Ted often tells his team to ‘be a goldfish.’ Goldfish, he proclaims, ‘are the happiest animals on earth, because it’s got a ten second memory.’ It’s a good message about moving on from failure and to be resilient. A great lesson for us (even if it’s not true about the ten second memory). As safety professionals, however, we cannot let incidents and injuries be shifted to the past and then move on.
@Scott Bellack notes, “learning from close calls and near hits is crucial for preventing future accidents. Encouraging near hit reporting, investigating, identifying root causes, and implementing corrective measures, organizations can protect employees.’
We all ‘know’ to learn from incidents and near misses (or great catches!). Rarely, however, do I see organizations REALLY learning from them.
Here are some pointers:
- Write the near miss/good catch report using a few simple photos with verbiage at or below 6th grade level. Eliminate details. Instead, focus on what to do/not to do (Do this, not that!).
- Update your training protocols to reflect the lessons learned.
- Update audit procedures to reflect new work procedures.
- Retrain people in the new procedures and make sure new hires are trained properly, too.
- Have leaders tell stories about the incident (what’s important to my boss, fascinates me)!
@Ed Egan states, “Upon prepping for future tasks, think back to the previous near miss. If you felt deflated when it happened, think about how you would feel if it escalated from a near miss to an incident.
The real gem is this: When leaders circulate a near miss, they typically ask their teams “can this happen here?” WRONG QUESTION! That puts people on the defensive. The only ‘right’ answer is ‘of course not!’
The BETTER QUESTION is to ask, ‘HOW can this happen here?’ Switch the psychology of the discussion so that answers that reveal vulnerabilities become the right answers. The discussion should shift to ‘how can we fix weaknesses.’
Let’s not be goldfish. Instead, let’s be leaders that seek vulnerability. Then, work to reduce those vulnerabilities.
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National Safety Council
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