights within your networks and across the industry. Collaboration and knowledge sharing are key to achieving excellence in safety and reliability.
Reference: Frank Gardner, a Senior Consultant at High Reliability Group, specializes in assisting leadership teams in implementing change to improve processes, performance, and reliability. Frank assists our clients improve operations and become High Reliability Organizations (HRO). He originally wrote on this topic here.