Safety Culture Assessment
Gaps between words and practice, cultural maturity, and priorities for leadership.
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Maturity Assessment of the Serious and Fatal Incident Prevention Program
Recognizing a critical exposure and being prepared to act are capabilities that need to be examined before an accident. This assessment evaluates the maturity of the serious and fatal accident prevention program using an exclusive methodology.
Discuss the assessmentLagging indicators show what has already happened, but they are not enough to understand prevention capabilities. The methodology examines anticipation, preparedness, and protection in relation to critical exposures, risk amplifiers, and controls. The assessment thus considers how the organization recognizes risks and prepares to respond before an event occurs.
The three dimensions of maturity
Anticipation
Assesses the organization’s ability to recognize critical exposures before they lead to a serious accident or a fatality.
Preparedness
Examines how responsibilities, decisions, and practices are organized to respond to identified exposures and the factors that may amplify them.
Protection
Looks at how controls related to critical exposures are defined, applied, and monitored in work as actually performed.
Critical exposures, risk amplifiers, and controls
Critical exposures are situations with the potential for serious or fatal accidents. Risk amplifiers are factors that may increase the likelihood or severity of these events. Controls are measures and barriers intended to prevent an event or reduce its consequences.
The methodology brings these three elements together so that the organization does not assess its program solely on the existence of documents, indicators, or isolated activities.
When the assessment is appropriate
- When the organization already has a prevention program and needs to understand its level of maturity.
- When high-potential events persist despite favorable overall indicators.
- When sites or operations have different capabilities for anticipation, preparedness, and protection.
- When the organization has already identified critical exposures but still needs to examine their relationship with risk amplifiers and controls.
- When leaders need to set priorities to strengthen the prevention of serious and fatal accidents.
How the assessment is conducted
The work begins with an understanding of the context, the scope of the program, and the operations involved. Evidence sources and analytical tools are defined according to the organization’s circumstances.
The exclusive methodology examines the three dimensions of maturity in relation to critical exposures, risk amplifiers, and controls. The findings provide an organized view of the current situation, the weaknesses identified, and the priorities that need to guide the program’s development.
Participants, scope, tools, and the format for presenting findings are defined in the scope of work. The assessment does not assume a universal public scale or promise to eliminate serious accidents and fatalities.
The difference between the assessments and an investigation
The Safety Culture Assessment examines broad patterns, such as leadership, trust, responses to risk, and differences between what people say and what they do.
This assessment focuses on the capacity for anticipation, preparedness, and protection in the face of critical exposures.
Accident Investigation starts with a specific event to understand what happened and guide organizational learning.
Further reading
In this article, I examine the relationship between Heinrich’s pyramid and prevention.
Other services
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Accident Investigation
Leading, reviewing, or deepening investigations of serious accidents, including fatalities.
Explore the serviceLet’s examine the program’s maturity.
Tell us how the prevention program works and which operations need to be assessed.