Problem Solving
Introduction
Solving safety problems centers around two key strategies: Correcting surface-cause conditions and behaviors, and improving root-cause safety management system weaknesses.
Teams solve problems best.
- Correcting surface-cause problems. It's important to eliminate or at least reduce unsafe behaviors and hazardous workplace conditions that cause or contribute to accidents.
- Employee, supervisor, and manager behaviors are the most direct observable effects (leading indicators) of safety management system effectiveness. Inappropriate or unsafe employee behaviors, in turn, create hazardous workplace conditions.
- To understand and correct employee surface-cause behaviors and hazardous conditions, it's important to conduct employee surveys, interviews, observations, and workplace inspections.
- Improving root-cause problems. To most effectively eliminate or reduce surface causes, you must dig up and correct their underlying root-cause safety management system design and performance weaknesses.
- To correct the root causes you need to design, develop and deploy an effective safety management system.
- Improving safety management system policies, programs, plans, processes, procedures, and practices (the 6-Ps) will positively affect what employees think and how they behave in the workplace.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
6-1. To most effectively eliminate or reduce surface causes, you must correct root-cause safety management system _____.
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