Why We are Losing the Safety Battle

As I reviewed the past couple of years worth of depressing safety statistics, it became clear to me that if we want to improve we need to do something different. In short, I believe we need to make two major changes in the way we are approaching safety management. First, we need to simplify things, and second, we need to spend as much time motivating as we do educating, maybe even more.

Simplification

Let’s start with simplification. Those of us embroiled in the daily battle for safer operations are steeped in safety science, but the average Joe working on the maintenance hangar floor or in the dispatch center is not, nor do they really want to be. What is needed are simple concepts that stick; easy to understand and embrace. A few years ago, I wrote over 400 pages on the topic of flight discipline. It was good work, deeply researched, and moved the industry safety meter a few clicks forward with regards to understanding this formerly vague concept. Then a few weeks ago, I had the unique honor and pleasure of having dinner with Navy Captain Donnie “Big Time” Cochran, former Commander and flight lead of the Blue Angels. As we were discussing the topic of flight discipline, he captured the entire concept in a single sentence: “Tony,” he said, “flight discipline is just doing what you should when you don’t want to.” Wow. Straight to the point; something a new pilot fresh out of Embry-Riddle or Air Force pilot training could grasp and embrace. We need more of that type of clarity and I am going to spend the next few months thinking hard about how to create a core set of simplified concepts to synergize the advances in safety science with the common language needed to make it stick at all levels of an organization. But simplification by itself will not be enough to engage the vast majority of aviation professionals, many who work in less than optimal cultures of noncompliance and sloppiness. They need motivation to change.

All Brain and No Heart

The problem with current safety management approaches is that they are too formal and data driven; all brain and no heart. Before the SMS crowd out there lights their torches and comes after me, let me explain. Process is great, but process needs a willing, dare I say enthusiastic, culture to work as intended. A few months back I was invited to attend a corporate call on their quality and safety management process. The head of the flight department was informed that they missed their SMS reporting quota the previous month. Therefore, they needed to go out and solicit at least six reports from their pilot/maintenance team by the end of the week if they did not want the PowerPoint briefing to the company execs to list them as missing a key metric. Of course they did so, and subsequently delegitimized what must be a robust and voluntary process. Numbers and data matter, but reporting must be enticed, not demanded, if the data are to be meaningful. Therein lies our biggest and most critical challenge in making the next safety breakthrough.

At the current stage of our safety management quest, inspiration is far more important than information. Put bluntly, current safety messages don’t inspire change or action. That is one of the reasons I wrote Blue Threat: Why to Err is Inhuman and Going Pro: The Deliberate Practice of Professionalism. By framing safety elements in a personal excellence framework, some have embraced concepts that they previously thought beneath them. Our safety managers and supervisors at all levels need to be taught and encouraged to similarly motivate and inspire if we want to see the next level of safety achieved.

No Victories

To summarize, we are losing the battle for safety because we can never win. In the fight for safety, there are no victories, only a never-ending string of battles and inevitably, occasional losses. But that is what the safety management fight has always been, a never-ending contest to protect and expand the margins of safety. We need enthusiastic line employees to get over that hump. Don’t mistake my opinions as a lack of optimism. The structures for improvement are in place, but the cultural aspects are not. This means that we are one step closer to the next big reduction in mishap rates. Our focus just needs to change from data collection and analysis to full employee engagement. Then we get the best of both worlds.