The Nimrod Review - Official Documents

CHAPTER 27 – NEW SAFETY CULTURE
Contents
“It is not enough to have knowledge, you have to do something with it.”
(Lieutenant Colonel Tracy Dillinger, NASA, 2009)
“A company which has got a compliance culture, does not have a safe culture.”
(Ian Wherwell, HSE, 2008).
“The greater the number of prescriptions, the more people’s sense of personal
responsibility dwindles” (Hans Monderman 1945-2008).
Chapter 27 makes Recommendations regarding a New Safety Culture for the Future.
Summary
1. Fostering a strong and effective Safety Culture is vital to reducing accidents.
Chapter 27 – New Safety Culture
2. “Safety culture is that assembly of characteristics and attitudes in organizations and individuals
which establishes that, as an overriding priority, safety issues receive the attention warranted by
their significance” (International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group).
3. Safety should be treated as part of the business, not separate from it.
4. The MOD should learn from the latest work and approach of NASA and the US Joint Planning and
Development Office in relation to organisational Safety Culture. The US has adopted Professor
James Reason’s approach to creating an “Engaged” Safety Culture.
5. In my view, there are five elements required for building an Engaged Organisation and Safety
Culture:
A Reporting Culture: an organisational climate where people readily report problems, errors and near
misses.
A Just Culture: an atmosphere of trust where people are encouraged and even rewarded for providing
safety-related information; and it is clear to everyone what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
A Flexible Culture: a culture that can adapt to changing circumstances and demands while maintaining
its focus on safety.
A Learning Culture: the willingness and competence to draw the right conclusions from its safety
information and the will to implement major safety reforms.
A Questioning Culture: 1 It is vital to ask “What if?” and “Why?” questions. Questions are the antidote
to assumptions, which so often incubate mistakes.
6. The role of Leadership is critical in Safety Culture.
7. I make appropriate Recommendations with a view to building an Engaged Organisation and Safety
Culture for the Future.
1 Additional element to the US/Reason model.
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