Safety expert Scott Griffith relates managing risky behavior in the workplace to the relative risk-taking tendencies in his two young daughters. One, age 14, plays strictly by the rules, almost to a fault, thinking they will keep her safe. Her younger sister thinks the rules don’t apply to her and has had a variety of scrapes to demonstrate the point. Sound like anyone you know?
Scott, a former American Airlines pilot and past manager of its corporate safety program, reinforces the fundamental idea that we all constantly assess risk in the decisions we make (whether we think in those terms or not). As a result, we often have the wrong lessons imprinted on our psyche: We regularly get away with risky behavior (not wearing a seat belt, walking against a light, e-mailing things we shouldn’t), and so we learn there are no consequences. If we get away with texting while driving 351 days in a row, what lesson do we learn? It won’t happen to me. That is, until the 352nd time, when tragedy results.
Scott is the chief operating officer of Outcome Engineering, a Dallas-based risk management consulting firm. He was a featured speaker at the recent A National Strategy for Creating a Culture of Safety in EMS conference, held in the Washington, D.C., area. The conference attracted nearly 100 EMS stakeholder representatives and experts as part of a multiyear initiative. (For more, go to
emscultureofsafety.org.)
By design, that initiative seeks out opportunities for EMS to learn from the successes—and failures—of other fields in building an environment in which safety permeates. Scott, and others like him, will play a key role. He was part of the movement that transformed the airline industry and significantly reduced the number of fatalities resulting from crashes. Since then, he and his organization have used the lessons, good and bad, from the airline industry to show how health care and other professions can benefit.
The origins of “just culture”
In his Safety Leadership column this month, Michael Greene introduces the topic of “just culture.” This is a term you’ll be hearing more in the years to come (with “just” a reference to “justice,” as in “just cause”). The concept of just culture was first championed by David Marx, Scott’s boss and the CEO of Outcome Engineering. An attorney and author, Marx got his start as a Boeing aircraft design engineer. He was also part of the airline industry’s safety turnaround and eventually became a consultant to NASA and other organizations.
Michael goes into more depth in his column, but in general, the just culture approach provides an alternative to a punitive system. To be clear, the just culture way doesn’t hold the individual blameless. People make choices when they engage in risky behavior, Scott explains—sometimes inadvertently, sometimes without knowledge of the full risk, or sometimes in blatant disregard of the known risk. The just culture approach acknowledges and promotes the appropriate response to each category of individual as well as the overall response.
Have you ever heard the expression “no harm, no foul”? According to Scott, it’s an insidious concept, dangerous to building a culture of safety. “Outcome should not affect discipline,” he says. “We have to be judged by the quality of our decisions.” This is a tough but necessary concept to accept, whether it’s your daughter’s behavior or an employee’s. Just culture isn’t easy, but it provides one proven path to success.
Keith Griffiths can be reached at editorinchief@emergencybestpractices.com.
