In today's world, behavior-based safety has become an accepted method for improving safety in many organizations. However, there is a paradigm about where and how this method can and cannot be applied, and this paradigm limits the use of a powerful improvement methodology in many settings and organizations.
This paper outlines how the principles of behavior-based safety can be applied in what is often considered non-traditional settings and in non-traditional ways. This paper raises and discusses four related developments:
The growing interest among safety professionals in applying behavior-based methods outside of safety
There are some areas outside of safety where behavior-based performance improvement can be readily applied
Meeting this need with new kinds of behavior-based observation or data gathering
Understanding and capitalizing on the important differences between new areas of behavior-based performance improvement and its application to safety
Safety professionals can be seen as more valuable to the organization if they bring behavior-based methods to the forefront in other areas besides safety. When companies achieve sustained improvement in performance, they also necessarily improve functions throughout the organization. This fact of organization development is one that safety professionals can point to. They can use it to show the extended benefits of a safety improvement initiative, or to make a case for possible safety applications of performance upgrades beyond safety. Forward looking safety professionals are coming out of their foxholes and recognizing these improvement opportunities. Anyone who has been active in the safety arena in the 1990s has to have been in a dark cellar not to have heard about the successes of behavior-based safety. Nowadays the question is not Does behavior-based safety work? The now question is In what other areas of organization performance can we apply behavior-based methods and leverage our gains?
This question needs to be raised in so many words because behavior-based methods remain a "safety secret." As commonplace as this approach is in safety, other parts of the organization still don't know much about the behavior-based method - let alone how to apply it to make gains in productivity, quality, customer service, or decision making. In this situation the safety professional stands to gain an increase in stature and credibility within the organization by introducing these methods to other performance areas. There is also the opportunity to leverage the resources that normally are divided between safety and other areas. Behavior-based methods can be used to integrate these areas using the same resources.
As these techniques have been applied to safety, so they can be applied with success in a way that gives the organization significant value. The success is dependent on answering two questions: What kind of an organization do you actually operate - service or manufacturing? And Where are you struggling? The two places that have been the most active in seeking out these techniques have been in the area of manufacturing, productivity, and reliability and customer-service oriented organizations.
