Compilation by workshop beneficiaries
A first of its kind in Australia, participants and presenters alike were thrilled to participate in the second regional Safety II in Practice Workshop with Erik Hollnagel and our community of practice. Presented and coordinated by Forgeworks, the workshop bought together like-minded professionals looking to share their learnings, questions and successes on how we as an industry are building adaptive capacity. We embraced the messy stories of work as done and we matured our view and approach to the safety of work. Presenters from several countries and a diverse group of companies pitched in. The organization and facilitation provided by the Forgeworks crew was top notch. Andrew Barrett did a fine job of facilitation and the participants did quite a job of keeping the questions and learning flowing!
A short trip report follows, compiled from the takeaways graciously shared by participants. Some highlights:
- Several presenters shared how they were making progress in growing their safety approaches to improve reliability and resilience. From a strategic approach that included branding and messaging a process that showed planned maturity, to a grass roots approach that showed the ‘many small things’ that added up to a successful approach. The key throughout was to make a plan and then exercise courage to learn by doing.
- Event investigation and response was a favorite topic. Presenters leveled the playing field by showing how cause and effect approaches have limits of utility, instead spending time with what is working well as a starting point, and then moving to increase capacity for success and for failing softly.
- Ever wonder how you can tell if you are learning from success? Several presenters provided action verbs illustrating behaviors characteristic of working to achieve the four resilience potentials – anticipate, monitor, respond, and learn.
- A growing conviction was expressed by quite a number of participants and presenters; that what we are pursuing is not ‘Safey I’ or ‘Safety II’ but what we do every day; a combination of learning activities and approaches that focus on integration of insights across the organization, using overall operations as the focus. A gestalt was mentioned.
- Learning provided many opportunities for discussion, insights arose around learning as a non-event, the power of asking how and what rather than why, and the need for due diligence.
- A cadre of presenters and participants alike spoke to the power of collaboration and the recognition that many efforts that looked successful to outside observers were harder to discern from inside the ‘tunnel’. Our collaborators are helping us realize success.
Some other ‘gems’ captured:
- Non-compliance means we don’t understand how things are really done.
- Future events emerge from known variability that is currently considered irrelevant.
- Ask people what they need and resist telling them what to do.
- Foresight doesn’t change the shape of risk. Action changes the shape of risk.
- Accident investigation is a social process. Causes are constructed and socially agreed as being likely, rather than found.
- What you look for is what you find and what you find is what you fix.
- We should seek to understand what’s happening when nothing bad is happening.
The new Safety Differently video was highlighted during a surprise visit by Sidney Dekker, who also provided a wonderful summary of how we are progressing!
Forgeworks has announced plans to reconvene next year, sharing and facilitating with Erik again.