Key Takeaways
The happiness factor is real and it really works. The essence of quality and what should be the essence of modern safety practice is the application of science.
Cognitive psychology has supplanted behaviorism as the dominant field in scientific psychology. Research in positive psychology has produced a substantial body of evidence that positive affect is a driver of success.
Employee well-being and happiness can be measured and used to provide direction and support continuous improvement of safety efforts.
"The times they are a-changin'." While a Bob Dylan quote might seem an odd introduction, it is fitting for what is happening in safety today. References to culture, positive psychology, quality, trust and happiness are showing up at the edges of safety. Even further off the edge, names such as Deming, Baker, Kahneman, Tversky, Seligman, Csikeszentmihalyi and Lyubomirsky are being referenced; what do they have to do with safety?
To make it to the next generation of incident avoidance, safety professional may have to reconsider the foundations of that change. The basics still must be covered: guards in place, skills trained, interlocks on, even PPE where needed. However, to get beyond counting injuries until something explodes, safety professionals must do more than put on their safety glasses and manage the ABCs of behavior. Safety professionals must find ways to impact decisions before they become problems and not just react better and faster in an attempt to limit severities. The authors strongly believe that positive psychology, or the happiness factor, is one of the elements that must be understood and applied. A positive or happy safety culture is an element in the next generation of safety's evolution. Workers must want to do the right thing all of the time, not just follow the rules when someone is watching.
