(25a) Creating a Culture of Chronic Unease

Are your assets safe? Can you show it?

Do your asset leaders beleive that 'they haven't had any safety issues recently so they must be doing a good job' or are they thinking about what else could go wrong and asking questions about 'barrier health?'

A state of “Chronic Unease” is achieved when leaders at all levels have created a culture where they are made aware of weak signals of potential failure, and make effective and timely challenges and interventions on risk assessments and decision making. It starts with openness, where we welcome bad news and treat incidents as an opportunity to learn. When out on the site we ask the right questions and pick up on signals of potential failure.

Short Overview: This session will help safety leaders move the needle on culture from ‘we haven’t had an incident, things must be going well’ to ‘we haven’t had an incident, I wonder what might be sneaking up on me.’ - Understand what Chronic Unease means - Recognize leadership behaviors that support chronic unease - Understand behavioral ‘traps’ that prevent ourselves from acting consistently with the desired culture - Evaluate how well leaders welcome bad news - Provide discussion on how to ‘act on reds and yellows and challenge greens’